TR: Ocean Isle, NC

Now I'm not much of a beach man. Give me them hills any day. Anyway,
down at the beach with a bunch of friends and for a lark I take along my
9' 8wt. Figuring that there could be a fly shop there like at other
isles on the coast I didn't prepare before leaving. Hey, if I'm going to
go to a shop and get advice, the least I could do was to purchase my
supplies there. Oooops. Surf fishing only. No leaders, no flies. Nothing.

Tied on the strongest leader in my wallet, a 2x, dug up one clouser and
a crab pattern and off to the surf I went. Ignorant of coastal fishing,
I stepped into the surf during an ebbing tide. Not only did I look and
feel stupid with the bait casters all around, but when, after my second
cast the fly popped my shin, I knew this was a futile exercise.

Ocean Isle is a very non-commercial beach near the South Carolina line.
Situated on an unusual east - west angle, the back side is punctuated
like a comb of canals that feed from the Intercoastal Waterway. Made my
way across a couple of streets and headed up one of the feeder roads
that give access to the many houses with water access. About 1/3 of the
way up I settled in on a vacant dock. Enjoying much calmer water, I cast
towards the Waterway with my crab pattern and began bouncing it off the
bottom, which by my estimate was at least 12' down. Within a matter of
minutes, fish on, first cast even. It gave me a nice tug towards the
waterway and set the hook. The fight that ensued was unusual to a
trout/bass/bream boy. Steady tug, then slack. Steady tug, then slack. As
I got the fish closer to hand I identified it as a good sized flounder.
Here, I could see it's technique. Float to the top then make a steady
dive. After a few minutes of this I brought to net a good 16" flounder.
Damn that's one ugly fish. The size of that mouth would rival that of a
largemouth.

Next cast brought another to hand at the same size. Third cast, again
another fish on. Pulled and tugged like the rest, but broke off with my
only crab without coming into sight. Tried bouncing the clouser off the
bottom, but after 4 or 5 casts realized that my opportunity had passed.

Along with a red drum caught in the surf by a friend, they made a good
addition to the Low Country Stew simmering at the house.

Lessons learned: forget the surf with a fly rod, take stronger leaders
and more crab imitations. I'm already looking forward to next year.

Thanks for reading.

Drew

On Tue, 30 Sep 2003, DrewPatterson wrote:

Lessons learned: forget the surf with a fly rod, take stronger leaders
and more crab imitations. I'm already looking forward to next year.


There's plenty of folks on Monomoy and Montauk that would disagree with
your assessment of the surf.


Surprising thing about flatfish is that most people don;t realized how
much they like crustaceans.

Mu

Mu Young Lee wrote:
On Tue, 30 Sep 2003, DrewPatterson wrote:

Lessons learned: forget the surf with a fly rod, take stronger leaders
and more crab imitations. I'm already looking forward to next year.



There's plenty of folks on Monomoy and Montauk that would disagree with
your assessment of the surf.


Quit right. Maybe I should have stated "...forget the surf with a fly
rod at my skill level."

Any tips for my next visit?

Mu Young Lee wrote:
On Tue, 30 Sep 2003, DrewPatterson wrote:

Quit right. Maybe I should have stated "...forget the surf with a fly
rod at my skill level."

Any tips for my next visit?


If it's a sandy beach (i.e. no obvious structure), the best thing to do on
an unfamiliar stretch of water would be to go at a very low tide and make
a mental note of depressions, troughs, rock-sand transition zones, etc.
Then come back at the peak of the current - not necessarily peak of the
tide - and fish those spots, assuming that those spots remain within
casting distance of your fly rod. Here on the west coast where we have
wide sandy beaches and the tide difference between San Diego and San
Francisco is only about an hour, the peak of the current typically happens
in between the high and low tide - places like the Sacramento delta being
an exception. On the east coast the relative time between peak current
and peak tides seems to vary quite a bit from place to place.

Mu


Thanks, Mu. I appreciate that insight. I'll keep you posted on my next
adventure surf side.

Drew

On Wed, 1 Oct 2003, Greg Pavlov wrote:

the other day I caught a triped bass close to 30" long

I didn't know you were a Menudo fan. Ricky Martin was so cute back then.

Mu

Greg Pavlov wrote:
On Wed, 01 Oct 2003 12:21:41 GMT, DrewPatterson
wrote:


Thanks, Mu. I appreciate that insight. I'll keep you posted on my next
adventure surf side.


One thing to remember is that waves have to break when
the depth of the water approaches height of the waves.
This lets you get a sense of where sandbars may be found
even when they are completely under water.

W/respect to skill levels and surf fly fishing, one thing to
keep in mind is that in general precision isn't a requirement
and distance often isn't a big issue either. For example,
the other day I caught a triped bass close to 30" long - not
large, but decent - that hit my clouser about 45 feet out from
shore, and all I was trying to accomplish casting-wise was
to get the fly out past the waves breaking on shore. I would
recommend that you look into a 9 weight, or even 10 if you
think you can handle it: you'd have an easier time casting
clousers with it. An intermediate line helps as well: it's a
bit thinner than floating so you will be able to cast it a little
further - I get about 10 - 15% greater distance - and it doesn't
get tossed around quite as much by waves.



Damn. I love feedback. I'll keep all those points in mind. Breaks in the
ocean floor are pretty scarce in these parts, but I surely will keep in
mind your other points.

Thanks again.

Drew

Greg Pavlov wrote:

For example,
the other day I caught a triped bass close to 30" long

Were you fishing behind Wolfgang. :-)

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

FWIW. Read in the local paper today that a 11.5# flounder was caught in
the same set of canals

last weekend. I wonder if it had my crab in it's mouth. A man can dream
can't he?

Drew