Figure I start a new thread. My goal this year is to catch at least one fish each month. Sounds pretty simple, but considering how much I work, this can be challenging. Anyway, so far so good. Here is the picture of the last time I went, which was couple weeks ago.

4/25/2014 6:43:31 PM

Um, where are you that you caught and kept those specks?

4/25/2014 8:18:31 PM

specks and puppy drum are illegal to possess right now in NC

[Edited on April 25, 2014 at 8:43 PM. Reason : and that flounder would be too short by NC regs]

4/25/2014 8:43:02 PM

I thought pups were just closed for commercial harvest.

4/25/2014 8:46:47 PM

yeah, i think i might've been misinformed

4/25/2014 8:52:55 PM

relax people, all those fish are caught in FL, where I'm living. The flounder only have to 12" here, that one was 13". I didn't know specks have season in NC. Here, they're so plentiful, you can catch them year round.

4/26/2014 12:19:32 AM

you can catch them year round here as well, but the DMF/WRC decided to temporarily shut down the speck fishery because so many got killed in the abnormally cold winter we had. they've done this before.

4/26/2014 12:42:39 AM

caught some rockfish and small speckled trout on Friday. this one hit a topwater plug. lots of fun:



then on Saturday we picked up a couple slot puppy drum:

7/13/2014 10:00:17 AM

I got this one last week, one of my biggest ever. A little over 8lbs.

7/13/2014 5:54:56 PM

Sweet bass.

7/13/2014 7:04:56 PM

slammed the rockfish pretty good on topwater before the morning bite shut down. i put 6 or 7 in the boat and missed/lost a lot more. this hoss was the biggest. he was longer than my measuring stick, so over 25", probably around the 27" mark.



also picked up a short puppy drum and a short flounder. fishing solo, so here's a selfie

7/19/2014 11:30:48 AM

You pulling these out of the neuse?

7/19/2014 11:52:39 AM

No

7/19/2014 12:03:13 PM

I live near Wilmington now, so the Cape Fear is my new home water. I'm still trying to learn it. I fished the lower Neuse and the Bay River a lot, which don't really have tidal fluctuations other than those caused by shifting winds, so I'm learning to play the tide game.

7/19/2014 2:43:27 PM

[user]CapeFearRvrRat[/user]

7/19/2014 4:08:36 PM

yeah

7/19/2014 6:48:36 PM

NRR facial expression, ftw.

"Nobody fucks with tha jesus NRR

7/19/2014 7:11:12 PM

hahaha

if you're ever down around Wilmington and wanna go fishing, give me a holler

7/19/2014 7:16:07 PM

You bet your ass I'll give you a shout if I'm near.

7/19/2014 7:19:00 PM

tough fishing today, but managed to find these 2.

7/26/2014 1:28:57 PM

picked up this rod: http://www.tackledirect.com/shimano-cpsfl72mhc-compre-inshore-spinning-rod.html

and paired it with this reel: http://www.tackledirect.com/shimano-st3000fj-stradic-fj-spinning-reel.html

i was needing a rod with a little more backbone. most of my stuff is smaller because i've always targeted trout primarily. i'm getting into larger puppy drum and stripers since i started fishing the Cape Fear and those trout rods weren't cutting it. if this works out, i'll probably pick up a couple more heavier rods.

i've got some 2000 and 2500 size reels and possibly some 6'6" medium and medium light rods that are surplus to my needs. it's all decent stuff. mostly Shimano. would anyone be interested in buying some of it? located near Wilmington.

8/3/2014 5:34:31 PM

gonna give it a shot tomorrow morning on the Cape Fear

8/8/2014 10:24:37 PM

The stradic fj is a sweet reel. I have 4 myself. For inshore, I like the stradic Ci4 better though.

8/9/2014 12:07:45 AM

why? i don't buy spinning reels without a T handle on them, so the Ci4 is out for me.

my dad had a pair of the older white stradic 2500s with the wooden T handles. they were great reels. neither me or my step mom have been able to find them since he died.



[Edited on August 9, 2014 at 12:12 AM. Reason : adfs]

8/9/2014 12:09:57 AM

small striper, small flounder, and a damn gar

tough day

8/9/2014 12:42:32 PM

also, for the record, i find it amusing when people take pictures holding their trophy catches of fish or deer or whatever. considering we're the smartest animals on the planet i don't find it very impressive at all when someone catches or kills an animal.

i was flipping channels the other day and the amount of gear and camo these dudes were wearing to hunt deer was absolutely pathetic. who the fuck needs NVG's to hunt deer?

8/10/2014 3:22:38 AM

haters gonna hate

8/10/2014 8:25:51 AM

On way to Asheville never fished there before, any spots to try? Would be up for river or lake but not really geared well for trout.

8/10/2014 12:26:00 PM

Quote :

"why? i don't buy spinning reels without a T handle on them, so the Ci4 is out for me."

The Ci4 is lighter. The stradic FJ is a great reel nonetheless.

8/10/2014 6:57:38 PM

my step mom found those two Stradic 2500s we were looking. my dad had taken them off the rods and put them in a drawer for some reason. anyway, they're both the FH series. they don't have the wooden knob like i thought, but they do have T handles. i picked them up today and stopped on the way home and bought 2 new 7' medium Fenwicks for them. gonna go pull them down and lube them now.

8/10/2014 7:04:36 PM

I think the stradic fg is the last series to have wooden handle. The stradic fh is still a tough, durable reel. The last stradic series to be made in japan. I do have a 5000fh in mint condition.

8/11/2014 12:06:46 AM

I figured out why he put them in the drawer. They have some noise coming from them. I lubed the roller clutch bearing and it got much better. Found some replacements online for a good price, so I went ahead and ordered them. Probably also going to buy some Boca bearing kits, which should get them running good.

Pops wasn't the best when it came to reel maintenance

8/11/2014 10:46:03 AM

I lucked out and found a guy locally that works on reels. I usually take mine to him every couple years (depend on how much I use the particular reel) and they'll come back like new. He replaced the factory drag washers with Carbontex washers also, which make the drag much smoother.

8/11/2014 3:37:23 PM

yeah, i ordered 2 sets of carbontex washers for them as well

8/11/2014 5:29:40 PM

only thing i caught today. it was too big to keep at 27.5"

8/15/2014 9:13:55 PM

went down the river and found some salinity, but couldn't find any fish. lost one that i'm pretty sure was a red.

ran back up the river and fished the falling tide in the late afternoon and caught some small stripers. this was the biggest.

8/17/2014 11:04:14 PM

going with another dude on his boat tomorrow. had to pick only 3 of my rods to take and cull down my baits and such to the essentials. i have too much tackle.

8/23/2014 11:06:02 PM

one striper. wind blew hard and made it tough to fish.

8/24/2014 3:31:21 PM

Went a couple miles offshore on Saturday, didn't catch shit except 3 dogfish sharks

8/25/2014 10:43:30 AM

went last friday. baitfish everywhere in the river. too much bait, really. plenty of fish busting the baitfish, but i only got a few strikes and got no hookups. the fish just weren't really eating the lures, presumably because they had been gorging on the menhaden and weren't hungry. did get a couple large ladyfish. one of the bastards jumped when i got it to the boat and ended up nicking my leader on the trolling motor. leader snapped when i went to pick the fish up and it swam off with a mirrolure securely attached to its face.

9/2/2014 7:38:10 PM

Got 2 decent size Spanish yesterday. Fall couldn't come soon enough

9/3/2014 9:13:49 AM

Got 2 decent size Spanish yesterday. Fall couldn't come soon enough

9/3/2014 9:13:49 AM

Took some vacation this week. Been catching some trout with reds and flounder mixed in. Here's today's haul.



[Edited on October 9, 2014 at 5:49 PM. Reason : hdhd]

10/9/2014 5:48:39 PM

Caught some trout and drum today

11/9/2014 6:33:54 PM

I got my Mystery tackle box today! It was REALLY good, and yoou can get your first box for $5 and cancel at anytime.

https://mysterytacklebox.com/subscribe

I a also gonna get a box from http://www.luckytacklebox.com/collections/subscriptions and http://tacklegrab.com/promotions/try-for-5/ both do the first month for $5 and you can cancel at anytime!

11/12/2014 9:53:31 PM

Got any pics of the stuff you got?

11/13/2014 8:51:51 AM

^ This is an unboxing of this month's tackle box.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jumSg8PAp6M

[Edited on November 13, 2014 at 8:12 PM. Reason : /]

11/13/2014 8:11:35 PM

I read that they just came out with a saltwater inshore mystery tacklebox. I wouldn't mind that.

11/17/2014 9:07:39 PM

^ You should record yourself doing the MTB Slam. You got a boat and know how to fish. I would fail so hard at it lol!

11/17/2014 9:28:28 PM

What is the slam?

11/17/2014 9:29:21 PM