Gone Fishin' ----I'm Back!

What did you catch?

Cribbs74 wrote:What did you catch?

Mostly a case of lead-butt. Sitting on the beach or the porch reading a book. My son and his GF spent a couple of days with us and we got a fire permit and dug a pit on the beach Monday night and roasted weenies and made smores, drank Tequila, beer and JD. Had a great time.

As for the fishing, not so much. There was a medium nor'easter blowing and that's always bad for the fishing. East is least, West is best. I caught one pinfish. All the Florida guys will roll their eyes and say, Aw Crap. They're nuisance bait stealers that get in the way of real fish. Long ago before I knew its name, I dubbed them Peckerheads, and that's what I still call them. That's all I caught... one of 'em. I cut him up to see if something more substantial would bight, but not even sharks and blues will eat that garbage. It wasn't because I didn't try, I spent plenty of time with my line in the surf. But, what the hell, it's still better than not fishing.

It was really relaxing, just Holley and me most of the week, hanging out together. The beach was nice, only a bare scattering of people as far as you could see down the beach in either direction. I did miss the Summer eye candy though. A few pretty chicks walked by, but these days more of them than not are fat. I did see a pair of tight ones with Brazilian thongs walk by a couple of times. Never see those at Pawleys as it's supposedly against the local ordinance. I didn't bother to report them.

A bad day fishing is usually still a very good day, especially with a little eye candy. Glad to hear it was fun but even happier to see you back.

Bob

Didja miss me!
Two weeks of sun and fun. Boy I've got a lot of topics to catch up on. I read some some mornings but looking at the internet on my little phone is like looking at it through a keyhole and typing is just frustrating with a stupid Windows phone.

Anyway, sorry I missed out on Theo's finished Li'l Satan, and some other topic too. I wanted to give advice on so many things, but fish were biting. It was nice to get away from it all. And finally with two weeks, I got enough beach time to satisfy me. With one week, I burn more than half of it in dialysis, so this gave me time to enjoy it without the need to force it.

Again, our location didn't produce any big fish like Black Drum or Flounder, but lots of pan fish. Whiting and Croaker mostly. Enough for two big fish fries, and one more in the freezer at home. The Blues were hitting, so we did have a few fights, but threw them all back. And a Lady Fish. That's a new one on me. He took a rig and a 4 ounce sinker and jumped 2 feet out of the water twice on the way in. Yesterday Gary had a big Drum up to his toes when it popped the rig at the crimp and got away. He had big game fever after that and we fished until dark but finally had to call it a wrap.

No rain but a couple of T storms and no Nor' Easters this week, just a nice South wind bringing warm currents. I'll post some pictures later. They look about the ones I've posted in this thread in earlier Summers.

Glad to be back and I'll try to catch up on the threads over the next few days. And i have a plane to finish and a plane to start assembling... and a plane to fly! Gotta call Wayne and let him know I'm back, he'll be wanting to go out and play. He had fun at Brodak while I was beaching it. I think he placed 7th out of 30something contestants in profile. He had to judge so didn't get to fly PAMPA stunt.

Later.
Rusty

Nothing like unwinding at the beach! HaHa Peckerheads that's a good name for em.
Welcome back!

Caught this one a few years ago...

Caught: 6-13-2011
Location: Waterloo IL Lakeview Park - Reservoir #1
Reel: Zebco 202 Slingshot w/ 10lb line
Length: 27-30"
Weight: 15-20lb

Boy I knew I had something BIG. I just got done showing Brandon how to set the drag, I never knew I was going to need it. As soon as I snagged it, my line shot out of the reel like mad. I would say it took me a good 15-20 minutes to land it, or more. Half way through the battle I remeber looking through the slots on the reel and thinking, I gotta slow this thing down as half my line was out. I tightend the drag little by little till it stoped screaming, then backed it off a little bit. I had no idea what I had, I expected a Bass, until it was 20' off the bank when it crested and I knew that those weren't Bass scales. I thought, that's funny, must have gotten tangled up in the line. No, I caught it by the TAIL! After I landed it, a gentleman just down the bank walked up. He said he's fished there for 5 years and never seen one so big. He guessed between 15-20 lb. All I can say is WOW! This is the largest fish I have ever caught....

Where the lure is, that's how I snagged this monster.

Welcome back Rusty and Coolo Carp Travis !!!!

Welcome back Rusty. Hope you enjoyed your R&R

Now that really is a peckerhead Crank's got there. As usual I caught a few of my brand of them the Pinfish, but not enough to be a problem. And I'm pretty sure I'm glad I didn't catch a giant Carp too. Hooked in the tail, I bet he really was a tough fight.

Definitely enjoyed the R&R, but caught myself thinking about the Skyray build while driving home. I want to knock that out now and get down to the business it's meant for. If I don't get to fly this week, my RC club, the Jackson Flyers is having a cookout fun fly Saturday, so I'll be there representing the CL gang of two. Or Three, I should PM Matthew and tell him about it.
Rusty

the time line of this thread confuses me

    

Good to have you back save and rested , man looks like a real good time. That beach looked soooooo inviting but the only way I will see it is to go steal a car and haul ass at the last moment   Nah that didn't work out all that good last time         Getback

fredvon4 wrote:the time line of this thread confuses me

    

Fred it's four beach trips. July 2012, June 2013, Sep. 2013 and June 2014.
Rusty

yea i got that, every year i have to re read from the beginning.... takes a bit for the brain to remember

I'm back. Not ready to jump the vacation track yet, but here's a primer. A new version of an older Me, doing the same thing.

Looks like alota fun to me. Did you catch any for dinner, or did you just drown some worms?? .......Is that where that steel flounder came from?

You like my flounder don't you! :> Actually it's aluminum. They were really tearing the flounder up in the creek, but I stuck with surf fishing. That's my favorite fishing spot on the island in the picture. I don't usually fish on the riprap, but I had to go out there to retrieve my tackle and my wife shot me with her phone. But the fish were not doing much in the surf this year. Usually by Thursday we always have enough for a good fish fry, but not this time, neither week. Between me and my buddy Gary, we caught about 20 baby sharks, and just Pinfish... or Peckerheads we call them. Bait stealers and too bloody and bony to eat. I started filleting them for cut bait and started catching small Bluefish and a very occasional Whiting. Three of the latter total. It wasn't for lack of effort, we fished and we fished, but they just weren't biting. Usually we catch Black Drum there along with Whiting and Croaker, even Spot last year. We did catch plenty of Blue Crabs in the creek, so that was our main seafood item for breakfasts and suppers.

It was still a great week. Same as always, we rent the house with Gary and Susan, who's kids are the same age as ours, and we've been together since those days. They live a few miles from Pawleys Island, at Surfside beach, but come to Pawleys for vacation... it's a Whole different environment. Some of the kids, now 30, 30 and 28, came to stay for a couple of nights at different times. Catching fish, or not, isn't a make or break thing. Sitting on the porch with no thoughts of "what I gotta do," reading a book, talking, I love it all. And I used to be an avid reader, but forum life has put a big squeeze on that, and I miss it.

So Vacation 2015 is a wrap. Sometimes we go in September, but now that we do two weeks in the Summer, sort of breaks the vacation bank. But Holley enjoys the Huntersville weekend in October, so that's a nice break.

I'll make a photo album on Photobucket and post. There are too many pictures to edit and pick through. I'll let y'all know when it's ready for viewing.

Relaxed Rusty

Click for full size


Al, Holley and me

Just some lazy ol' South Carolina beach bums!

Welcome back.

MAN YA"LL LOOK COOLING it out there I am sure those Blue Crabs were no let down , Glad you got 1/2A back there RELAXED RUSTY Eric

getback wrote:Glad you got 1/2A back there RELAXED RUSTY  Eric

Haha, Eric.
I should have come back complaining all I could catch was 1/2A fish, and I was using my piped 60 sized rod.

Our Speedos

I went to the other ocean and  started thinking of you last Sunday Rusty. My youngest son and I caught 19 red tail perch, my buddy took two if you notice the picture is off.

Hey, thanks for thinking of me, Duke. Nice catch, boy half of that would've looked good in my bucket. I love fishing. Were y'all casting from the shore, or in a boat? What kind of bait? My favorite is fresh, eating quality shrimp.

I've tried every bait there is, and always come back to shrimp. If it's a day when I keep losing my bait to crabs, nibbles, or rough ocean, I'll switch to cut bait if I can catch a bait stealer with a smaller hook. Different fish prefer different baits, but they all seem to like the shrimp. I put it on an Eagle Claw long shank #1 and #2 hook. They are small enough for the panfish and big and strong enough for a bigger catch.  I use a two hook rig with a 3 or 4 oz pyramid sinker and 30# test monofilament. My only regret is I didn't hook anything that gave me a fight.

This is about the 36th year for my rod and reel. I bought the rod in 1980 and the reel was a gift from my uncle in 1979. A 9' medium action Ugly Stik and a Daiwa 4000C salt water open face spinning reel. I originally got them for Striper fishing in the rapids near downtown Columbia. Now just for the beach. If you just blast the reel and rod with a hard spray of fresh water as soon as you come in from the beach, they'll last forever. Holley and I used to do a lot of Striper fishing back then.

Here is Gary and Susan's 4-1/2 year old Grand Daughter. Her Mom has saltwater in her veins, and the little one, Abby apparently does too.


Look at her posture and hand position. She can cast, and has caught some impressive Bluegills in the freshwater.


I'll get around to catching up on all of y'all's topics and post some replies starting tomorrow.
Rusty

Once again, back from another two weeks at Pawleys Island SC.  This year we had a house on the creek/salt marsh, which is different but more relaxing in so many ways. We had a rough time getting there. Stopped at Holley's Mom's on the way out of town about 1:45 for a visit with Mom and her Brother for a barbecue lunch. Back in the car and ten miles down the road on our glorious journey, when Holley says, "Where's my purse!?"... screech, pull off to look. There's not a spare cubic inch in Big Red for the damn thing to hide. Texted back to the house, no purse there. Back we went, looked all over. Beach cash, cards and all sorts of lists, medicine, sinking feeling. The house is half acre off the road off the road of a quiet horse community. I went driving around looking for the remains, fell flat on my back and head sliding feet first down into a creek bed where I'd spotted an envelope I wanted to investigate and turned out to be common litter. Too steep to climb back up, save for a spindly pine branch just within reach, so finally getting my wits back I drove back to the house where a Sheriff deputy was taking the report. She had no drivers license or picture ID, no cash, no cards for either of us except my featherweight debit card. Violated.

Back home we went to cancel all the cards and accounts, re-key the house, blah blah, etc. We finally hit the road again about 9:00 pm. Those dark twisty rural roads challenged me fiercely, but around midnight we made it safely after all. I was as exhausted as I've ever been, so was Holley. My Son and his GF & her child rolled in 30 minutes later and we sat on the porch doing what you do on a beach porch till 3:00 am. No where to go but Up, right!

It got better from there and turned out to be a perfectly relaxing vacation. The blue crabs were plentiful and we lived on crab cakes, crab dip, crab omelets, shrimp and fish all 14 days, MmmmMmmm good. There's so much more to tell, and I got lots of pictures and videos of paradise, so stay tuned and I'll get it collected off the various devices and compile a story for y'all. Meanwhile, time to chill and get a good night's sleep.

Oh yeah, a message on the phone from the sheriff, they found it! Yesterday. Sounds like everything is in it but the cash... and the meds. We'll go get it tomorrow, and I hope my spare car key is in it too.
So I'll continue with the best parts later.
Bye for now,
Rusty

EDIT: We went to the local County Sheriff's outpost this morning and picked up the slightly rain sogged purse. A quick inventory shows Everything is in it except for the cash, which was the least of our worries. Amazing. Even a bottle with 5 Valium was there. Who the hell doesn't swipe that?!... an illiterate who doesn't know how to read D-i-a-z-e-p-a-m, that's how it was labeled, with the generic name.

She's dumping it now for a full inventory which was way more than usual since we were traveling and there was lots of paperwork crucial to her ill Mom's care-taking, plus my own personal medical info. But the new cards and checks for us and her Mom were in the mail when we got home, so no trip to the DMV will be necessary for a new DL. This has made coming home turn from a real dread, to   Yay!


Moonrise


The  Creek


Moonrise II




Crab Girl!