IMG_20141111_153646_zps068b6c64.jpg

......redfish!

Or, as known locally, "red drum" for the drumming noise they make while they're out of the water. This fine-looking 23 incher (about five pounds) fell for a Berkley Gulp bait on a lead jig-head in about two feet of rapidly falling tidal brackish water yesterday.

My wife and I were on an impulse daytrip down to the southeastern North Carolina coast and fished with an up-and-coming young guide who grew up fishing the salt marshes and creeks behind Bald Head Island at the mouth of the Cape Fear River near Southport.

A fine November afternoon on the water, and my third-ever (and largest so far) red drum. There wasn't a great bite going on, but we managed a speckled trout, another red, a black drum, and a couple of croakers too. Lots of other stuff to see out there too during the afternoon, including a small sea turtle swimming nearby, a porpoise that surfaced three time not twenty feet from the boat in deep water, and lots of gulls, oystercatchers, sea hawks, and other birds.

Nothing like fall fishing and boating down here in North Carolina, because it's a great time of year and even if the fish aren't fully cooperating, being out on the water in the marshes and little creeks behind the barrier islands is in a class of its own.

Oh yeah: this fellow and his mates all were released in good shape back into their wild home. See ya next time, buddy!

__________________
Ukraine -- now more than ever

Nice catch vig. I hope you got that orange dental tool-lookin' thing back before you sent him packin'!

__________________
paws for friendship

Very nice catch!

Now I'm hungry.

Mighty handsome!

Fish looks good too.

__________________
Music/Sports/Beer fan

Yes, he sorta insisted!

You can tell from his picture that he's a well-named fish -- although "red" is more of a coppery-bronze that is even more striking in real life. Still, one of the prettiest fish that swims....and that dark dot on his tail is typical of the species -- a beauty mark, of sorts. (Some even have two or three!)

__________________
Ukraine -- now more than ever

The Cajuns learned to "blacken" these fish in order to hide all the inter -muscular worms drums are famous for.....yummy! Worms anyone?

__________________
Witzell
"The dude abides".

Worms? Well why not, fish eat them and I eat fish so what the heck.