Long Beach Fish Spotting

We met up with a classmate and family friend at one of our old haunts in Long Beach - the "Pink House" beach. Lots of birds hanging out - especially cool was the colony of Black Skimmers. I noticed some movement just offshore (literally 5 feet) and saw some stingrays. Oh how I wish I had a good 5wt setup.... These guys were slightly smaller than the ones I used to see while paddling the SUP when we lived down here. Lots of other cool things spotted while beachcombing. As we are making our next move across country, getting to see old friends and our favorite spots is a great way to open our new adventures!

Fishing Report 9/13/2014

I went out three times today. First was with an ultralight weight 3wt flyrod - the Scott JS F2 7234. I did not get the attention of anything - first with a small popper and then a subsurface foam fly... not even a look-see-nibble. I did not even bother taking a picture - let's leave that alone (although casting that rod is fun - the more I cast it though, the more I can feel that it needs a perfect casting stroke - this one gives no mercy. I think I need to appease it with some bluegill... stay tuned for that - I've got just the spot). We shifted gears and spent about four hours hanging out at the beach - just North of the 'Poles' surf spot. I brought the St Croix 10' Surf Rod and caught a couple of whiting. As the tide started coming in I also saw a bunch of other animals coming onto the sand flat. This stingray was one of them, as were a live horseshoe crab, a crap ton of mullet (most of which had scars from predatory fish encounters) and several smaller whiting. And late in the afternoon, Marlon and I hit the jetty to see what we could find. We ended up catching a bunch of blennies, some spottail pinfish and a few black sea bass (mind you these are all smaller fish - we're just there having a good time with some ultralight weight spinning rods). We saw a couple of green sea turtles to top it all off. Tomorrow we have a pretty cool expedition planned -

Catching - Not SUP Surfing

We can't go to a barrier island and not surf - unless you have a bum leg like I do (I have been fighting a weird hip pain). We brought the SUP boards over and I was fully prepared to change into my 4/3, but when we got the beach after our time at the village, the surf was mostly lack luster. That coupled with the winching pain I would have to endure while suiting up and carrying the board over the dune, I opted to break out the surf casting rod. On the first cast we brought in this stingray. I got it off the hook quickly and back into the water - although Marlon kept asking if we could eat it - he's been craving sushi again but I didn't think it was that bad.... We caught another stingray shortly after and decided to call it a day. We made it just in time to catch the next ferry without waiting and then caught the sunset at Hatteras Village. Awesome day!

Stingray Mating Season

Make sure you shuffle your feet if you happen to be wading here on the Gulf Coast.

The latest plague beset upon us (after Hurricanes, Record Setting Oil Spills, hordes of jellyfish) is the congregation of the stingray.

Actually, SUPing has offered a ton of opportunity to observe the mating habits of this fish. They dig holes in the sand (I am assuming it is the male) and do their procreating. It is also interesting how they are converging on the lowest tide I have seen down here - I'm not sure of a correlation, but it is interesting.