10/12/08 - White Oak

[ParrotHead]

Here's the skinny on the WO for the past weekend....

Saturday - Rained-out. Tried to catch some bait for Sunday AM, but only managed to get 1/2 dozen shrimp & an equal number of finger mullet, then slipped on the slimy steps of the dock......and partially fell into the river. (I have the bruised backside to prove it )

Sunday - Due to the rain on Sat. I got up extra early to put the boat in. Left the ramp to find that some *$^)$@*_# had strung his gill net across the canal exiting the boatramp . Lucky for both of us I was using a good spotlight. I had to trim the motor & finally pole across a sandbar/oyster rock to get around it.

As a courtesy to our moderators: The complaints about gill net are well documented already, so lets just keep any comment about that to ourselves. I pulled the name and # off the net bouy and will call in a complaint to NCDMF today.

Anyway, set-up at my 1st "go-to" spot during trout season & put out a c-rig w/ finger mullet, hoping for a flattie - no joy, and 2 float rigs one with a live menhaden & 1 w/ live shrimp. Baitstealers made off with the shrimp in seconds. So I switch to some artificials. Used a top-dog, redfish magic & mirrolure with no takers, only a couple of unenthusiastic taps. The pogy towed the float around for 30 or more minutes before a small blue set his sights on it. That's the 1st time I ever saw a menhaden tailwalk . Got the blue in and set both float rigs again, stowing the c-rig. Floats were baited 1 with a minnow/1 w/ shrimp. I had several doubles with this arrangement, small specks hitting the shrimp and blues on the minnows. I only had 5 or 6 shrimp and they ran out quick. So, I put a DOA shrimp under the float and the fish hardly seemd to know the difference. All in all, I caught 10-15 specks (all undersized) and even more blues. All the fish caught were within an hour or so of the tide change, high going out.

I took the boy out a little later, using frozen shrimp, but only caught pinfish and small croakers. One pinfish was over a pound and as big or bigger than most of the trout I caught .

As long as we don't get a major blow anytime soon, we should be catching limits of keeper specks on the WO in the next couple of weeks or so. AND THEN.......It's striper time !