Got my fix this evening on some more Largemouth. They were a little tough for me, but I managed three to strike. Not the biggest bass ever, but these fish are very fat and healthy! Looking forward to sight casting the big girls on the beds.
I grew up on a golf course in Virginia…….. We all know that golf courses are typically loaded with largemouth bass! My brother and I would walk to the end of the neighborhood, sprint through the old grumpy couples perfectly green lawn, and hang into some monster bucketmouths just about every day.
I have been getting my fishing fix lately with some winter time bass fishing. We have a lot of nice little ponds here on the Outer Banks that hold plenty of fish to get you through the winter. It’s hard to beat watching your line jump and start to swim off into the depths, and rocking his jaws like there is no tomorrow.
Apparently killing a fish over 30″ will bring out the conservationist in everyone. Maybe the recent moratorium the NC just put in place for Speckled Trout has something to do with it, who knows? I just glanced over and quickly deleted the 3rd email from someone bashing me for keeping the large trout I caught recently (see Personal Best).
I fish the Elizabeth River ALOT during the winter months. I fish for trophy trout, not meat. I start fishing it in late fall when the limit is still 10 per person without any size restrictions except minimum length. We had plenty of 30-40 fish days where I probably could have kept limits of 22-25″ fish with many over 26″. Not trying to toot my own horn, this information is important to my message. I could probably go on my bank statements and check all my NC/Va WaWa transactions to see just how many times I went up there, but I personally don’t even want to know, HA!
My point is, I have thrown back 99.9% of trout that I have caught in the ER. I would guess that I have probably released 200-300 fish that I could have legally kept. I kept 2 fish this season. One was a 28.5″ that struggled to swim free, so instead of letting him do underwater cartwheels to the bottom of the river, I took him home, battered him up, covered him with every seasoning I had, fried it, and forced it down. I have a respect for these fish that most don’t.
I also remind my charters here at home that these fish don’t freeze well, and they certainly won’t make it on the 7 hour trip back to Jersey. Keep what you need, and let the rest swim free to be caught another day.
So this is your invitation to take back the messages about me killing large breeders, and getting replicas instead of real mounts. This one fish is what I spend my entire winter trying to catch, and I have every intention of releasing all the others. I do appreciate you all speaking up, and showing that you are truly concerned about the future of our fishery. We all need that mind set! Just make sure you know the facts.
Maybe instead you should consider thanking me for my conservation efforts…… ?
We enjoyed some great trout fishing in 2013…. The spring time offered up great numbers, and the fall provided some nice fish in the sounds. It was finally coming together for the Outer Banks trout fishery. A couple mild winters, the numbers were there, and more and more solid fish were being caught. I was starting to have high hopes for 2014.
Unfortunately, those dreams were all but crushed after the second major snowfall in 1 month. The Ocean plummeted below 40 degrees, and the sounds were covered in a thin layer of ice. We all talked about the freezes, but without reports of stun kills yet, we were still pretty hopeful. That was until yesterday…..
Many significant stun kills were reported once the roads cleared and the fisherman got back out to there favorite winter trout holes. I can imagine the reports were pretty bad since the Fisheries put an immediate closure on all Speckled Trout fishing until June 15th.
I hope those slot sized puppy drum we enjoyed last year are drag screaming over slots this year, and my charters can enjoy some pullage from them. Still looking forward to a great season, and I can only hope the trout population didn’t take as big of a hit as it may seem. We can try all the conservation efforts in the world, but Mother Nature always has full control.
I guess I’ll be filling the coolers with sea mullet, and the Outer Banks is back to its normal trout nursery status.
At 7:30 last night my buddy and I packed up the truck and departed the snow covered Outer Banks. The destination was the ol faithful Elizabeth River with some speckled trout pullage in mind. It is pretty challenging to catch something close to home these days, and who can pass up the speckled trout fishery just a short hop over the border. Armed with a couple kayaks, a bunch of hand warmers, and our favorite hard plastic baits, we set off onto the river.
The conditions seemed to be ideal. The water was high and still coming in, the wind was calm, and the steam coming off the water was a tell tale sign that the warm water of the discharge was making its way out to the main river. We headed to some of the key spots.
After coming up empty at all the go to areas, it was time to head up to the warm water to get the skunk out. I always think of the hot water discharge as a place to wind on a couple 20 inchers and break the ice. It didn’t take long to get the first fish in the kayak.
After slinging up fish after fish……. she finally hit, after a couple runs and some strong head shakes, there she was. I caught the biggest trout of my life in the discharge. After spending countless hours trying to dial in the big ones on the main river, I catch it in the damn nursery. I learned a valuable lesson when I held up that fish and saw her true size and beauty. Once you think you have it all figured out, you realize you don’t know anything.
Now I hate to touch on this, but I will. Many people like to bash the Elizabeth River and more specifically the “hot ditch.” (I still don’t quiet understand how anyone who enjoys fishing has anything negative to say about an amazing trout fishery in the dead of winter.) To me, fishing is all about getting outdoors and catching fish with good friends. I never let anyone’s opinion make me lose sight of why I truly love fishing. The moment I stopped giving a shit about what other people thought of me was a really great feeling. Get out there, enjoy the outdoors, and do it for the reasons you did when you were 5 years old!
