Tidelines – December 2022
Fisherman’s Post was due for a celebration fishing trip, and drifting live shrimp under a cork in the Ocean Isle area with Capt. Tim Disano of Tideline Charters was an easy and perfect choice for that celebration trip.
Last November I was extremely fortunate to find Danielle Murabito, and for over a year now she has been improving the Fisherman’s Post brand by wearing any number of hats, from anything and everything associated with events to website and social media efforts to sales and marketing and on and on. Then just this November, I was lucky again, this time adding Andrew Doss to the team to takeover some of those hats and share others.
Neither Danielle nor Andrew has much of a saltwater fishing resume, as Andrew comes from a limited freshwater fishing background, and Danielle, though she had a year in at Fisherman’s Post, has never caught a fish, any fish, ever before.
For this special occasion, I needed a captain like Tim Disano, one that is friendly, big on customer service, loves to teach everyone, and enjoys watching people on his boat, whether beginner or intermediate, improve as an angler. I also needed an easy, entry-level type of fishing with the promise of lots of action without a lot of work on the angler’s part, and live shrimp under a cork in the Ocean Isle area in early winter, Tim and I agreed, would fit Danielle and Andrew perfectly.
We pulled away from the public boat ramp close to Dave’s Outpost in Sunset Beach, and the relatively quick morning run brought us to a spot that Tim specifically wanted to target in the last hour of the falling tide. This was a deeper water spot that you can best fish on the last hour of either tide, when the water isn’t hauling through too fast to fish effectively but has enough movement to keep the trout from sitting idle.
After a spot lock on the trolling motor, Tim began the art of setting up Danielle (completely brand new) and Andrew (close to brand new) to successfully float a live shrimp under a slip float rig down the bank to hopefully find some hungry speckled trout.
If you can think back to your own beginner days, though, you’ll better understand the learning curve that Danielle and Andrew faced. Andrew was intimidated to cast out the somewhat lengthy float rig, and Danielle didn’t fully understand how the bail works nor know by second nature where the rod handle is to grab it when the cork goes under.
Tim began with the basics of casting, from pressing the line against the side of the rod with just your fingertip to avoid tangling to pointing the rod in the direction you want the bait to go, and then he graduated them to the specifics of cork fishing.
“You want to leave enough slack out for the cork to drift upright and straight,” he explained, “but not too much slack that it makes it difficult to reel in when the cork goes down.”
“Cast in the direction of the way the tide is moving so that the slack in the line doesn’t surpass the cork,” he continued. “Keep the rod tip down while you’re floating, and keep the rod tip up to a 45-degree position while you’re fighting the fish.”
Danielle missed her first fish. The cork went down, she was a little slow to react, and when she did react, it took her some time to flip the bail and begin reeling. Bringing back a hook absent of both fish and shrimp, Tim reminded her of the basics, offered some light encouragement, and on her second drift, Danielle fought in her first fish ever, a near-3 lb. speck.
Andrew, too, found success on just his second drift with another keeper trout, and I spent the rest of the falling tide either by the stern platform or up in the bow watching the two of them become better anglers with each drift and each fish that went in the cooler.
When the tide fell out, the trout stopped biting, so Tim headed for the Little River jetties.
“With a north wind, the rocks will still have a little bit of current,” Tim told me after positioning us about 25’ off the rocks and adjusting the bobber stopper to give even a little more depth. “The wind here will be pushing the corks in the right direction.”
Tim expected we would find either redfish or trout at a certain section of the rocks where there’s a washout in the jetty, but Danielle and Andrew hooked both, Danielle with an over-slot redfish that gave her a much bigger and longer fight than the 2-3 lb. trout she had cut her teeth on, and Andrew brought in trout large enough to get Tim to pull out his measuring device to see if it was a citation.
Danielle Murabito and Capt. Tim Disano, of Tideline Charters, with the over-slot red drum that Danielle caught while floating a live shrimp down the Little River jetty.
Tim thought about shortening the depth of our baits and drifting them closer to the rocks for shots at sheepshead, black drum, and more redfish, but he also wanted to use the slack tide as an opportunity to introduce Danielle and Andrew to bottom fishing. We headed back inside to a section of broken bottom where Tim over the last month had patterned both red drum and black drum when the water wasn’t moving.
After an explanation and demonstration of keeping the line tight and now needing to set the hook, Danielle cast out a live shrimp on a knocker rig and Andrew one on a Carolina rig. Once again, a few bites were missed, but almost as quickly as it happened with float rigs, the missed bites became less frequent and hooked fish more frequent. Andrew and Danielle repeatedly brought modest redfish and black drum into Tim’s waiting landing net.
Catching fish is fun, but Tim also makes learning how to catch fish fun. For example, if you’re not watching your cork, as Danielle will attest to, he may creatively get you re-focused with a faux yell of “Your cork. Your cork. Your cork” that works much better, and quicker, than just telling you that you have to keep an eye on your float.
And to make sure you’re employing your critical thinking skills, as Danielle will also attest to, he may straight face a comment such as “Have you guys ever eaten porpoise? It tastes like a porkchop.”
Whether you have a reason to celebrate or not, and whether you’re a beginner or seasoned angler, I suggest you check out Capt. Tim Disano of Tideline Charters at www.tidelinecharterfishing.com. He’ll do everything he can to put you on fish, but my guess is that landing those fish will be even more memorable and you’ll be even more proud of your catch when Tim has walked you through as much of the whys, whens, wheres, whats, and hows that you want to learn.
I make that educated guess based on the firsthand experience of watching the growth of Danielle and Andrew into Danielle “Rip Some Lips” Murabito and Andrew “4.8 Doesn’t Quite Make a Citation” Doss.
Seriously, though—did you know that porpoise tastes like a porkchop?
The Fish Post crew–Andrew Doss (Sales), Danielle Murabito (Marketing & Communications), and Gary Hurley–with some of the trout and drum they caught on a staff trip in the Ocean Isle area. They were fishing rocks, ledges, broken bottoms, and grass lines with Capt. Tim Disano of Tideline Charters.
