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Pit Fishing Thread

Fish boated after a 4 hour fight. Will be interesting to see if it's over 500.

Forgot that last year's winner was only a 35 foot contender. It's a sick boat, don't get me wrong, but it's a minnow compared to the 70+ footers and way smaller than average for a big offshore tournament.

Reading the tournament's social media, they're teasing that the one on the way in is a big one ...
 
Massive storm rolled through and 19 foot boat (surely not in tournament) put in mayday call in the middle of the inlet. Pretty nuts. Could be a problem for boats coming back in.
 
blue marlin was 521lbs so they won the prize

not too much fishing so far this year but I'm headed to Sunset late July for whiting and OBX Sept for marlin

congrats Racer on the boat and place at Topsail
 
Widespread brought in a 656.5 lb blue marlin last night, putting them in first place and a potentially 1.678 million payday.
 
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congrats Racer on the boat and place at Topsail

Thanks man. Been fun learning the creeks and inlet. Haven't managed to get stuck in a creek waiting on the tide to come back in yet, so I'll call that a win.
 
Racer - if you aren't skilled at it yet, learn to throw a 6-foot cast net with good accuracy. Best way to catch reds and trout is with live bait. Finger mullet and/or shrimp. You can catch both on just about any marshy area throughout the summer, just try not to ruin your net on the oysters. A 6-foot net is only effective in about 3 feet of water or less. Deeper than that and you need a bigger net, and those are much harder to throw repeatedly and accurately. You can probably catch all the bait you need off your dock. You can rig up a small bait pen - get a paint bucket with a lid. Drill holes in the bottom and sides. Put lid on, and a couple of pyramid weights in the bottom to keep it somewhat upright. Catch the bait, put in bucket, tie off to the dock. If you have any decent tidal flow there, finger mullet will survive a couple of days. Shrimp will die off more quickly, but can make it a while. If your boat doesn't have a livewell, just bring the bucket and tie off to the boat while you are fishing.

Learn how to hook both the finger mullet and shrimp without killing them, and fish them under a popping cork with about two feet of leader material between the cork and hook. You can use topwater lures in mornings and late afternoons if you find good spots. That is by far the most fun way to catch them. Mirrorlure MR 17s are great during the winter months for trout. Just fish them super slow.

Also, if you have a dock with decent water, get a green LED dock light (you can get ones that mount on the dock and shine down, so you don't get barnacle growth). Leave light on throughout the summer. After about a week, the light will be crawling with bait every night and you can catch as many trout as you want at night. Or, take your boat and find other docks that have the light and fish those at night. Just be careful that you don't fish the wrong guy's dock - some people get pretty sensitive about that type of fishing at night.

And start saving your money because 2-foot-itis is real and never goes away. You are going to want a bigger boat.
 
Those were cool instructions but just go out and buy a plastic minnow bucket lol
 
You can do that too, although most aren’t as durable as a good paint bucket (or the good ones are way more expensive).
 
Racer - if you aren't skilled at it yet, learn to throw a 6-foot cast net with good accuracy. Best way to catch reds and trout is with live bait. Finger mullet and/or shrimp. You can catch both on just about any marshy area throughout the summer, just try not to ruin your net on the oysters. A 6-foot net is only effective in about 3 feet of water or less. Deeper than that and you need a bigger net, and those are much harder to throw repeatedly and accurately. You can probably catch all the bait you need off your dock. You can rig up a small bait pen - get a paint bucket with a lid. Drill holes in the bottom and sides. Put lid on, and a couple of pyramid weights in the bottom to keep it somewhat upright. Catch the bait, put in bucket, tie off to the dock. If you have any decent tidal flow there, finger mullet will survive a couple of days. Shrimp will die off more quickly, but can make it a while. If your boat doesn't have a livewell, just bring the bucket and tie off to the boat while you are fishing.

Learn how to hook both the finger mullet and shrimp without killing them, and fish them under a popping cork with about two feet of leader material between the cork and hook. You can use topwater lures in mornings and late afternoons if you find good spots. That is by far the most fun way to catch them. Mirrorlure MR 17s are great during the winter months for trout. Just fish them super slow.

Also, if you have a dock with decent water, get a green LED dock light (you can get ones that mount on the dock and shine down, so you don't get barnacle growth). Leave light on throughout the summer. After about a week, the light will be crawling with bait every night and you can catch as many trout as you want at night. Or, take your boat and find other docks that have the light and fish those at night. Just be careful that you don't fish the wrong guy's dock - some people get pretty sensitive about that type of fishing at night.

And start saving your money because 2-foot-itis is real and never goes away. You are going to want a bigger boat.
Good stuff. I use bait and fish docks when I'm fishing with the kids, but prefer to throw lures in the creeks when I'm fishing alone. Still much to learn about where to be and at what tide to be there.

Definitely need a bigger boat to fit the fam and be able to get out of the inlet more regularly, but gonna wait for all the covid buyers to start dumping them in 1-2 years.
 
Another great outing. Floated the Arkansas river two days; big dry fly action on Friday and a a full day of streamer fishing on Saturday. Lots of action and even landed a few!

This guy CRUSHED a chubby.

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Back to me, I guess.

Fished the Arkansas River again yesterday; there’s a canyon that’s only accessible by foot certain times of year and the flows were low enough to get in there. Tried some streamer fishing yesterday and managed to get this guy to the net. Fun day overall; learned a lot and had a good time.

601e04056e90364fae1f5831f056297a.jpg
 
@leftcoastdeac, are you strictly catch and release or do you eat any of the trout you catch?

I snagged a rainbow out of the upper Yadkin back in college, and it was delicious. Still the only wild trout that I've caught and eaten.
 
@leftcoastdeac, are you strictly catch and release or do you eat any of the trout you catch?

I snagged a rainbow out of the upper Yadkin back in college, and it was delicious. Still the only wild trout that I've caught and eaten.
These aren’t really wild so it’s ok for you to eat them.
 
Brook trout in certain rivers/streams are (both wild and native)!
Fair enough. I was speaking on the rainbow. The native Brookies are normally way up in tough to reach areas and are too small to make much of a meal.
 
What type of fish and what length and weight? Looks like fun.
That’s a mature red drum. Also commonly known as a red fish or spot tail bass. Fish was 41 inches. Not sure of the weight but it was hefty. They live inshore for a few years and are sometimes called puppy drum but a great sport fish. (That’s where I usually fish for them, typically with a fly rod) Once mature like this one they will go into the ocean. Caught this one at the end of an inlet jetty.
 
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