Tidelines – June 23, 2016
The wife and kids head to a NC lake house every June with other moms and kids, and that tradition has given birth to one of my own—heading to the Outer Banks for multiple days of guilt-free fishing (and maybe some drinking and eating, too).
This year, though, the Outer Banks trip was really a Hatteras trip, complete with hanging out with old friends, making new friends, and yes, even doing a little business to keep the tax man happy when this trip shows up on my business expense account.
Capt. Aaron Aaron, of Tightline Charters, with an overslot red caught on a gold spoon (after giving Adam and Gary two tries each to hook the fish). He was sight casting from the tower of his Kencraft skiff while drifting over a grass flat near Hatteras.
The “old friends” part started when long-time friend Adam Meyer (Wells Marine Insurance) and I showed up at Hatteras Jack in Rodanthe on Monday afternoon and stole owner Ryan away from previous plans for a domesticated night with Becky. Becky’s mahi on the grill and the two of them catching up after Ryan’s weekend away had to be put on hold so we could use him (and his Suburban and 4wd permit) to carry us and our gear down a sound side pull-off where we threw out chunks of mullet for a sunset-into-the-night puppy drum bite.
Some lower-slot drum hanging out on the flat between us and a couple of duck blinds cooperated, as did a Kinnakeet flounder (ray), but a 2 Live Crew Pandora soundtrack cranking from the Suburban kept the energy up well into the night. And to help truly get me in the Hatteras frame of mind, I was the sober one elected to drive the Suburban (with only one headlight working, slightly over-sized tires humming on the pavement, fishing junk scattered everywhere inside, and a worn out muffler loudly announcing our presence) back to the tackle shop for Adam and I to hop in our own vehicle for the drive down the rest of the island to the Villas of Hatteras Landing.
Gary Hurley with grays and Adam Meyer with a speck and a flounder. They were fishing jigheads and soft plastics near Shark Shoal with Capt. Joey VanDyke of Outer Banks Fishing Charters.
The Villas, located in Hatteras Village, are basically comfortable condos that they rent out as hotel suites, but I don’t think we even logged four total hours in our room that first night before the alarm went off and Adam and I were on our way to meet another old friend, Capt. Joey VanDyke of Outer Banks Fishing Charters in the Hatteras Harbor Marina.
The morning with Joey was mostly spent in the sound behind Hatteras targeting some shoals throwing jigheads and soft plastics for speckled and gray trout. The action was steady all morning, complete with keeper and undersized specks, grays, flounder, and even an odd bluefish. Joey told us tales of Weldon stripers, salmon fishing in a western NC lake, and ongoing plans to refurbish his boat, an original Ricky Scarborough.
Back at the docks around lunchtime, we met yet another old friend just a couple of boat slips down, Capt Aaron Aaron of Tightline Charters, and Aaron did what he so often does with clients—he put us on a big grass flat in about 3’ of water with the wind at our back. The wind pushed our boat over the flat where we sight casted to a number of red drum. Most of the fish were singles and upper- to over-slot fish, and they all hit on one lure and only one lure (because it’s basically the only thing Aaron ties on)—the simple and effective weedless gold spoon.
Later, a delicious dinner of wings, crab cakes, and whole fried red snapper (thank you, Hatteras Sol Waterside Grill), washed down with a couple of Orange Crush cocktails, had us asleep early and then up no so early the next day to visit all the tackle shops that have already signed up to be weigh stations for the Fisherman’s Post’s inaugural Hatteras Island Surf Fishing Challenge (Teach’s Lair, Frisco Bait & Tackle, Red Drum Tackle, Frank and Fran’s, and Hatteras Jack) over the weekend of September 23-25, 206, but it was a stop in to Pelican’s Roost, a local’s favorite in Hatteras, that was perhaps the most beneficial, at least in the immediate.
Adam and I were looking to buy some fresh cobb mullet for another evening of sound fishing on our last night on the island, but this year fresh mullet of any size has been hard to come by. This is where the “new friends” come in to the story. After meeting Steve, the owner of the Roost, for the first time and telling him that we were struggling to find mullet, he introduced us to Ethan and Curtis, a captain and mate fairly new to the Hatteras scene that had mentioned seeing schools of mullet on a sandbar not far from their house.
If a couple of guys you only met a few minutes ago are going to offer to cast net some bait as a favor, then certainly it’s only appropriate to invite them to help us use the bait. Ethan and Curtis offered to catch bait, and Adam and I accepted and then invited them to join.
Ethan and Curtis did join Adam, Ryan, and me, and on our last night we not only caught more reds but bigger reds.
I suggest you start making your own Hatteras getaway plans. Give Joey or Aaron a call (ad copy on page 28) for an inshore/nearshore trip, stop by and see Ryan at Hatteras Jack for advice on fishing from the surf and sound, and/or enter the Fisherman’s Post Hatteras Island surf fishing tournament in late September.
And if you hear As Nasty As They Wanna Be playing, then chances are good that somebody’s getting ready to catch a puppy drum.
