Flounder season started the first of September and it only lasted 2 weeks, so we have been making the most of this short season. Keith went fishing with Russ, Shea, and Trafton (Russ's brother) one of the first days of the season. They had a respectable catch with a dozen or so flounder and a blue fish.
Keith, Russ, and Trafton with their catch of the day.
A few days later Keith, Shea, and I went with Russ for an afternoon on his 25-foot Parker center console. We had been frequenting the new inlet on Portsmouth Island. It seems like there are some nice sized flounder in this area. We did well with several flounder that afternoon.
Keith throwing the cast net behind Russ's house to try to get some fresh bait
Heading to the inlet. Shea and Keith in the bow with Russ up top
We had a fun day fishing with them and caught a few more flounder. Then Keith and I went just the two of us in the dinghy one day. We got there at just the right time of the morning. The tide was perfect and we drifted along the inlet channel with the current. We were catching some really nice flounder as well as drum and trout. We released many of them and kept just a few to put in the freezer.
Our catch from the dinghy flounder excursion. Two nice red drum, a speckled trout, and 4 flounder.
This was my prize flounder of the day; it weighted in at 4 lbs
You may remember my flounder description from last year. There are left eyed and right eyed flounder. This is determined by which side of this flat fish faces up as they lay on the bottom. The top side also has both of the eyes of the fish. The flounder found in NC are southern flounder and summer flounder and these are all left eyed. 90% of the flounder caught inshore are southern flounder. Summer flounder tend to be found in deeper water off shore.
So the two weeks of flounder season went really fast, but of course we have not only been fishing for flounder during that time. When the weather is good you have to take advantage. Keith and I are definitely fair weather fishermen (people). We enjoy it when the weather is nice. There just is no point for us to be out if it is rough or nasty. Coming back from our last day off shore, we had a port engine filter get clogged which was not a big deal. We likely got some fuel with debris in it, but we did have to switch the filter on our way back in the afternoon. We also had an oil sensor on the starboard engine go bad. This made it bothersome as the engine had to be repeatedly shut down then turned back on. Luckily it happened just before we got to the inlet on our way home so there was not far to go. These issues have put Southern Style out of the off shore fishing game until our new sensor arrives this week. Keith was able to go with friends off-shore one day and they did come home with two nice wahoo.
One of the wahoo caught
Keith cleaning wahoo
I was interested in smoking some more fish and so one day Keith and I took the dinghy in search of something to smoke. We no longer have our friend's center console "Lab Cab" so we trolled with the dinghy. This must make a funny sight.
Trolling for Spanish mackerel with our dinghy (3 rods out)
We did not have any luck finding Spanish, so we went to plan B. The wind was very quiet and there were no waves in the Ocracoke Inlet; so we snuck around the point by the beach where the bigger blue fish often hang out. We found some birds working bait fish and sure enough we got into a bunch and before long had a nice pale full of blue fish for smoking.
Our blue fish from the inlet (A Nice Dozen)
I had two rounds to smoke which took from 6:30 AM to 5:30 PM before I was finished.
The effort is worth it however as it makes for some very nice smoked fish.
In addition to our fishing, charter boats have been seeing and catching quite a few bill fish the last several weeks. Marlin, sailfish, and swordfish have been showing up recently. Marlin and sailfish are a catch and release fish, however swordfish are an eating fish and several nice sized ones have been brought in. We walked over to see them weigh in a 302 pounder from the "Cap'N B" one day.
Captain Marty and first mate Nick unloading the swordfish
Over the rail and on the scale (the swordfish was so long they couldn't weight it straight up)
Shrimping season in the NC sounds is also in full swing. Shrimp spawn off-shore and then small larval shrimp make their way into creeks and rivers where they grow in these brackish waters (mix of salt and fresh water). By later summer the shrimp have matured and they migrate back down the rivers into the sounds before heading back off-shore. End of summer and early fall are peak times to harvest shrimp in the sounds here in NC. So this time of year it is common to see shrimp boats dragging nets for these tasty critters. There are three species of shrimp in the NC fishery. They are brown, pink, and white shrimp. The most recent 10 year average harvest calculations are that about 7.8 million pounds of shrimp are harvested yearly in NC. Most of these are caught by commercial otter trawlers that drag nets to capture the shrimp.
Some of the shrimpers we have been seeing this season near Ocracoke. This one has his nets up out of the water as he has not started fishing for the day. This trawler was actually anchored in the sound.
This shrimper has his nets down and is dragging
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