[childress]

Typical summer fishing; just trying to weed thru the Pinfish! Probably caught close to 40 of 'em this week. I think they have a toxin in their fins as my palms have been bright red and sensitive to hot water since Thursday.

Best advice I can give to weed thru Pinfish...fish before the sun rises. Fished 4-6am Friday and had a great bite with 6 whiting, 1 black drum and 1 croaker. As soon as the sun rose...8 Pinfish in about 30mins.

I've never seen this many rays in the surf. Caught 3 of 'em and I'm always too afraid to get the rigs back so I cut the line. May purchase a heavy duty glove so I can recover my rigs.

 

[pa-fisherman]

I always flip the rays over on their backs and take the hook out and pull the stinger out

 

[kraus]

I pull the stinger out

Please expound on your statement.

 

[childress]

 

[drumrun]

I always flip the rays over on their backs and take the hook out and pull the stinger out

No reason what so ever to either remove the stinger or cut the tail off.

 

[cooper138]

No reason what so ever to either remove the stinger or cut the tail off.

Yeah mate no reason at all to pull the spine, like all dangerous things in life sharks, Rays, guns and women just keep the pointy end away from you. Unfortunately for women I'm still not sure what end that is, whole damn thing seems dangerous.

 

[coffeytime1959]

I was fishing Sunset Beach last fall when the guy beside me caught a ray - a pretty large one. I was walking over to him to help him release it,he reaches down, gets his knife and cuts the mouth out of the thing. I was appalled at this knucklehead and told him had he waited, I would have helped him. (I would have been more aggressive with him, but he was a big fellow - LOL) He said he always cuts the mouths out of all rays, kills all sharks and I thought "WHAT AN IDIOT!" As far as SSB goes, I generally fish the east end of the island, but the water has gotten so shallow lately, I've moved to the west end. The catch has been typical of summer: whiting, flounder (mostly short), bluefish, pompano, all caught early in the day, regardless of tide. Happy Fishing Y'all!!! Jeff

 

[kraus]

Nice mess of fish childress!

 

[Supersign]

I fished the week of the fourth and caught three nice reds up at Tubbs Inlet.Two 26" and a 29 " made for a fun day. I lost two others. Green fish bites on river rigs was the secret at high tide. I always fish close to high tide regardless of the time of day. These were caught at 12 pm with 90 degree temp.

 

[pods]

I was fishing Sunset Beach last fall when the guy beside me caught a ray - a pretty large one. I was walking over to him to help him release it,he reaches down, gets his knife and cuts the mouth out of the thing. I was appalled at this knucklehead and told him had he waited, I would have helped him. (I would have been more aggressive with him, but he was a big fellow - LOL) He said he always cuts the mouths out of all rays, kills all sharks and I thought "WHAT AN IDIOT!" As far as SSB goes, I generally fish the east end of the island, but the water has gotten so shallow lately, I've moved to the west end. The catch has been typical of summer: whiting, flounder (mostly short), bluefish, pompano, all caught early in the day, regardless of tide. Happy Fishing Y'all!!! Jeff

I remember the old timers up north would slit the bellies of any Pike or Muskies they caught while jigging for Walleye. Always the reply was "they eat the game fish."
Sucks but that is just how things are. I remove the stingers of the rays I catch for shark bait, but no reason to disarm ones you are releasing.

 

[greg12345]

good job childress. don't take this the wrong way but either those are big mullet (entirely possible) or your black drum looks a little small for the new NC regulations (hard to tell from the pic). just wanted to let you know in case you weren't aware and save you a future ticket from "the man". if you are aware already, then disregard and congrats on the catch, looks like a good fish fry.

 

[coffeytime1959]

Good advice, Greg! I fish Tubbs Inlet at SSB several times every week and just last week, the "man" - who was actually a female (LOL) stopped by to chat with me and to see if I had caught anything. Well, I had just released a couple of short fish (flounder and black drum.) So glad I followed the rules. LOL Not much going on at the Brunswick County beaches these days - decent whiting, black drum, pomps and blues all caught early (EARLY!) in the day, regardless of tides. The water is warm and shallow but I guess that's normal for summer.