I've been lurking here for a while and finally decided to join. Great forum! I'm a retired Air Traffic Controller (38 years). I've been fishing all my life, but only started seriously fishing salt water within the past 4 or 5 years. My wife and I have a small place at Holden Beach and try to get down as often as we can. We came down this weekend to assess the damage from the hurricane (fortunately, only a few shingles missing).
Since I didn't have to spend too much time making repairs, I had time to hit the surf. The first day yielded a few blues, a small pompano, and a too small red drum. I headed down yesterday during the incoming tide....really slow. I had an 8' rod with live finger mullet and a 6 1/2' rod with fresh shirimp. A few hits on the live mullet, but absolutely nothing on the shrimp. I ran out of live mullet, so I put cut bait (blue) on both rods and got a few more good hits, but it was still pretty slow (small fish I think). I was just about to wrap it up when I got a good hit on the smaller rod. 30 minutes later I landed this:
Biggest one I've ever caught. Man, what a blast! Headed out again in a few minutes.
![Fish Striper bass Recreation Vacation Fish]()
![Fish Fish Fishing Recreation Pike]()
Since I didn't have to spend too much time making repairs, I had time to hit the surf. The first day yielded a few blues, a small pompano, and a too small red drum. I headed down yesterday during the incoming tide....really slow. I had an 8' rod with live finger mullet and a 6 1/2' rod with fresh shirimp. A few hits on the live mullet, but absolutely nothing on the shrimp. I ran out of live mullet, so I put cut bait (blue) on both rods and got a few more good hits, but it was still pretty slow (small fish I think). I was just about to wrap it up when I got a good hit on the smaller rod. 30 minutes later I landed this:
Biggest one I've ever caught. Man, what a blast! Headed out again in a few minutes.
