[pmcdaniel]

First visit to Apache. Drove down from Greensboro, arrived around 11AM, pier was not crowded at all. It was near low tide so I found a spot near the back of the breakers. Started out with fresh blood worms while my shrimp thawed, throwing double-drops. Winds were up and the surf was a little rough so I was throwing 4 oz. to start off. Caught 2 small whiting, 1 small spot pretty quickly. Next up was a thick Spot that jumped off right before I cranked him up. Got slow for about an hour after that and it really started picking up around 1PM. Shut it down around 6PM with 5 thick slab Spots, some of the biggest I have seen, 5 normal-sized Spots, gave away a keeper Whiting, threw back a mixed bag of 6-7 undersized Black Drum, 4-5 small Whiting, and 4-5 small Spots.

Also had a mystery fish that took no less than 3 rigs under the pier at the same time. I suspected a Ray, so I broke mine off at the swivel pretty quick. The other guy that got snagged followed the fish down the pier a ways and lost him when both of his hooks snapped. He later got tangled up in the other rig he lost in the fight and got his rig back.

Everyone I met on the pier was super friendly. Will definitely be coming back!

 

[pmcdaniel]

Ready for the freezer.
View attachment 16596

 

[pmcdaniel]

Didn't attach the image properly on the first try.

 

[joek]

Nice catch.
Just a heads up.
A fish cleaner I got to know in OC md told me
to always freeze fish in a single layer.
They freeze and thaw faster that way.
Made sense to me.

 

[joek]

What do you do with them.
just gut, scale and fry them ?.

 

[pmcdaniel]

Nice catch.
Just a heads up.
A fish cleaner I got to know in OC md told me
to always freeze fish in a single layer.
They freeze and thaw faster that way.
Made sense to me.

I've heard that too, but I left the brand new box of freezer bags I bought for the trip in Greensboro but I had 2 stashed in my gear storage bin.

 

[pmcdaniel]

I only keep the larger ones. I'll de-head, gut, and filet them with my PanHandler and then skin them. That thing works amazingly well on panfish. Some people just scale, de-head, and gut them and bread & fry them on the bone. There's nothing left of my fish but bones when I'm done with them anyway.

 

[joek]

Thanks. didn't know if there was enough meat on them to filet.

 

[pmcdaniel]

I'll try to remember to post an update when I clean them, probably next week. The wife is having foot surgery tomorrow, so I'll be at home all week.

 

[pmcdaniel]

Cleaned them up tonight. Good dinner. This was the smallest of the bunch.