Tidelines – August 18, 2011
The end of summer had me a little down in the mouth this past week, as I had to return to my other life (other job) where I am an English professor at Cape Fear Community College. After a week of meetings while facing the inevitable start of classes on August 15, I felt like I already needed an escape.
Luckily for me that escape quickly came in the form of an invite to join a friend up in Cedar Island for a night of big red drum fishing.
Mark Johnson, of NewBridge Bank here in Wilmington, had traveled up Thursday with a couple of friends—Lenny Smith, also of NewBridge, and Wes Edwards, of MarineMax—but I had registration duties on Friday morning from 10:00-12:00, so my arrival was delayed until Friday late afternoon.
As we all know, the success of a fishing trip can be measured in numerous ways. You can focus on the size of fish or the numbers of fish. Or you can focus on the type of fish, etc. And then most of us also factor in the general experience on the water and the time spent with friends, old and new.
No matter from what direction I decide to rate the big red drum fishing with Mark, Lenny, and Wes, the trip was a homerun.
First there was the welcome party at the campground beside the boat ramp at Cedar Island. Mark’s parents had a big RV parked with a water view, and as I pulled in the crew was just getting all of the dinner dishes on the table and inviting everyone to fill a plate. The steak had great flavor as it had been marinated in a vacuum seal for two days prior to grilling. The potato salad, loaded with egg and the perfect blend of ingredients, was so good that it, as Mark predicted, “would make your toes curl.” Just about every dish on the picnic table was memorable, but the grilled whole onions, wrapped in tinfoil with butter and a healthy dose of Lipton Onion Soup mix, had to be the Best in Show winner.
Basically the dinner was so good that it took pressure off of the night’s fishing trip. We were already happy before we even dropped the boat in the water and headed out a few miles to some lumps in the Pamlico we hoped would hold some reds.
We stopped at a couple of locations not far from the ferry terminal, giving each spot anywhere from 15-45 minutes, before making our way just after dark to a red-blinking channel marker where we sat for most of the night.
Some chatter on the radio let us know that the bite was a little slow that evening, but boats were steadily reporting a fish here and there. Our boat, though, went without a bite until Crawford McKeithan, a friend of Mark’s, called a little before 11:00 and told us to set up just northwest of his position.
That 300 yard or so move proved to be the difference, and no more than 20 minutes after putting out the chum bag and getting five baits on the bottom, the night was pleasantly interrupted by a screaming drag and a bent rod on the port side.
That first fish was followed by another and then another, and in the span of little over an hour we had four big red drum releases, one for each person aboard.
I’m not much of a drinking man, and I’m certainly not trying to glorify drinking (I’m aware that we are a family-friendly publication with a lot of junior angler readers), but big red drum fishing is easy fishing, with lots of time spent under the moon and stars waiting with baits soaking on the bottom. In my mind it lends itself to a little drinking, and those late night red drum we found were met at the boat, thanks to some prodding from Knob Creek bourbon, with high and loud levels of enthusiasm and celebration.
Perhaps other boats produced more fish that night, but it’d be hard for you to argue that those boats had a better time on the water than us that evening. I can’t wait to run into Lenny, Wes, and Mark again soon. With the four of us together, we can probably remember most of our fishing trip.
