Newspapers / The Chowan Herald (Edenton, … / June 21, 2000, edition 1 / Page 9
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The use of natural baits results in better fishing experiences Two of the best anglers I know of are Ellis and Elsie Ireland from the small eastern North Carolina com munity of Royal. It seems like this husband and wife fishing team can catch fish when nobody else can. They should be good. They spend every available moment fishing the waters of the Pamlico and Neuse area and their freezer is usually is brimming with frozen fish fillets. Ellis is noted around the Aurora area as the local plumber who had replaced most of the pipes in Beau and the fish, obviously, loved them. It was a readily available, natural, cheap and effective bait. I know that you usually have to kill a fish in order to examine its stomach contents but this is an ef fective way to find out what the fish are naturally feeding on. If you’re really into catch and release fish ing, several manufacturers make small stomach pumps that enable an angler to extract the stomach contents of a fish without killing it. If you examine the stomach con iwi t v-'wuiiL_y at one time or an other. He’s re tired from that career now but has ad equate retire ment benefits from his first retirement from the U.S. — Navy.. Outdoors with Fred Bonner FRED BONNER terns oi a largemouth bass from our waters I’ll bet you money that you’ll find crawfish remains in the gut. These crus taceans are readilv avail After two retirements the Irelands can now spend even more time fishing the waters of eastern North Carolina. That familiar old white pick-up truck with the pipe racks on the camper shell will be seen With increasing frequency at the boat ramps. Like most fishermen Ellis Ireland has his professional secrets that he guards a lot better than our scien tist at Los Alamos. On the other hand it’s no secret that one reason that the Irelands do so well at their • angl ing is that they use natural baits whenever possible. Included in the back of his fish ing truck is a small dip net that’s for catching fresh grass shrimp when ever they can find them. It’s really not hard. Grass shrimp inhabit most any waterway along the coast and are abundant wherever you find lots of submerged aquatic vegeta tion. Take a small, fine mesh dip net and scoop up some widgeon grass, Eurasian water milfoil, hydrilla, or elodea and the chances are that you’ll find dozens of these small grass shrimp dancing about in the midst of the grass. They’re-super abundant along the shallows and constitute one of the very basic for age items in the food chain. There aren’t many fish out there that don’t like to feed on grass shrimp. The only trouble with these tiny shrimp is that, due to their tiny size, they’re the devil to put on a hook. No matter how hard you try to impale the shrimp on the hook, it seems like you end up killing them. Even tiny hooks are large enough to kill the grass shrimp. The solu tion to this is to place several grass shrimp at the time on a hook and don’t worry about the fact that they’re dead. It’s possible with a very light line and a tiny hook that you can keep the shrimp alive but it’s just not worth the trouble. The nsn love em even u tney are cteaa on the hook. Not all the natural shrimp baits are tiny though. Speckled trout fishermen along the coastal sounds and rivers are learning what the Gulf Coast an ' ■ glers have known for years. That is that live shr impof the larger variet ies are deadly baits for specks. Fished under a floating cork rig or on a fish finder rig, the speckled trout can’t resist a live brown or white shrimp. Some coastal bait shops such as Capt. Joe Shute’s tackle store on the Atlantic Beach causeway sell live shrimp to an glers. They’re expensive though. Savvy speckled trout fishermen can use a cast net and catch their own shrimp for bait. Another bait for coastal fish that you seldom see being utilized are the clams and mussels you find in the bottom or attached to various marsh grasses or rocks. Along the Paml ico and Albemarle sounds the Carolina clams are so abundant that surveys have re corded as many as a thousand to the square meter of bottom. With their being this abundant it’s no wonder that they’re a favorite forage for bottom feeding fish (and waterfowl such as canvasback ducks). Several years ago I watched two youngsters, who were not very ex periencedatfishing,as they brought in puppy drum after puppy drum. The kids were standing in knee deep water along one of our estuar ies and casting bottom rigs baited with whole Carolina clam meats. The kids didn’t have money for ex pensive shrimp or bloodworm baits so they simply felt clams in the bot tom with their feet, scooped up some, broke them open by smash ing them together in their hands, then used the meat as a natural bait. The adductor muscle was strong - enough to hold the bait on the hook able in most waters and are deadly bait for many predatory fish. It’s simple to construct a crawfish trap and they can be caught in most any roadside ditch. Crawfish are espe cially effective baits for bass on the beds. King mackerel fisherman have known for years that the best bait for fishing the tournaments is a live menhaden. Most' competition an glers will not even go out the inlet unless they have live bait in their live wells. Even if you don’t kill a fish to examine the stomach contents a freshly captured fish will often re gurgitate (throw-up) whatever it’s been feeding on when it’s brought Expecting More Third In A Series JUST A FEW OF THE REASONS WHY YOU CAN EXPECT MORE FROM US. From the moment of pregnancy right through delivery, there’s a whole team of physicians anti health professionals to count on at Albemarle Hospital. Maybe that’s why we deliver more Albemarle babies than any other hospital serving northeastern North Carolina. And it's nice to know your hospital’s comprehensive care extends beyond deliveries. There are state-of-the-art programs in cardiology, surgery, neurology, gastroenterology, pulmonology, ortho pedics and other medical specialties. Each is backed by the most advanced diagnostic services available - anywhere! Expect even more? Call us at (252) 331-4455. Arrange a tour or let us respond to your questions. We'd like yqu to see what’s available and why we saV Albemarle Hospital is .. more / than you expect! A Albemarle iHospital . more than you expect! Elizabeth City, North Carolina (252) 335-0531 24-Hour Emergency Medicine Allergy & Asthma Care Ambulatory Surgery Anesthesiology Arthritis Care Cardiology Cardiopulmonary Rehab Centers Chronic Respiratory Distress Care Community Education & Outreach Computerized Axial Tomographs CT Scan Imaging Emergency Helipad Family Medicine Gastroenterology General Surgery Geriatric Medicine Gynecologic Surgery Internal Medicine Laproscopic Surgery Magnetic Resonance Imaging Mammography Medical Oncology Nephrology Neurology Nuclear Medicine Obstetrics/Gynecology Ophthalmology Oral Surgery Orthopaedic Surgery Otolaryngology Pathology Pediatrics Physical Rehabilitation Psychiatry Pulmonology Radiation Oncology Same-Day Surgery Sleep Disorders Sports Medicine Stress Testing Thoracic Surgery Urology Vascular Surgery Women’s Health Services into the boat. Look at whatever it is and try to “match the hatch” (as mountain trout fishermen say). If you can’t find natural baits that match whatever it is that the fish are feeding on, try and use an artifi cial lure that looks’like and is the approximate size of, the forage of the day. Redfish (puppy drum, young red drum) feeding in the shallows along our coastalriversandsoundsare great ■ ' — crab eaters. At this time of the year the preferred food is soft crabs. Small bluecrabs in their hardsheilsare also a favorite food. Cut pieces of peeler crab (a blue crab just before it sheds its old hard shell for a larger, soft shell) is a deadly bait1 and stays on your hook much better than soft crab (I prefer to keep the soft crabs for personal consumption). Surf anglers have known for years that some of the best fishing Marshall S. Redding, M.D., FACS Is Pleased to Announce His Continued Practice Under the Name Redding Eye Center, PLLC The Redding Eye Center uses the latest state-of-the art equipment and techniques available to diagnose and treat eye problems, including: ~ Laser Surgery ~ ~ Cataracts ~ ~ Glaucoma Disorders ~ ~ Diabetic Eye Disorders ~ - Retinal Vitreal Eye Disorders ~ While it is helpful, previous patients do not need their medical records in order to be seen. Redding Eye Center, PLLC 109 Jordon Plaza Elizabeth City, NC 27909 (252) 338-3909 in the surf is to be found in the shal low “wash” where the waves break and mole crabs (sand fleas) live by the millions. A small wire mesh scoop can take enough bait to last all day. Inciden tally these are crustaceans just like blue crabs and shed their hard shells each time they grow out of their old, hard, shells. The soft version of the sand flea is one of the premier baits you can get. Commercially bought fish bait is becoming hard to find these days due to restrictions on bait dealers along the Florida coast. When you can find the bait in a store it’s often very expensive. If you look around in the area where you’re fishing you can often find a natural bait that’s readily available and free for the taking. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to find good fish bait. Evans Funeral Home has always been a leader in the industry. Our caring, professional staff is what sets us apart from all the rest. With unsurpassable quality and personalized service area families know that they can count on us. “I believe that funeral preplanning is the most caring and. loving act me can do for surviving family members. I consider it an honor to have assisted so many families in the Edenton area and look forward to helping many more families in the future." -Jimmy Sawyer Extended Services Counselor Evai lEMMLiiiiqin i»n file 'tits 516 Virginia Road • Edenton, North Carolina 27932 (252) 482-7474 <f> 2000 STEI
The Chowan Herald (Edenton, N.C.)
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June 21, 2000, edition 1
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