It all started with his first red drum…massive red drum. I believe he was 43″ long and he has since caught two other red drum that are of a comparable size.

One night when he was fishing for red drum he landed a nice sized sand tiger from the shore…no yakking! Of course Justin’s friend Jason was uber excited and came out of “winter retirement” to try and catch some sharks.

Coming out of retirement paid off for both of them, on Friday night the boys both hooked up with some massive sharks at the same time.

Both sharks (see pictures below) were sand tigers around 9′ in length.

Justin went out with me last night instead of going fishing but Jason, his girlfriend and a couple others yakked out some baits and caught a 5.5′ tiger shark…boy is she pretty.

Most people assume that the best beach fishing is during the summer but I think we have proof that summer fishing may be over rated.

And for fun… I could resist this super cute pirate spade fish. All the bronze spade fish at the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher were dressed up as pirates for Halloween.

Anyhow, below are my three favorite. They were taken with a simple point and shoot digital camera.

Found on a rotting log on the forest floor

These little guys were just growing out from under the fallen leaves

My favorite of the three… I love the contrasting colors. This fungus was also growing from a crack in a downed tree.

Most people hear fungus or fungi (plural of fungus) and immediately think of mushrooms…I know I do! But what is fungus?! From the little bit of reading I did, a fungus is basically a plant without chlorophyll (absorbs  light energy in green plants). And without chlorophyll, a fungus cannot make its own food and that’s why fungi needs decaying matter such as leaves, logs, etc… I found a couple sites with easy to understand facts about fungi, but the naturegrid.org site was the most informative.

The five hour charter was an inshore, light tackle trip with Captain Robert of Carolina Explorer Fishing Charters. In his 24ft. Mako boat, Captain Robert (see pic below) offers both inshore and  coastal fishing charters where you can cast with floats, troll or bottom fish. Plus you can keep your fish (if a legal size) and you don’t need a license.

Justin was thrilled with the gift…I was excited too because before Sunday I had never been on a charter of any kind…or had much luck with salt water fishing.

We left around 8 a.m. on Sunday. It was a bit chilly when we were moving but the sun was out and it was shaping up to be a great day. And I’m not sure there was a cloud in the sky all day.

The first spot we fished for some speckled sea trout with soft plastic lures with a weighted jig head. We threw to the edge of the grass…no luck. We then switched to live bait and floats…nope.

The second spot we tried produced with the live bait and floats. I caught my first sea trout. Several other sea trout were also caught. I believe this is where Justin caught his teeny tiny “postage stamp” pin fish. Does anybody know how many pin fish are around? 100 billion zillion?

Our next spot was more protected…the water seemed calmer. We continued to use the live bait and floats. Right off the bat I caught a small flounder and then three red drum. Judy’s husband Mike also caught a red drum. No luck for Justin though…poor guy:( But boy those red drum hit hard and apparently they can be caught from a fly rod and Captain Robert says he will sight fish for red drum if the conditions are right.

Lastly we tried a busy channel of the ICW…drifting for flounder. This was probably my least favorite part of the trip…bottom fishing. ugh! You know what Mike from Oil Creek Outfitters says…a jerk on one end waiting for a jerk on the other end. ha ha! I might be biased though…I was the only one who didn’t catch a fish. ha ha

This trip was a lot of fun because there were a lot of firsts for me. First charter, first sea trout, first flounder and first red drum. I felt bad for Justin because he didn’t catch any red drum…he thinks it’s because he wants it too bad. But Justin is now determined to buy a boat. Woooooo

I have never caught one and Justin has caught one, just one. I saw my first native or wild trout this weekend. He was in a slow moving pool with lots of stocked fish. He stuck out from the rest because he was much smaller (both in girth and length) plus you could just tell that there was something different about his color. I’ve been told wild trout are skittish and really picky…and the picky part is definitely true because I don’t think he looked at my fly once, regardless of what I was throwing.

I asked Justin if the wild trout know they are different… Do they know they are much prettier? I’m probably giving a trout’s brain and IQ more credit than it deserves…:)

In North Carolina, fishermen using artificial lures (no Power Bait!!!) can catch wild trout year round which is fine, but what bothers me is that someone would actually want to keep a wild trout. If I wanted, I could keep four wild trout a day as long as the fish were a minimum of seven inches! Seven inches!!! That is soooo tiny!! I can’t even think of a reason to keep a trout that small.

The PA Trout Unlimited site has several good articles about wild trout. My favorite is the Worth of Wild Trout article by Ken Undercoffer. The article is fact filled (it takes 3 or 4 years for most wild brook trout to reach 7 inches) and really makes you appreciate those wild trout like the pretty little guy below.

Wild brook trout - Photo credit: PA Trout Unlimited

We went to Stone Mountain State Park which is south of Sparta, North Carolina. The park is beautiful and clean and the streams are perfect. The East Prong of the Roaring River had plenty of delayed harvest areas with trout that were stocked just 2 weeks ago.

There are a few sections of the stream and a few tributaries that are strictly wild trout. We didn’t fish any of those because we were mostly interested in production fly fishing

The stream was low and clear (small flies) which was to be expected. All the  sections of the stream offered different types of fishing…deep holes, low hanging trees, slow moving pools, etc… All in all it’s a great stream and I’d be interested to see if it gets fishing out in the spring.

Most of the fish were the typical stocked fish size but there were a few fatties which we tried to land but with no luck Maybe next spring… The majority of the fish were rainbows with a few browns and a random brook (we didn’t land any brooks). Justin saw one native by himself in some fast moving water and I saw one mixed in with the other fish but we didn’t land any.

The weather was great for fly fishing…sweating in neoprene waders is never fun. No rain and plenty of sun. We did camp out on Saturday night and it’s safe to say that it was too cold to be doing that…especially when I’m used to this beach weather.

AH I wish I could fly fish for trout more often. It’s hands down my favorite type of fishing. See pictures below!

This weekend Justin and I are going on an inshore, light tackle charter…his b-day present. So be on the lookout for a report. It will be my first fishing charter ever!

Enjoy the pictures!

All smiles for the brown

A little bit of morning fog

My favorite scenic pic of the trip

Overlook from Rt. 21

What we fished with…size 20 or 22?

So check it out from time to time.

UPDATE: A Florida shark fishing blog has also been added to the little family of shark fishing blogs.

So here are their links.

Georgia Shark Fishing

Florida Shark FIshing

Louisiana Shark Fishing

North Carolina Shark Fishing

Texas Shark Fishing

After catching seven pompano or so I declared that I wanted to catch three fish at one time (my rig had three hooks)…the next catch I had my three!! It  was pretty funny and got a chuckle out of some of the fisherpeople.

Once again perfect weather and a great time fishing…the small fish don’t really bother me but the pompano’s slime and hard spines do get old

Well last weekend (I know I’m a little late) Justin and I did a little surf fishing in front of our condo…and it was such a perfect day for it. The weather was warm, there was a nice seabreeze and the fish were biting. People were catching keeper flounder, black drum, pompano and Justin even caught his first red drum!!! Justin and I love fresh fish and pompano is pretty good so we decided to make a meal out of it. See above. Ya they are little fish but they are fun to catch and delicious to eat.

Apparently it’s pelican season here in eastern North Carolina. Flocks of young pelicans hang out near the pier looking for a meal but aren’t smart enough to 1. Avoid the lines and 2. avoid the fish on the top of the water with at least 3 treble hooks in it. It causes a terrible mess because of the number of lines, and once one bird gets tangled the others stay nearby. The strategy is to pull the bird in and someone with gloves will untangle the bird or remove the hooks.

On Sunday we caught a bunch of blues plus throughout the day I saw some nice fish caught including trout, one fatty black drum, small pomp, large and small spanish and a small flounder.

I’m glad shark fishing is just about over and hopefully Justin and I will get our first kings this fall.

Enjoy the pics.

Yes that one is hooked in the lips…if birds had lips

Big dumb bird

Two birds, one king rig

King mack - the target species

So I paid $49 for my little rocker…yes little. It’s the size of a regular size rocker but with shorter legs. I’m not sure what type of wood it is and the seat is made with cris crossed strips of a burlap type material…this is probably why it’s so comfortable.

I spent a couple hours sanding it all down and applied one coat of fruitwood stain…let it dry for over 12 hours and then applied three coats of semi-gloss polyurethane.

I do intend to sew some cushions for it, I just need to find the right material.

Anyhow it was a really fun project and I love how it turned out.

Enjoy the pics…they are in chronological order.

Original chair with ridiculous cushions

Cushions removed

Sanded down

Stained

Apparently Ashley already has dibs…