Tidelines – March 31, 2011
Though temperatures are dropping into the high 30s at night as we push to get this March 31 issue to print, the last three weeks since our first issue of the year (the March 10 issue) brought clear signs of spring, with many 70-ish degree days, a couple of days in the 80s, and inshore water temperatures getting and staying up above the 60 degree mark.
Warmer temps sent us out on the water. We found small mud minnows scattered in little sloughs off of the ICW south of Wrightsville Beach, and then the next day saw pogies finally starting to make sporadic flips, mostly just one isolated flip at a time, but flips none the less, in Dutchman and other Southport area creeks.
A couple of recent fishing trips (a few hours here and there) produced “rat” reds behind Oak Island and one lonely, keeper sheepshead near Whiskey Creek. And since the wind and cold have continued to limit everyone’s early spring fishing, I told myself to be happy and at peace with this limited and modest action.
The real challenge, though, to continue to be content came after hearing all the grand stories of incredible bluefin action up off of Hatteras. Many of us have seen the photos online of a killer whale attacking a hooked bluefin tuna. And there’s a good chance you’ve also heard about some of the massive schools of bluefins covering up waves and swells as hundreds of the mighty fish migrate through.
A buddy of mine was telling me about his recent bluefin trip. He was fishing an afternoon where everything he threw at the bluefins, mostly topwaters, were getting crushed almost as soon as they hit the water. In a sea of one hundred, they were picking out a specific fish from the crowd and casting to it. I especially love his description of a bluefin strike that came just six feet off his boat’s stern.
The tackle they had on the boat this time out was a little light, and he said this bluefin hit the topwater and “immediately spooled him to infinity.” All he could do was laugh. As a college literature instructor, I had to give him props on his use of poetic language, as “immediately spooled to infinity” has Robert Frost undertones.
However, as a fishing newspaper publisher, I had to ask him what he was doing out there chasing bluefins with tackle that was too light.
This year, however, continues to be one of contrasts for the Outer Banks. While 2011 produced one of the best striper runs and bluefin bites in the area in many years, 2011 was also the year that the Hatteras National Seashore saw the earliest closure of some of its prime surf fishing beaches. Is it just a coincidence that only a few days after some of the first reports of big red drum being caught out of the Outer Banks’ surf that the National Park Service (Audubon Society?) announces they have evidence that the Piping Plover has started its pre-nesting activities, and areas, such as the south point of Ocracoke and the point of Cape Hatteras, need to be closed immediately?
The fishermen and the fishing-dependent businesses of the Outer Banks are now at a tremendous loss with these beach closures. In addition, even the offshore guys in the area are now wondering if the state will really let Oregon Inlet close up as a result of discontinued funding for dredging.
Those in the fishing community up and down the coast that have remained “open for business” in the wake of the economic downturn of 2008 have already proved their resilience. Hopefully soon all of us won’t have to continue to prove this resilience every day. Hopefully easier times are ahead, and we’ll be able to drive on the beach, head out a safe inlet, keep a speckled trout, and bring home some sea bass and a red snapper or two.
I, myself, have always tried to focus on the positive, like being happy with the appearance of small mud minnows and bite-sized menhaden, and finding peace in 16” reds and a 2 lb. sheepshead.
