Hello

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Just coming on board after a loooong absence from the fishing scene. We've recently moved from the NoVA (Northern Virginia) area where 14-hour days and 2-hour commutes put a real dent in fishing time. This lasted for the better part of 17 years. I eventually sat down and said that I had a quantity of life---but not much quality. We decided to move to the High Point area and now enjoy sitting on my back porch in the swing, talking with the wife about the day, enjoying a good glass of NC wine and watching the sun go down. Weekends are now more open and I enjoy fishing for large mouth bass in Oak Hollow and City Lake areas. My fishing buddy has recently purchased a Minn Kota 55 and we use that on the lakes. My neighbor has invited me to his Badin Lake house for some large/small mouth bass and striper fishing. Once the drought has passed, I'll be taking him up on his offer.

Because of the High Point Furniture Market (twice yearly), we are able to rent our house to marketers and go to the Outer Banks for the week each spring and fall. I've just returned on the 8th of October after a week at Southern Shores. These opportunities on the OBX really was got me back in the fishing mode. This year we took a charter to Oregon Inlet and hit a school of blues and Spanish Mackerel. SWWwweeet. After that we did some dock fishing under the Washington Baum bridge and hooked up with Southern Flounder and some non-keeper stripers. The stripers where there as one angler caught a 24" cow and another had an 18+" in the box and a 19-1/2 on the line. Surf fishing was almost non-existent due to a nor' east wind that killed fishing and put a lot of "weed" in the water.

This past Christmas I bought a rod/reel combo for my 14-year-old granddaughter thinking that it would be something nice to do once in awhile when she visits. The first day on the lake in High Point she was the one that got hooked. Now she wants to go every time she visits. And who am I to argue with that logic!?!

So a long story short: Freshwater fishing in and around High Point and twice yearly to the OBX for surf (mainly) and pier Saltwater fishing.

Looking forward to future discussions on fishing in the great state of North Carolina.

Tight lines ...