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Dani 1996-2012

surffisher — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 04:00:36 +0000

Today, we helped release Dani’s beautiful soul from her suffering body.

She was born in mid-December 1996, a bastard and orphaned child to a female black lab knocked up by a rouge neighborhood dog mixed with German shepherd and smaller breeds. I held her in my hands and arms as we drove her, quivering, away from her siblings (all the rest of whom were black/dark colored) at the ripe old age of seven weeks on a warm winter day, much like today. Her playful puppy spirit helped me through tough times and, over the years, our mutual love and affection for each other grew as we shared the primes of our youths hiking, camping, fishing, and all manner of other road-tripping. But some of my most cherished memories are the times that we just laid next to each other, allowing the spring breeze to roll over our contented souls.

Everyone who knew Dani knows that she lived for her Daddy. Whenever I yelled or got frustrated, even if it was just watching a ballgame, she’d come to comfort me and make sure I was okay. When I was away on business, she was described as “never relaxed” and often sat longingly staring at the door. When I’d leave for work, she’d find a perch on the deck where she could watch me leave with sad puppy dog eyes. With Dani, a leash was usually not necessary, as there was no reason to venture too far and nothing was too important unless it could be shared with Dad.

Over the past few years, Dani slowed down and her once athletic, elegantly slender body got creakier. Last May, at 14 years of age, we discovered that she had lymphoma. Still in good overall health, we pursued treatment, which she handled well at first, and in fact was in a strong post-treatment remission for our wedding. Cancer is a tough foe, though, and we moved toward palliative care several weeks ago, after it became apparent that once reliable treatments were no longer effective and the toll on her weary body was too great.

After a difficult, emotionally draining week, we were blessed to spend a couple of otherwise uneventful days and nights preparing for Dani’s next journey, out of the physical world and into the spiritual. Last night, we shared stories around a bonfire, at which Dani was able to keep warm and comfortable. Dani also enjoyed a nice meal of speckled trout and a capful of beer (just like her Daddy) and had a nice visit to our pond for a long drink of her favorite water. Today, we all spent most of a lovely day basking in the warmth of the late winter sun. At around 4:00 pm, Sarah and I took Dani to NC State University Veterinary School, where she had received excellent and caring treatment and garnered a reputation as a “sweet girl” and a “great patient” that made her Daddy smile and boast. Indeed, Dani rarely, if ever, complained. Lying down on Sarah’s and my laps, Dani passed peacefully into the next life.

It’s cliché, I know, to say that there will never be another dog like Dani, but it is true – and there’s little more I can say or type to capture my fondness and love for this special little soul. So instead I’ll just say “Daddy loves you, Littles, and Daddy will never forget you.”

Dani

1996-2012

Can anyone say “mullet blow”?

surffisher — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 17:58:36 +0000

This should be a doozy…how’s my schedule for next week???

S OF OREGON INLET TO CAPE HATTERAS NC OUT 20 NM-S OF CAPE HATTERAS TO OCRACOKE INLET NC OUT 20 NM INCLUDING THE MONITOR NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY- 926 AM EDT WED SEP 14 2011

…SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH SUNDAY MORNING…

.REST OF TODAY…NW WINDS 10 TO 15 KT…BECOMING SE LATE. SEAS 4 TO 6 FT DOMINANT PERIOD 11 SECONDS.

.TONIGHT…E WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. SEAS 4 TO 6 FT DOMINANT PERIOD 11 SECONDS. .THU…NW WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. SEAS 4 TO 6 FT.

.THU NIGHT…NW WINDS 15 TO 20 KT…BECOMING N 25 TO 30 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. SEAS 6 TO 9 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

.FRI…NE WINDS 20 TO 25 KT…DIMINISHING TO 15 TO 20 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. SEAS 6 TO 9 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

.FRI NIGHT…NE WINDS 15 TO 20 KT. SEAS 5 TO 7 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS. .

SAT…NE WINDS 15 TO 20 KT…INCREASING TO 20 TO 25 KT. SEAS 5 TO 8 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

.SUN…NE WINDS 15 TO 20 KT. SEAS 7 TO 10 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

Blast from the past…1/2/04

surffisher — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 05:25:12 +0000

This was one of the true greats…back a mere five years ago in the midst of several successive years where the Christmas – New Years week was off the charts. I started the long weekend by catching a modest 13 pound striper near Oregon Inlet on the way into town new year’s evening. January 2nd, however, was the bomb.

January 2, 2004. Outer Banks, NC. A glorious day all around. Weather and fishing. Light SW wind, warm, sunny to partly cloudy. Great water everywhere. A fishy day!

Ramp 55 to Hatteras Inlet. Started fishing for speckled trout at a great hole right at the base of Ramp 55. Right after first light. After about a cast or two, started seeing “backs” coming out of the water and knew the albacore were in. Got an 8-9 pounder out of that hole while they were blasting, then spent the rest of the morning gunning for fish up and down the beach, taking one from the other nice trout hole about halfway to the inlet and then a couple others south toward the inlet. They were pretty finicky, but when they were really raging you had a decent chance of hooking up. I landed 4 from 5 to 10 pounds. The first was on a 2-3 ounce kastmaster. Two were on a small white stingsilver imitation with feathered single hook and one was on an epoxy glass minnow fly dropper. The fish were on very tiny baitfish that were all up against the beach. They looked like glass minnow fry or something. Never seen the albacore so close to the beach before. At times, they would actually charge in with a breaking wave and almost beach themselves. Quit around noon and went back to the room for a nap (bad move as stripers were blitzing Pea Island).

After that great morning, I managed to get some action on the tail end of a big striper blitz along the north beaches of Hatteras Island. I ended up dropping 3 or 4 big fish on black plugs after dark near Oregon Inlet. Nevertheless, a very memorable winter’s day and still the best I’ve ever had for albacore in the surf. So much late season action is dictated by the weather and the persistent, strong and cold westerly winds that have absolutely dominated this fall have done nothing to sustain the fishing.

Oh cool…real time surfcams

surffisher — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 04:29:13 +0000

I put live links to the best North Carolina surf webcams up on a single page. Click on the Real time surf images page on the right to check out the surf from Duck to Ocean Isle Beach with a single click. Wrightsville looks so peaceful under this (nearly) full moon I almost wish I was out there plugging the beach for trout. That is, until I check our outside thermometer and it reads 25 F and realize that it is blowing 20 kt from the NW. That’ll give ya some wind chill right there…

Weekly report – 12/28/09

surffisher — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:46:10 +0000

Water temps bumped up a bit, especially south of Cape Hatteras (check out the surface water temp plot below) ranging from high 40s way north to low 60s mid-coast, but the weather and winds generally still won’t cooperate. When they do, a few good fish have been caught. Puppy drum fishing near Cape Point was good on some easterly winds Christmas Eve and Day and at least one big striper was landed. Speaking of stripers, the nearshore charters out of Oregon Inlet have been scoring with easy limits the past few days. I don’t know how far the boats are running, but there clearly are some fish in our waters. I heard a report of what were likely big blues working the suds in Nag’s Head Sunday morning, but no one was there to fish them. I’ve been in Avon since Saturday night and all I’ve landed was a small flounder Sunday morning. The wind was calm Sunday, but there was a big swell that made plugging and grubbing a challenge (though the surfers were loving it). Today (Monday), the wind was back up to 25 kt with muddy water all over; even the dogsharks were scarce. Fishing is much the same along the rest of the coast and the forecast doesn’t look promising.

Surface water temperatures - 12/28/09

It’s a wrap…

surffisher — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:04:37 +0000

I wrapped up a slow week with the two best fish of the trip Thursday evening and Friday (of course they were separated by many fruitless casts). After a marathon night of fishing on my birthday, Wednesday was a total wash, better for lounging in the hot tub at my Dad’s rental and enjoying a belated birthday dinner at Diamond Shoals restaurant (I had seared yellowfin tuna). I spent the first half of Thursday working while the wind died down and the tide peaked out, and ventured out after noon with the plan of doing some clamming and oystering behind Oregon Inlet on low tide. I ended up hitting the north point and inlet instead, mainly to scope out the long bar running from the point to the bridge in case I return later – its nice to know where the slough can be crossed without swamping my waders with cold water in the middle of the night!

Oregon Inlet

Conditions were nice and I casted a Storm wildeye swim shad into the inlet while walking the bar. These lures are a great imitation of a bunker, aka menhaden, and are pretty irresistible to a foraging striper. No foraging stripers around this afternoon however. From Oregon Inlet, I continued my striper pursuit with another soundside foray at sunset. I found some really nice current which is key to success for soundside stripers, and although the action was very slow, I was able to coax another fat football of a striper to hit a blurple (black over purple) bomber. This one measured 23″ long x 15″ girth – fat fish! Since most of these soundside stripers seem to be gorging on peanut bunker (baby menhaden of about 3-4″ in length), I usually try to stick with lures with a small profile. However, this particular bomber was the 6″ “long-A” model. With the slow fishing, I wanted a heftier lure that I could cast further to cover more ground. I also felt like a big noisy lure might incite an anger strike since the smaller profile lures weren’t producing. This particular fish had about an 8″ long speckled trout in its stomach, an indication that a longer profile lure can match the bait on the soundside.

Fat soundside striper

Thursday late night I fished a nice point/hole formation near Ramp 43 in Buxton on the full moon and falling tide. Great looking water, but very slow fishing. I had action on shrimp early and landed a small sea mullet that was immediately cut up to replace the menhaden on my larger rod. The cut fish baits didn’t get touched in a couple hours of fishing though.

Friday morning, I did a trout tour from Frisco to Hatteras to Buxton and with the high, muddy water, didn’t have a look. Later, I scouted out a few likely spots on the ride out of town and was pleased to see some relatively clear, but high, water in Rodanthe. I had one light hit that I do believe was a small trout and then hooked and landed a nice 25″ puppy drum on my last cast along the surfline of a good deep hole adjacent to a broad shallow point.

Rodanthe pup

So, all told for the week: two pups @ 24 and 25″, four stripers @ 16, 21, 21 and 23″, one small flounder, one tiny croaker, and one small sea mullet…and I did well compared to most people!

On the road again...we will be back!

Birthday fish

surffisher — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:46:05 +0000

Yep, finally had a pretty nice day (for fishing…not so much for catching) on my birthday and was able to pull out a couple respectable soundside stripers – they were both 21″, but one had a beer gut bigger than mine (turns out it was actually a peanut bunker gut). Also released a 16″ and missed about a half dozen hits. With only a bit of current, the bite was slow and I had to continually mix lures and tactics to entice a strike. The fat football fish was on my second cast with a black bomber, the 16″ was on a nightstalker mirrolure, and the more svelte 21″ was on a live eel fished on a jig head.

soundside stripers

Rewinding a bit, the day started pretty miserably with a dawn high tide and the surf kicked up from the blow the night before. But, by afternoon, it was a gorgeous day. I found some of the clearest water of the trip on the south beach and Ramp 55 in Hatteras and fished some wonderful sloughs with just one throwback flounder and a light hit or two to show. The moonrise coinciding with sunset was absolutely stunning.

Knowing that today (Wednesday) would be a total washout, I fished most of the night, with the only action being on those soundside stripers. The beaches north of Oregon Inlet (KDH, KH, etc.) are still muddy and disappointingly troutless on an otherwise perfect, calm and moonlit evening. I wrapped up eeling around Oregon Inlet proper and didn’t have a take. I talked to a guy in the parking lot who said two were landed from the catwalk that night – one at 6 pm and one just before I talked to him around 2 am. Not exactly a hot bite.

My turn!

surffisher — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:14:55 +0000

OK, I’ve got about a week at the Outer Banks coming up starting today (Saturday). This trip is a little different though in that rather than the traditional weekly vacation rental, I found a long-term rental for the next two months. Now, granted that Dec-Jan isn’t as prime as Oct-Nov, but this is just how it worked out…and even in the worst of years, there is some good fishing late in the season. In fact, in several previous years, all hell has broken loose in the the week between Christmas and New Years. This years’ season has really taken a hit with the nor’easter – the water still hasn’t settled and the winds continue to batter, but it will turn around at some point. I’ve been trying to do some early strategizing, but am having difficulty getting my head around the forecast – while the surf looks to be very fishable, I fear it will also be muddy with moderate westerly winds forecast. Bottom line is that I’ll definitely be starting with a lot of scouting, especially with the fishing reports of late being rather sparse and discouraging. I have a handful of spots between Buxton and Oregon Inlet (and beyond) to poke around and plan to hit a beach for the falling tide tonight. If I can get my ass in gear soon, I should have a few minutes of light, during which to scope out a few places on the drive to Avon. Pending internet availability, I’ll try to keep the blog updated during the week.

Early December is a good time for these - 10 years ago this week

...and even larger versions (two years ago)

...and don't forget the trouts...

Weekly report 11/2/09

surffisher — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:26:23 +0000

Cool north winds have surface water temps varying from the low 60s up at Duck to about 70 down south. Still plenty of warm water off the beach. The fall surf fishing continues to be dominated by excellent catches of nice sized black and red (puppy) drum on cut bait and lots and lots of bluefish of mixed size. Some good reports of blitzes of 4-5 pound blues on the central and southern beaches. Excellent catches of big sea mullet this week as well, with reports coming from across the entire NC coast. Trout fishing has been slow to fire off in the surf which I suspect is primarily due to the unsettled conditions throughout most of October. The water temps are definitely in place, so once the water starts to settle out, I expect some good runs. Solid reports of stripers in the sounds, which is a nice development as this fishing has been spotty for the past few seasons. Likewise, inshore reports (and those from some savvy surf and wade anglers) have the false albacore fishing back at the levels we were used to several years ago. The epicenter is of course, Cape Lookout and to a lesser extent Beaufort Inlet. Let’s hope the surf stripers return in the numbers we saw in the early part of the decade as well. There have already been a few nice ocean migrating stragglers reported.

Black drum - the fish of the fall so far

Bluefish

It’s fall

surffisher — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:38:28 +0000

With extended, strong N winds and unseasonably cold temperatures, the water temps have dropped about 10 degrees in a week. While people start freaking out that we’ll have a short fall and too quick a drop in water temperature putting a premature end to the season, everyone needs to be aware that this is just a temporary blip. There is a large, large mass of warm water just off the beach. Once the weather moderates, and onshore winds return, the surf temps will moderate and we’ll be back on track.

In the fall, wind and water temperature are THE number one driver of fishing. Each cold blow cranks the fishing up a notch or two. In fact, extended periods of calm weather can be the worst prescription for fall surf fishing as the fish get complacent again. The hard blows tell the fish its time to move, and time to gorge themselves on food in preparation for the long winter ahead. I love it.

Check out the Rutgers surface water temp radar image below (link to real time images from link weather webpage accessible on right). Water temps dropped so quickly that the scale/legend didn’t even have time to change – lots of coooold purple (in January, purple means like 40 degrees F!). But, check out all that really warm water a short fetch off the beach.

October 20, 2009 surface water temperature

Full report on windy wild Cape Lookout trip coming soon…