Matt tried for sharks at the launch
We got on the road Saturday morning, running into a turnpike standstill near the Delaware Memorial Bridge, getting to Exmore, VA, before sundown, where we stayed the night. Some stops along the way to Ocracoke Sunday helped make the trip feel leisurely; we got here at about 6:00. It took me a few days to get my pressured job off my mind, and now that Thursday is almost here, I'm still not completely free. Watched a movie last night we found surprisingly good. Arrival. That especially helped me get over the rattled feeling, which petty concerns like filling customer demand for turkey meatloafs leave me to contend with. It's awful I have to limit most of my time to getting nickeled and dimed, but unless I find another job, it's not as bad as living without the income.
So far, we've fished at the boat launch a few times. To begin with, things seemed to shape up very well, because the killies out in back of our house in the tidal creek are abundant and big, filling our pots in no time. We managed to fish the launch the morning and evening of our first full day, but besides one 10-inch bluefish, all we got to hit are pinfish, a sea robin, and a few lizard fish until this evening. Matt tried for sharks Monday evening, after he sacrificed a pinfish on the boards by use of my Spanish war knife. Twice something hit and got the bait, but maybe they were wily eels taking the meat off the hook. Just an hour or so ago, I caught a 14 1/2-inch bluefish on a big killie fished on my medium/heavy Lew's Speed Stick, and that blue put up a pretty big fight. Matt caught a 10-incher on his Speed Stick while casting a Hopkins Shorty. So despite a slow start, our favorite little spot (which has become very popular, crowded) yielded some pretty good fish as it continues to reward us consistently.
Nothing from the surf. Here on Ocracoke, it's a flat shallow surf, which doesn't mean there are no pompano in close, but since we couldn't find any sand fleas to bait them, we don't really know.
Matt and I got up at four this morning, boarded the ferry at five, and arrived at Avon Pier north of here at about 6:20. I've never before witnessed a pier fish as slowly during summer. We couldn't even get a single spot to take shrimp, nothing at all that would bait our pool cue rods with a lively offering for king mackerel or whatever else big might take. Ideally, a bluefish about as big as I caught this evening might work.
Heavy wind made the wooden structure sway and the water murky. It's always better fishing when water is clear, but we've fished from piers when water was just as bad and at least caught a few blues. We tried and tried to catch a sizeable bait, but eventually my fish sense drew me back in the direction of the pier's entrance, to fish closer to the final line of breakers than anyone else. I figured a fluke might take my killie. On my first cast, I hooked something enormous, which I assumed was a ray, not a big black drum, but it ran with increasing speed before I broke it off. I got another killie, hooked another enormous fish on the next cast, broke that off, and then the third big one I hooked gave itself away. Certainly a ray, though I could never lift it to the surface with that relatively light Speed Stick and get a thrilling look at the fish. It just hunkered down and stayed in place. I couldn't budge it, so I broke it off. Uncharacteristic behavior of any fish but a ray. Matt enjoyed playing yet another one, and someone else got the notion, hooked up using squid for bait, and eventually got the fish to the surface by lifting it with his heavy rod. The fish was about seven feet wide, easily a hundred pounds, if not more.
Maybe fluke were there. But the rays so many, we just couldn't tell.
At the launch, we fished well into dusk.
Potting killies behind our rented house.
Matt fights a big ray.
The boards are just below foot level, the ray about 25 feet down below.
Trolley Rig tackle we never used. Notice the anchor weight at the bottom center edge of the picture. Cast by the surf rod, it keeps a tight line to slide the Trolley Rig, with the likes of a live bluefish for bait, to the water's surface, where the frisky fish possibly attracts a king mackerel of perhaps 30 pounds. We've witnessed it.
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