24 inch Red

Six Little Puppies All In A Row

Out With the Reds, In With The Striped

We headed out to the pier after an incredible meal of spicy Red Drum and Blue Crab with the intention of restocking the freezer with Reds. After sitting through slack tide the bite started picking up. One after the other, the rods bent over only to reel in some beautiful Stripers 18 -19inches each. These were my first Rock fish ever and I was definitely excited but its just a little disappointing when they have to go back in the water... I just hope those guys are around in October!!! Caleb managed to reel in one nice sized Red but after we landed it on the pier it flipped and flopped and made its exit. It looked to be the biggest one yet probably around 24 or 25 inches. I almost dove in after it. Below are some of the Striper we caught. 

Crabbing with my son

This weekend I took my son crabbing for the first time. It was actually the first time for both of us so we were at a pretty even level of knowledge.  I love learning new things along side my kids! We pulled into our crabbing launch point and lo and behold the parking lot was covered with kayaker cars bearing stickers like TKAA, Werner Paddles, Angling Addict, HOOK1. Immediately the fishing bug started nagging in my head.. I should be out there fishing and learning what I can from these guys. I turned to my son who beamed with excitement, eager to get on the water "kayak crabbing" with his Dad and all those thoughts were of fishing along side of Rob Choi and who knows who elses were gone (for the moment).  We loaded up our little Hobie Kona tandem yak with our home made crab lines attached to 6 inch sections of pool noodle and our hand weaved crab net and headed out. we paddled around for a bit until we felt that we had found a good spot out of the channel that looked particularly crabby. We dropped our lines and waited for a bit before we started to reel them in. My son handled the dip net expertly as I slowly brought up the drumstick. I was very impressed with his skill at this since it was difficult for him to see the baited end. We caught several real small ones that slipped through the net but then we did manage to catch this nice sized female. I was able to explain the difference between the male and the famale crab to him and we let her go so she could have lots of crab babies in the future. It was a great day on the water and a good time bonding and learning the strengths of my son.

On a side note: Let me give a quick review on my new knife, the Dexter Russell 41842-6 - 6" Beef Skinning Knife (06325). This knife is amazing. After trying my hand at filleting the last reds I caught, I decided I needed a new approach for this hard scaled creature. My little filet knife just didn't do the trick. Six inches of cutting fury! I was able to carve up a couple of reds I caught on Sunday like they were made of butter bones and all. I highly reccomend this knife for the tougher scaled saltwater fish. One downside is that it is carbon steel so it will rust if you dont keep it clean and dry but the blade comes sharp and the ability it brings to the cutting table is something I dont want to live without anymore.  

It also has the distinction of being made in the USA with this nice little DTOM branded into the handle. I love it!

Puppy Drum From The Pier

20" Puppy Drum

I spent a couple of hours on the pier last night with my son. We both caught our first keeper puppy drum ever and had a great time. I was really excited to see how excited Caleb got as he reeled in this beautiful Red.. 

18" Puppy Drum

Caleb even stayed up with me to clean all the gear. We couldnt have asked for a better night!

Kissin' the fish