[piano intro] (man) Did you see that, Bryan?

He ate it there-- I coulda did 'em!

I was lookin' at my bait-- he was takin' drag.

I told you one would follow it to the boat.

I can't believe he ate it underneath that trolling motor.

That was pretty funny-- scared me as bad as it did you.

Gave me a jump.

(Bryan) That's a classic rock bite.

(man) In top water, it happens like that.

(Bryan) Follow it to the boat in the last second-- (man) When he grabbed it, he didn't have but the tail.

He's pulling drag, isn't he?

Yeah--well, he hadn't... [light instrumental music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - [Male Announcer] The "Carolina Outdoor Journal" is brought to you by: - [Female Announcer] "Wildlife in North Carolina Magazine."

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Hello, welcome to the "Carolina Outdoor Journal."

Today's program's gonna take us to a tributary off the Albemarle Sound.

We're gonna be fishing for early spring stripers.

That's right, great early spring trip for striped bass.

Some of the fish will actually be making the spring run later this season up the Roanoke River, which as everybody knows now, the Roanoke River over the last five or six years has become one of the best striper rivers on the whole East Coast of this country.

And these are fish that are prespawn-- just getting ready-- starting to feed up a lot.

The water temperature's still kinda cool.

It's mid-March-- we had an overcast day, which made it a little cooler, but we heard the fish were biting, and we got in the boats and went and caught some fish.

(John) What about that bait we used?

(Joe) Using baits that replicate the baitfish-- the shad and herring that are around that time of year, and the fish were on.

And you're fishing up close to shore in some structures.

Gotta be careful.

You'll lose some baits occasionally, but carry extra lures.

We'll talk about that in "Gear Time," but had a lot of fun.

Donna's with us today in the kitchen.

She's got a recipe for game bird.

(Joe) That's right, on skewers-- it's a different recipe.

And if ya like game birds-- whether a quail, doves, uh, chuckers, pheasants-- pay attention.

We got a lot-- let's get started on the "Carolina Outdoor Journal."

(Bryan) I tell ya what, Kurt-- overcast--sun pokes through every now and then.

Pretty March morning, isn't it?

It sure is.

I like a bit more sun-- gives more flash to these baits when lights are shinin'.

But this time of year, this is the first nice fish you can catch, in my opinion.

It's good for shad-- fun to catch, but you talkin' bout somethin' puttin' in a...pot.

We started off-- I like the way we started, and we kinda did it both thinkin' on the same lines of you throw one bait and I'll throw another, and just see what the activity level of the fish is, see what they're gonna bite, 'cause both of us can switch real quick.

That's right.

I'm not too proud to let you catch the first one.

Well, it's a pretty day-- no wind.

They're callin' for rain this afternoon, but I think we're in good shape now.

It was about 40° last night at home, and uh, sometimes in cool nights and this full moon we got-- (Kurt) It's been a cold spring.

It really has.

I think we're a couple weeks behind with just about everything.

At least a couple weeks.

Bradford pears are just startin' to...bloom.

(Bryan) That's a good way to tell-- pear trees and the dogwoods can pretty much count, and you can set your watch by what the fishin' world's gonna be doin'.

And the pear trees are about two weeks before the dogwoods.

Maybe as much as a month this year.

That's neat.

Well, they keep snatchin' on this old jerkbait... see what happens.

Oh!

It jerked on that bait many times this mornin', Kurt, before, uh-- I finally got a bite.

(Kurt) A decent fish?

(Bryan) He's pretty good... as slow as he's goin'.

He's a big-- Yeah, let's break off that bait.

splsh, splsh...splsh He's gonna be right there at it maybe.

Old...rogue.

Yeah.

Watch your fingers there.

Yeah, plenty of troubles in there, isn't it?

Plenty of trouble hooks in there.

About 18 inch-- not what we're lookin' to keep, but-- No, like 'em over, you know, 20, 21 inches is a good, little eatin' size.

(both) Pretty fish.

For the mornin', I'll take 'em.

There's one for the Rattlin' Rogue.

That's right.

He's healthy.

If I catch more, you'll be ready to switch.

That's right, that's why we're fishin' two different baits.

That's right.

See, but he's chunky-- he's healthy-looking.

See ya, buddy.

Perfect lines in 'em, isn't it?

Yeah, man.

All of 'em-- no broken lines.

Right, yeah, these are healthy fish up here.

They're eatin' good up in these river systems like this.

(Bryan) Good gosh!

That trout pole's gotta bend in it, don't it?

Um-hmm.

He stuck that... rattle trap.

He stuck that thing.

That felt good.

Look like a bite-- I'm gonna come-- Actually, it was a long cast.

I was way out there... when I hooked up.

Gotcha.

Gotcha-- well, that's good.

See uh, 'cause I was just thinkin' about it, the fact that I might not be fishin' as deep as you.

And if the fish-activity level-- I feel like the fish are probably gonna be... a little deeper than what I'm fishin'.

I started flutterin' this bait instead of this-- Yo-yoing-- wind and let it fall.

Oh, that's a better fish there too.

That's a pretty good one.

Let's see if I can help you out a little bit.

I think, you know-- about ten foot of water now.

We've been fishin' in 6, 7, 8 feet the whole time.

Ease it out with the wind.

That's a good fish!

Yeah, we'll take him, won't we?

(Bryan) Yeah, I got a good idea that... you got plans for him down the road.

Yeah, I like it when they-- He ate it deep, so be careful.

Look how dark he is.

tnk, tnk...tnk Yeah, man, it'll work.

Nice fish--yeah.

He sucked that thing in, didn't he?

Like one of them herrings he's been eatin' up here.

That's a pretty fish.

You couldn't of done that any better.

He's not as fat as that one you caught, is he?

Uh-uh, sure isn't.

He's longer-- a longer fish.

Say 22 inches?

Um-hmm.

We might do better than that-- day's still early.

It's up to you.

Totally up to you.

[Brian laughing] It won't let go of you!

(Kurt) I oughta be fishin' with thumbs!

Ohhh!

I was tryin' to give 'em a good shot in there.

Pretty work-- pretty work!

I think we might have been missin' a towel.

You might have to use your pant's leg.

I've done that.

I have too.

You can get us spun back around here on that spot.

That was the first or second bait when I changed callots.

First or second cast.

Second cast, I think.

It was a real long cast.

I casted that other one for a mile... way down that bank.

Way down the bank-- ya never had a bite.

Two casts on that one.

One reason I feel these fish are here, and they probably rock here year 'round, but at this time at the base at the Roanoke River, these fish are staging in preparation to go upriver and spawn.

I think a lot will come up in these-- there's river systems on the north and south of the Albemarle Sound, and fish will come here following the herring and stuff in these rivers and feed up good and I think-- not all of them are gonna spawn.

I think that's scientifically proven the whole population of rock fish can't go up that river at one time.

But uh, they come in here and stage, uh-- that Albemarle just holds so many striped bass, it's not even funny.

This is a fun way to catch 'em this time of year.

When a rock fish hits a bait... yeah, he's not foolin' around.

This is just such a pretty setting with all the cypress and the black water.

You'd almost think we'd be bass fishin'.

We're catchin' ol' rock fish.

There he is!

(Bryan) What are you doin' now, man?

I believe he's gonna try to get in the boat-- in the stern back there, ain't he?

I believe you got control of 'em.

Oh, yeah!

Oh, yeah!

Hold on just a second.

Not quite as big as that last one you caught.

(Kurt) He's not supposed to be, is he?

It's funny-- you come outta fishin' in the ocean all winter, and you come here.

Yeah, but it's all relative, I mean, it's all down to tackle and everything.

(Bryan) What do ya think, Kurt?

(Kurt) I tell ya what-- he's not the class fish we want.

(Kurt) It drew blood on 'em-- he's liable to not survive.

We ought to keep that fish.

(Bryan) He's about 20 inches-- He's a keeper, but we were lookin' for something bigger-- Well, I'd rather know that he was gonna serve a purpose than throw him back and wonder about 'em down the road.

He's a nice fish... good fight.

Good enough, good enough.

♪ ♪ Bryan, it's still a little cool this mornin'.

Yeah, I think it was probably about 40° when I left the house, so it can't be over 50° now, if it is over-- I mean, it's still cool.

Supposed to get up to 70°, and it's been overcast today.

I don't see 70° without that sunshine.

I don't either.

With dark water like this-- it's been a late spring, but I'd like that sun to be out-- warm up that water more.

I think our activity would pick up pretty quick.

It's funny-- in the fall, I like it.

I don't know, you tell me if you do.

In fall I like falling water temperature, and in the spring, a warming water temperature.

I'd go along with that.

And a cold front in the spring will kill everything.

In the summer and in the fall, I like a cloudy day.

But today, I'd rather have that sun out.

I think it would make a big difference if it warmed up.

If it's, like you said, overcast or somethin', and you're throwing Topwater baits and the water's hot, overcast makes a difference.

That's right.

It'll make it happen longer.

You take a mornin' like this, I think it-- activity level picks up when that water warms up.

'Cause it's been a late spring and a cool, late winter.

It was really cold this year.

(Kurt) Did you see that, Bryan?

He ate it there-- I coulda did 'em!

I was lookin' at my bait-- he was takin' drag.

(Bryan) I told you one would follow it to the boat.

I can't believe he ate it right underneath that trolling motor.

That was pretty funny.

Scared me as bad as it did you.

Gave me a jump.

That's a classic rock bite.

In top water, it happens like that.

Follow it to the boat in the last second-- When he grabbed it, he didn't have but the tail.

He's pulling drag.

Yeah-- well, he hadn't... (Bryan) When you catch 'em that close sometimes, you gotta let 'em play out a little bit.

Hold that net, and I'll lift 'em outta there.

All right.

I think it's gonna be easier to get him off, and we'll worry about the bait in a minute.

Need some pliers?

You couldn't have hooked him any better.

You got 'em handy?

Pretty fish.

Right in the corner.

One thing I noticed-- see how perfect his lines are?

The fish we're catchin' at home have broken lines particularly on that lower white side-- there'll be a couple of joints down and out.

A lot of that stuff on that side of the sound down there is some hatchery fish, where they stock 'em every three years or whatever.

And uh, these are pure-strained fish.

Wild fish never-- I've heard that.

He's a pretty little fish.

Got a leech in 'em.

Sea lice, yeah-- sure does.

Pretty work-- pretty work.

Ate it right at the boat; that was a nice surprise.

You hooked up?

He ate it on the pause again!

Fishin' a little slower?

Yeah, just bumpin' it; lettin' it get down, and bumpin' it back to me... and he ate it-- he wants to go underneath the boat.

Ain't even gonna need a net.

Let me see what we got.

Got some pressure on 'em.

Gotta be a little better fish.

I think it's the same one-- he just followed the boat.

He looks bigger to me... you want me to net 'em?

Nah, I believe we can get him here.

He's doin' the death roll.

As long as he don't death roll right into my finger.

crrck, crrck...crrck (Bryan) There we go-- now we're making progress.

That might be the best one I've hooked in about two years.

He's got some broken lines on him.

Sure does.

We had talked about that earlier.

Look at that right there.

I don't know if that-- Hey, it probably don't mean nothin'.

That's not broken--sometimes they say stress does it, and, you know, some different genetic stuff-- I can't keep up with the biology, but he's got 'em on both sides.

I love that purple color in 'em--you see it?

It does prove that it's not the same one.

(Kurt) Ohhh, yeah!

(Bryan) You see that bite right there?

I was talkin' to you and paused it one time.

He's not a big fish, but-- It's a 20-inch fish.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

We do this like the professional bass fishermen do.

[grunting] Uhn!

(Bryan) I had one, Kurt, on a rattle trap.

I got about right here.

That fish shook her head out at Mann's Harbor one day, and the hook went in my thumb right there and cut--ahhh!

It was not very pleasant, but-- I've been pinned to a fish before.

Uhn, uh-uh.

Healthy little fish, man.

That's what-- 2 pound, 2 and 1/2-- we were talkin' about the average 2 to 5 pounds.

You know, that's a 2-pound fish.

We've caught two or three about that size, but the rest of 'em been a little bigger.

I've caught two or three this size, and the rest-- the ones you've caught have been bigger.

I'll give ya that-- today anyway.

We had a good day of fishing.

Early spring stripers are always fun.

Always fun, and again, you're kinda getting the jump on the guys and gals that are fishing-- waiting for the fish to come up the river.

Not all of these fish would've gone up the river to spawn, but some-- a good percentage of them do.

March, when we're still cool, fish a little slower, uh, we're fishin' up close to the bank, and these fish are in there feeding on-- feeding up prior to the spawning run, and we had fun.

Let's talk about what we used to catch 'em.

Let's join our anglers for "Gear time."

♪ ♪ Bryan, that's a pretty good day of fishin'.

It was fun-- we had to work for 'em, but it was good fishin'.

When we started out, we knew that might be the case.

I started out throwin' a rattle trap.

And you actually started with this Smithwick Rattlin' Rogue.

Rattlin' Rogue-- that's been a great bait for-- since they came out, people been striper fishin' with 'em up here for years.

It's a suspendin' bait that stays mid-depth in the water.

You can jerk it, and it'd stay there.

It'll pause, and that's nice.

Even at the end when I changed baits, I was able to jerk it down and pause it, and the bites were comin' on the pause.

When I started, this rattle trap was a consistent retrieve, and it's a little faster bait.

Once you caught a fish or two, I started takin' this bait and makin' it flutter.

Like a yo-yo.

"Yo-yoing" is the term they use--that's right.

Caught a few fish doin' that with it, but eventually I switched to somethin' similar.

It was actually a Lucky Craft Pointer.

I've lost it now, but one reason it was good-- this bait has a lot finer rattle.

Real fine, real light rattle.

We talked about that other Lucky Craft bait-- bigger balls in it.

It kinda knocked and had a louder noise.

Both those were probably the primary baits during the day.

They were great baits.

Um, you know, I switched colors and went from the chrome and blue, which is a all-time favorite for just about anybody striper fishin', and went to somethin' with some chartreuse in it and somethin' that's also a suspending-type bait.

And this one actually dives a little deeper than the rogue does, and uh, it worked great-- caught a few fish at the end on that bait.

Of course, the difference in the way we were fishin' today is I was fishin' with a spinning rod with-- was actually fishin' 10-pound test-- but it's a stout, you know, real abrasion-resistant, uh, monofilament.

I think it made a difference.

You can see the shoreline-- we knew we were fishin' around some stumps today.

That little bait caster had good action.

You were able to throw that rattle trap, and that worked out real good.

One good thing was the spinning rod.

When ya have a breeze around, you're better off throwin' it into the wind in a windy day.

You won't have much trouble with backlashes.

However, the bait caster is a lot easier on ya.

The way the weights distribute on top, jiggin' with ya left hand-- that'll kinda wear you out.

I heard you mention a time or two the bait caster-- My hand--when you're jerkbait fishin', you're doin' a lot of snatching and pausing, it will fatigue your hand.

You can switch up--I switched to my bait caster for a while.

It's been overcast all day--didn't know if the fish were on, but it was cool last night and a full moon.

The fish never really turned on that good, but we fished hard, and we caught some fish.

We were hoping it would be 70° and the sun shinin', (both) It didn't happen.

But we got dinner on the table-- had a good time.

A rock, fishin' with 10-pound tasters, spinning rods, it was a good fight-- it was fun.

It was a great mornin'-- I had a good time.

We'll have to do it again soon.

Enjoyed it.

Yeah man, me too.

Thanks for that valuable information.

We hope it'll help if you plan going out for early spring stripers.

Donna's in the kitchen.

She's got a recipe using game birds as we continue on with the "Carolina Outdoor Journal."

♪ ♪ ♪ Hi, today we're making game bird skewers in the kitchen.

This is a great recipe, and it has an Asian flare, so that's a bit different than what we're used to making.

We're gonna start with a marinade, and we're going to make that in the blender.

You're gonna put all your ingredients-- you're gonna put your orange juice, your coconut-- We're gonna put some cumin in here and blend that all together.

And then we're going to take our duck breast that we have, um, filleted out.

We're going to cut those into strips.

You want them to be fairly thin-- about as thick around as your fingers.

And then we're gonna place those in our bag, and I like the disposable bags because it's easy cleanup.

So we're just gonna place those in here.

I wanted to show you that's what it looks like.

And then you just-- we just took off the back-- this peels right off, and then we cut it into strips.

We're going to let this soak overnight, or marinate overnight, or two to three hours.

The longer you let it marinate, the more flavor will absorbed into your duck breast strips.

So you can use this recipe for-- you can grill it, or you can use a broiler, depending on what you have.

I use my broiler at home, but if you are out, and you want to use a campfire, or you want to use your grill, That would add a lot of flavor to it.

We're gonna take our skewers, and we're gonna soak those-- if you're using the wood bamboo skewers, you wanna let those soak for 30 minutes.

That way, when you put them over the coals or underneath your broiler, they won't begin to burn, um, while they're cooking.

Or you can use--I know that we have some thinner metal ones that we use at our house.

Once our strips have marinated, we're just gonna pull those out, and we're going to skewer these kind of accordion-style.

So you're just gonna kinda move them back and forth onto your skewers.

And I put two or three strips on my skewers.

And what I did when I was broiling mine is I went ahead and fixed my broiling pan, and then I used a cookie sheet or rack, and I lined it with foil, then I put my cookie rack on top.

I put mine into the oven, so it would get nice and hot, so I'd get a little bit of some seared marks when I put my skewers on there.

And then it only takes about 3 to 5 minutes to cook these.

So once you have them skewered, I just laid mine across my cookie rack.

And then I put these in the oven for about 3 to 5 minutes until they're golden brown.

And if you're grilling about the same temperature-- you'll have some nice grill marks on yours.

Then we serve it with a sauce, and it's a peanut cashew sauce.

And you're gonna use, um, cashews and applesauce, peanut butter and some soy sauce.

You're gonna blend that in your blender as well.

It's a thick sauce, so if you want it thinner, I would use less peanut butter or add a more liquid to make it thinner.

And then, I'm just serving mine, as you can see, it's-- they're nice and secured on there.

I put peppers on there to add color.

You can put red bell peppers on these, too, if ya want-- they would cook about the same timeframe.

And here's your dipping sauce and some sunflower cornbread is always a good accompanying dish.

So I hope you enjoy the game bird skewers, and I look forward to seeing you next time on "Simple Cooking."

Thanks, Donna, for that recipe.

Joe, I wanna talk about the weather conditions.

Yeah, the uh-- March is known as a transitional month, where you have a lot of wind and cold fronts coming through, so you may have cold temperatures in the morning-- it warms up.

We had overcast, which I think helped us 'cause the fish were in fairly shallow water.

So you're gonna have to pick your days to go, um, and where we were, it's pretty open, so you need a decent boat.

But the fish are there; they're feeding up heavy for the spawning season coming up, and uh, lots of bait, and just use the right tackle-- the lures we showed you, and you'll catch fish.

Another good day of fishing in North Carolina.

For Joe Albea, I'm John Moore.

Thanks for joining us today on the "Carolina Outdoor Journal."

- [Male Announcer]: Make sure to visit our website for more information.

The Carolina Outdoor Journal is brought to you by: - [Female Announcer]: "Wildlife in North Carolina" magazine.

- [Male Announcer]: And by EZ Bait & Tackle.

Family owned and operated.

We fish from fresh to saltwater.

We provide fishing supplies and advice to every type of angler.

For all your fishing needs, EZ Bait & Tackle.

And by contributions from PBS North Carolina viewers like you.

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