Going to Carolina in my Mind

[Johnsfolly]

In my mind I'm gone to Carolina.

Can't you see the sunshine?

Now can't you feel the moonshine?

Ain't it just like a friend of mine to hit me from behind?

Yes, I'm gone to Carolina in my mind.

This should sound familiar to those OAF folks that went to see James Taylor recently 😉. We did one better and actually went and spent a few days in the Outer Banks. We stayed in Kill Devil Hills just north of Nags Head. After catching cownose rays in the Chesapeake bay I pivoted from a shark charter trip off of DE or MD to an inshore fishing trip in OBX with hopes to catching some ribbonfish that have been plentiful in that area over the last few years. We have tried on more than a few trips to catch a ribbonfish from VA waters and just haven't been successful. 

For this trip I had planned on at least one or two trips fishing one or more of the local piers, including Jeanette’s which is the longest in the area. We booked our charter for Friday and I discussed with the captain that we are multispecies anglers and would be happy with catching a variety of species with a focus on ribbonfish and didn’t need to fill the box with a bunch of speckled trout. I also focused on a night trip to Oregon Inlet for some interesting lifer options like blackcheek tonguefish and darter gobies and hoped to fish the surf for red drum or Spanish mackerel.

Looking over the weather and the projected wave heights I was worried about whether we would have a successful trip. The weather was going to be great, but Ernesto was going to push in a storm swell starting Friday morning that would push the surf up from 1-2 feet to 3 to 5 feet. I spoke with the captain and it really was going to be dicey trying to get out of the inlet and into the ocean for those ribbonfish. I also felt that the storm swell would impact our nightfishing at the inlet.

I had been in communication with Alex, a guy from INAT, and he mentioned that there was a ribbonfish blitz at the pier Weds that started just at dark. He also mentioned some folks catching remoras on shrimp, but to look out for the butterfly rays. I packed a small amount of gear to try for the ribbons off of the pier. We headed down on Thursday, got checked into our hotel and then onto the pier.

We fished our standard high/low bait rigs using shrimp, bloodworms and a couple of flavors of fishbites. Since there were a few decent school of baitfish, we also fished a #4 Sabiki rig. We caught the standard fare of species with the bait and Sabiki.

Black Sea bass

Spot croaker

Atlantic croaker

Blenny surprise caught right next to the pier piling on the sabiki tipped with small pieces of shrimp– not sure if this is a feather or crested blenny since we didn’t have saltwater to put it into our photo bag.

Livie started with the Sabiki and it didn’t take long and she hooked into her first lifer of the trip, a beat up blue runner. This fish had seen better days when it wasn’t being harassed by what looks to have been a shark.

 

We all got into catching those blue runners with the Sabiki.

 

Even Sue’s had been bitten by a shark.

 

At one point a big ray came by and spooked the school of bait that we were targeting with the Sabiki rig. Once we saw the size of that ray it became clear about Alex’s warning about the butterfly rays. Throughout the evening we saw ones that were about 3 feet from wing tip to wing tip and some giants that must have been 6 feet across. We never had one interested in any of out baits, but I do feel that if we floated a ½ crab about 2 – 3 feet under a large float that we may have been bit by one. If it were one of the smaller ones, we may have been able to land it using one of the pier nets.

 

Sue waiting for the night time ribbon bite.

As it got dark I tied on a 3/8 oz round jig head that I had twisted the hook point so that it faced downward. I put on a 3.5 Keitech swimbait in white pearl. Once we saw a guy towards the end of the pier land a ribbon, I started fishing that jig. First cast was under the pier and came up empty. The second was well out in front of me. I let the bait sink to the bottom and I slowly reeled it back in with a couple of small hops along the way. I got a solid thump and the first ribbon was on! Then it cut my #17 lb fluorocarbon leader. I retied another jig directly to the #30 braid and soon had on another ribbon. These fish are really strong fighters but I was able to get it up an over the rail!

 

Pretty soon each of us were fighting these ribbons. Sue did land one but lost at least three others by having the jig cut off by the fish.

 

We did meet up with Alex and he and his buddies were into the ribbons as well. We kept three and headed back to the hotel about 9:30 so that we could get some sleep before meeting the captain at 5:30 the next morning.

[FishnDave]

Alright!!  Congrats on the Ribbonfish!  How cool is that??  I didn't realize they were so good at slicing through fishing line!  Is it their teeth, or the sharp jaw bones?

[Johnsfolly]

46 minutes ago, FishnDave said:

I didn't realize they were so good at slicing through fishing line!  Is it their teeth, or the sharp jaw bones?

Could have been one or the other or both. They are definitely built to tear and slice up baitfish.

[Johnsfolly]

On Friday we met up with our captain at 5:30 in the morning. First stop was to get bait out of a couple of fish traps. They were full of both juvenile pinfish and pigfish. Pigfish were put in the live well and the pinfish were released. We were going to fish the live bait under a float over grass flats in Albemarle Sound. The storm swell did not affect the sound which was like glass as the sun was coming up.

I caught the first keeper speckled seatrout. The fishing was not fast and furious. We ended up with two cocktail bluefish and four seatrout before we headed to the inlet.

When we got to the inlet there were a number of standing waves as the ocean and inlet waters fought each other. Our captain had talked about how dangerous it could be in his 23' boat if the tide and the swell got angry. We gave it a run and with only a couple of full pucker moments we got out to the relatively flat ocean. We were going to try for more ribbonfish. We were fishing strips of mullet with a weighted skirt with a wire leader. We would drop the bait to the bottom. We only had to give it a little movement before getting a heavy thump followed by a strong pull of the drag. Sue caught the first couple before Livie or I could get one landed. There must have been hundreds beneath us. When one would get off, just needed to drop the bait back and it could get bit or give it a a quick reel in of line to entice the next bite. often one or more would follow the caught fish to the boat. We still wanted to try for red drum and only fished about an hour or ninety minutes. Livie and I stopped with a dozen each and Sue caught the most with 16. We figured that 40 ribbonfish were well worth the risk from the inlet.

Though we tried for a while for drum using cut mullet, we had no luck.

The trip back into the inlet was really not as eventful. We kept eight of the ribbons along with the trout and bluefish.

The storm swell for the rest of Friday and Saturday brought in the higher waves in the surf and dirtied the inlet spots we intended to fish.

We fished the sound on Sat and caught a fair number of pinfish and silver perch but none of the new species of searobins that we were targeting. We ended up with a couple of lifers for the trip and caught a bunch of those ribbons! We had a great time and I can't wait to get back to Carolina!

We filletted a couple of the ribbonfish last night. The meat was a bit strange. It pulled apart into three to four strips of white meat. I did a light dredge with a cornstarch and flour mixture. We then fried the strips which curled while cooking. Turned out to be crispy like fish fries. The flavor was very much like crappie. Now I wish that we had kept more 😁.

 

[Terrierman]

You're my idol.  Well, you and Ham.  And Billethead.  Honestly the best fishermen I know.

What does one do with a ray if you get it in the pier net?

[Johnsfolly]

7 hours ago, Terrierman said:

What does one do with a ray if you get it in the pier net?

Get some photos, unhook it and then get it back in the water. This ray is a lot like the cownose in that it does not use it's tail barb as defensively like a sting ray. 

[Johnsfolly]

11 hours ago, Terrierman said:

You're my idol.  Well, you and Ham.  And Billethead.  Honestly the best fishermen I know.

What does one do with a ray if you get it in the pier net?

Rick I appreciate the kind words. I can't hold a candle to Ham or Marty or many others like yourself on this forum. 

[Quillback]

Never heard of a ribbonfish until now.  If I caught one, I'd look at it and say there's no way this would be good to eat.  But I'd be wrong.  

[Terrierman]

1 hour ago, Johnsfolly said:

Rick I appreciate the kind words. I can't hold a candle to Ham or Marty or many others like yourself on this forum. 

Wrong.  The photos have proven that many times over.

[BilletHead]

13 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

Rick I appreciate the kind words. I can't hold a candle to Ham or Marty or many others like yourself on this forum. 

Are you kidding me? Sure you can.