Bluefish are Oily like Butter

 I finally took a shot of one of the "Kingfish" I've mentioned in recent posts.

If you ever stop in Exmore, VA,, get dinner at El Maguey. The Mexican food is authentic, and the Horache soft drink has a sweet and spicy flavor that balances. I was talking to a young man here at the Holiday Inn who has some experience fishing Rolling Point on the Chesapeake up the road near Pokomoke City, MD, telling me about catfish. I asked him what kind, and he didn't know, but from the bay I can only imagine they're the saltwater species I was fascinated in as a boy.

I've never seen one. Then or since. But I read about them and contemplated pictures.

After a long afternoon on the beach yesterday--this included a long time in the water with my son--we fished one of Matt's new-found spots, which started slow, Matt catching a snapper blue on the Shorty, nothing happening for me. Matt took a walk and then called me over, visibly excited. I didn't see the fish, but by his fully trustworthy, experienced, and accurate account it was a sheepshead twice the size of any we caught with Ryan O'Neal eight years ago, which puts the fish somewhere around 10 to 14 pounds. These fish, and I say "these" because barnacles are abundant and so there are surely a number of the fish, won't be easy to catch. The best we could do last night involved Matt dialing in his mobile device on bait for them, confirming that shrimp works, and me walking back to the car to get my Maxwell House can with some shrimp in it.

I caught the kingfish, the gag grouper photographed below, and a pigfish, but of course the wary Sheepshead never got near the shrimp--I assume--before bait stealers tore most of the bait from the hook. I tried fishing that shrimp like I fish a weightless worm. No added weight, the best I could do to try and tempt a truly large fish, but I imagine that even with future attempts here, we may never get one of these big ones. 

We need to bring the net next time, though.

Matt caught some more blues and killed them for shark bait. This third night in the surf worked out. A full moon had risen slightly to our left over the brine. Directly in front, the red planet, Mars, stood. The god of war meant more than Nasa may capture, because lit by a distant sun, he cannot submit as local prying and plying can only take piecemeal. Directly on our right, Venus or Jupiter. I imagine Venus, that woman who incites a volatile temperament. Matt distinguished the hit from the sting ray he caught, from what he's sure was a shark. That "shark" delivered two distinct chomps. Seems like a shark to me, too. In 2013, fishing the end of Avon Pier for king mackerel, one of our live bait offerings--a large spot--disappeared. I mentioned this odd situation to our fellow and more experienced king mackerel fishermen from Virginia. I was told, "Sometimes a blacktip just chews it off the hook." 

Before we waited on the bait last night, we decided on what to do when a hit would come. Matt chose to let the shark take some line before he would set. I told him that by using the circle hook he bought, he really wouldn't have to set, but in any event, begin reeling. Oddly to him, this fish on his bait hadn't taken any line. And then he pulled on the rig, feeling no added resistance from that bait. So he began reeling in. No resistance. Just the weight of the sinker. The bait got chomped off the hook.

"Bluefish are oily like butter," I said. 

 It's a grouper and I think a gag grouper.

 Southern stingray

 I boosted ISO to I think 4000 and the original RAW image came out very dark, photo shot at about 11:00 pm, but look at not only what I was able to do in Lightroom; the amazing thing to me is that through the darkness of night, the camera picked up green in the dunes many yards away. It was a full moon, but we couldn't begin to distinguish green by eyesight.

Teaches Lair. Tackle and stuff where we stopped moments after getting onto Hatteras Island on our way here to Exmore, VA. (As far as we know, Teach never made a lair for himself along Hatteras, though he certainly did at Ocracoke.)

http://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2013/08/nice-slow-day-outer-banks-pier-fishing.html