Remember this: Plotting, planning, and executing never hurt a fishing soul with a goal.
It was 4:30 am when packed ready to go, I left the house for the beach to go saltwater fishing. There was no traffic on the way. I downloaded a free app that listed the high and low tides. I subtracted and hour for good measure. The tide was suppose to be coming in at 9:30 am. I got there at 6 am.
Before I pursued my goal of being a lazy fisherwoman, I stood on the beach and watched the sun come up. It was surreal. The water was a calm, perfect, silvery blue color. Seeing the sun come up on the ocean should be a part of life at some point. If not, make it a priority to pen that somewhere in your agenda.
I have read early accounts of First People standing on the eastern shores when the First Light appears. It seemed a natural thing to do; waiting for the sun. You stand there and don't think about nothing. The view is just as it is; what you see.
The walk down the beach to the South jetty was for my exercise regime yet I had my mountain bike at the ready. The neurologist prescribed low impact exercise. I figure walking wasn't a bad thing. By the time I was done with the day, my mileage would total nearly 50 miles for the week. Undoubtedly, I like to punish myself.
After taking some photos, I moved on. There was an assortment of sea shells, seaweed, and crab running loose on the shore. Birds where out. The air temperature was cool and the ocean water was warm.
I noticed at least two to three wire cages lining the beach. The loggerhead turtles were laying. There were also areas roped off as no access for migratory or sea birds to use as nesting areas. You could hear the little birds peeping way in the dunes somehwere.
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| When you see these types of cages do not bother them. |
I finally got to the jetties and unpacked my small amount of fishing gear. Oooops on my part because I realized I only had three weights. The rod I was using was the Ugly Stick. Pretty sweet name, I thought. By the time I started catching fish, some of the things I was pulling out the drink looked like they had been beat with the Ugly Stick.
The bait of the day, to spare no expense, was fresh turkey neck. I passed on the shrimp, mullet or live bait. Some of that bait, especially the shrimp, falls apart on the hook once in the water.
The jetty is a long path out to sea that is asphalted with rocks on both sides. The rocks do extend out a ways covered by the ocean. This makes it vicarious when losing hook, line and sinker to the murky shallows.
The other compromising issue was the wakes from bigger, fast moving boats. Along with the ocean current, your baited hook would be pushed closer to the rocks. Most of the disturbance to the ocean water came from the bigger boats going by but they didn't anchor to far off the South jetty or out to sea. There was another, the North jetty out in the water but the smaller boat were anchored around it while fishing up a storm. I had been on a boat out there before. Being on a boat makes it easier to fish away from the rocks if you catch something before the fish make a run to their hidey-holes.
I noticed the men I walked behind at the boardwalk were at the end of the jetty. I sat there after I cast out and watched the boats and tourists on inflated bananas go by. Jet skis were next. It looked like fun.The inflated banana reminded me of the one Jaws attacked.
Not to long after casting out, I realized I had a bite. I started to reel in and caught a black sea bass yet I thought it was a black drum at first, but no. All total, I caught three of these fish but I measured them and they were not big enough to keep. These fish were pretty obvious when on the line. You would get that vibrating jerk, jerk feel to it. I did have my DNR magazine with me to keep me out of trouble along with my fishing license. Too small is too small. Toss it back. I will contend there that you should always groom those DNR guidelines because there are some fish that are not allowed, especially here to possess or catch. There are also limits and seasons to adhere to.
I caught three other fish but it looked more like the creature from the black lagoon. It was an oyster toadfish, or oyster cracker. I was reading up on this particular creature and found NASA sent this species into space to study the effects of microgravity on the development of otolithic organs. It would seem that they are sensitive to gravity and linear acceleration due to some structure in the inner ear. Interesting stuff.
These beasts from the sea have little yellow fins that seem to make it sort of amphibious. It could walk on land if it wanted to. Also there were these protrusions like sea demon horns from the top of its flat head. The mouth delivers a mighty chomp. It reminded me of a hellbender except it didn't have legs. The ones I caught didn't have the beardiness around the mouth either. Must have shaved before coming out.
I then wondered if Neptune intended for me to kiss a toadfish? I laughed. No prince here.
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Removing the hook was problematic and I decided to do Confederate field surgery. It would seem that once the oyster toadfish swallows the hook there is a structure inside resembling a bloodless, white sphinter muscle. It's god awful to behold and looks like an anus inside of its mouth. I laughed about that for some time. The teeth looked like newborn teeth.
Trying not to traumatize the fish to much, I just cut the end of the hook off and pulled the smooth piece out. One of the bigger oyster toadfish bent my pole over double from its weight. When I touched the fish, it sounded like a dog barking. I giggled about that; sounds as creepy as a croacker. My understanding is when breeding the male gives off a foghorn sound. I tossed it back. The one thing I noticed in catching this fish is: you don't know it is on the hook. It gulps the hook then sits there. When you start reeling the bait in, you think you have been caught on the rocks, but no. I do suspect that being near the jetty, the oyster toadfish do lay-in-wait by the rocks then capitalize on the baited hook as prey.
I stayed there from 6 am to 10:30 am. I was getting less action the more the high tide came in. One usually relegates two hours before and after high tide to fish. I wondered what effect the Supermoon had on my day's activity. The moon hung in the sky watching everything.
The funnier moment was when a man came by kayaking. I was catching fish in my excited state. He was trying to talk to me from the boat but I was on the fish. I watched him paddle away thinking he was going to flip the boat or crash it on the rocks because he was pretty close. I guess if he did crash it, he could scurry up on the rocks and save himself. I casted out.
Sometime passed. I turned around to bait my hook. The kayaker was now on the beachside of the South Jetty with his boat on the shore. He was changing his clothes. I cast again, not paying attention. When I reeled in the rod, he was standing behind me. He started asking me questions. He said he flipped his kayak over. I cast the bait. He would talk. I was a little excited but thought it annoyed him because I was talking. He then sat down at my feet to talk some more. I kept on casting. We talked about kayaking on the river because he didn't live to far away from my home. I got his number before he walked off to carry his kayak down the jetty back to the marina area. I thought that a fairly strange interlude to my morning.
I didn't want to get midday sunburn so I packed up. Before going, I did go in and try to dip me some crab but there were none to be had. I felt satisfied I had done my damage. I pushed the mountain bike back down the beach. By this time the tide was very high and the tires sunk down in the soft sand. Riding the bike was not possible. Having extra turkey neck, I doled it out to fishermen up and down the beach. By the time I got back to the beach access, it was hot and I was happy to stand under the water hose while drinking from it. I never died from doing so. I then went home. No fish, no sunburn; happy fisherwoman.
Written by: W Harley Bloodworth
~Courtesy of the AOFH~
