THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 11, 1994 TAG: 9409080206
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 42 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Tight Lines
SOURCE: Ford Reid
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
With the weather turned cooler, most of the tourists gone and a nice, little nor'easter behind us, it is time to turn our minds to some serious fishing.
People who fish the Mid Atlantic salt water, and especially those who fish the surf, live for the next three months.
Spring fishing can be exciting and summer fishing offers an occasional pleasant surprise, but it is autumn that makes standing on the beach, tossing bait into the vast ocean, worth every ounce of the effort.
Shorter days and cooler air trigger something in the best inshore game fish, telling them not only to get moving but urging them to begin feeding as if there were no tomorrow.
It triggers something in people, too. Anglers who have spent the summer tending gardens or going on family picnics will begin to gather their gear and head for the beach.
Probably, some of the speckled trout and puppy drum have already begun to move out of the sounds and into the holes and sloughs along the beach. Soon, the migration will turn to a procession, with the big drum joining in.
Meanwhile, in the sounds, in the Chesapeake Bay and along the northeast and New England coasts, the bluefish have started to gather into big, tightly packed schools, preparing for the feeding frenzy that precedes their annual trip to their winter haunts in the Gulf Stream.
During the summer, inshore fishing often becomes a take what you can get proposition. You might find bluefish and Spanish mackerel early in the morning, spot, croaker and sea mullet for most of the day and the occasional flounder as the sun sets, but you can never afford to be too choosy.
In the fall, it pays to be ready for anything, but it also pays to target a species and fish hard for it.
And it is not too early to start getting ready for that now. For instance, as you fish holes for trout mark them on a map or a drawing. The hole that holds no fish today might be full of them a week or a month from now. Don't overlook one in October because it was unproductive in September.
Look, too, for openings in the outer sand bar. Those are places that big bluefish and red drum love to feed, especially on a running tide. Look for them just inside the bar as the tide comes in, just outside of it as the tide falls.
Again, just because there are no fish there today does not mean that there will not be tomorrow, next week or even on the next tide.
Remember where you find those breaks so that you can return to them again and again during the fall. Sooner or later it will pay off.
But remember, too, that those openings can close, and new ones open, during any substantial storm. Success in surf fishing is often a matter of being alert to changing conditions and using those changes to your advantage.
So get out the good gear, make sure that you have fresh lines on all of your reels and that your hooks are sharp.
The fun is just about to begin. by CNB