[piano intro] - Took us a little while to get a bite here, everybody was hookin' up, finally we got a bite here.

Sometimes, you just gotta wait 'em out.

He really doesn't know he's hooked much yet.

- Alright, that's what we're after there Tore.

Now for a minimal fee, I'll show you how I did that.

- Will ya?

- Yeah - I think it's beginner's luck, that's what I'd say.

(laughing) - [male announcer]: The Carolina Outdoor Journal is brought to you by: - [female announcer]: "Wildlife in North Carolina" magazine has been delivering stunning photography and informative articles for more than 80 years.

- [male announcer]: And by EZ Bait & Tackle.

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We fish from fresh to saltwater.

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

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- And by contributions from PBS North Carolina viewers like you.

[light instrumental music] ♪ ♪ ♪ - Hello, and welcome to the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

Well, today's program is about those days you go fishing and you don't catch exactly what you went fishing for, but you do catch fish, and Joe, that's pretty much it in a nutshell.

- Well, that's exactly what we're going to show you today, and I get asked quite often, "do we always get what we come after?"

whether it's fishing on the coast, mid-state, or in the mountains.

And the answer is "most of the time we do, but not all the time."

And so today we're gonna show you two examples of not quite getting enough fish for the show, but good footage none-the-less.

The first one's off the beach for king mackerel.

The second show segment is fishing trout on the Nantahala River up in the mountains.

Two good segments, but not quite enough for a show.

- Now speaking of good segments, Donna has got a great recipe today with some pasta.

- She does.

She's teaming up pasta salad with tile fish, that's a fish that's caught off our coast, real tasty fish, and real good from her today.

- Alright, let's see what we're gonna go catching today on the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

- Warren here, we are going out of the Morehead City turning basin, getting ready to go out Beaufort Inlet.

You couldn't ask for a better day, it's beautiful, no wind, very comfortable for mid-November.

Y'know Captain Warren Marshall comes down and fishes with us for the fall's albacore every year.

He's from Massachusetts, but we're gonna take him out and do something different today.

We're gonna try and catch you a king mackerel on the fly rod, how 'bout that?

- That sounds good, Joe, I've never caught one on the fly.

I've caught 'em down on the Keys before, but I'm ready to do it.

- Well, good, we've got a beautiful day.

The fish have been bitin' pretty good.

We caught 'em real good the other day on fly.

It's an excellent fish to catch on fly.

They're real aggressive, take a lot of line.

We're gonna see if we can't catch you one today.

- Very good, very good.

I'm ready to do it, I just need a few instructions on how to strip the fly and it's a little bit different for me, but I'm sure we'll find 'em.

- No problem.

We're gonna go out here and see if we can't catch a few.

- Beautiful, that's great.

- Okay, Warren, we're out here on the grounds, it's a beautiful day.

People all around us are hooked up.

We're gonna see if we can get lucky and catch one, but we've got a little disadvantage.

We're fly fishin' instead of live bait fishin' but these are the flies that I tie that work real well for the king mackerel it's chartreuse and pink, they've got a lot of flash on 'em.

Got a little shot of wire leader on here to keep them from bitin' off, and what we're gonna do, we're gonna cast 'em out with these full sinkin' lines, they're gonna get down to about 30 or 40 feet, and then we're gonna strip 'em back just as fast as we can, in a fast, erratic motion, and see if we can't get a mackerel to eat one.

- Okay, you're talking like a double handed strip, Joe?

- You can do a double handed strip, I still do a single handed strip, but I strip it about three feet at a time and grab at the front guide and strip it all the way back.

You want to hang on to your fly line good, because when they grab ahold of it, sometimes they go pretty good, and just make sure you're not standing on your line.

- Okey doke.

I think we can handle that.

We'll get 'em in the water and see what happens.

- Let's see if we can put one on the hook.

- Okay, very good.

How deep is the bottom and where is the location of the bait?

- We're in 70 feet of water, Warren.

The bait's down on the bottom, all the way up to 60 feet and I'm marking some scattered marks up top around 20 to 30, so we're right over 'em right now, so let's see if we can't get a bite.

- Okay, let it get down there.

- There he is!

There he is, c'mon!

C'mon now, he doesn't know he's hooked yet.

He hasn't exactly run anywhere.

He'll figure it out here in a minute.

Huh?

- Good goin' - Well, it's about time.

He'll figure out he's hung here directly, he's just kinda.

- Certainly work hard enough for it.

- Hanging there, he left quick enough and then he stopped.

It took us a little while to get a bite here.

Everybody was hookin' up.

Finally, we got a bite here.

Sometimes you just gotta wait 'em out.

He really doesn't know he's hooked much yet.

He hadn't made that blisterin' run they normally do.

But that's alright.

Sometimes they will.

Oh, there he goes.

There he goes (laughs) He knows he's hooked now.

- You finally got us some fish, Joe - Finally got a little, oh!

There he goes.

He figured it out.

He figured it out.

What I did a little while ago, I had a full sinkin' line on one rod and reel, or one reel that wasn't quite gettin' down deep as I thought it should.

Now whether it made any difference or not, I don't know.

But I switched to a old full sinkin' striper line I had that I know was a full sinkin' line and it gets down a lot deeper.

Now whether that made any difference or not, I don't have a clue, but we got a bite.

That's all I can say.

- Which fly did you have on, Joe?

- I went back to the original chartreuse and pink, the one I say I always catch 'em on.

- Okay.

- That's what we went back to, so I got plenty of 'em in here, if you wanna switch back.

Boy, I'll tell ya, when he hit it, he caught me off guard.

I was stripped up about halfway.

- There he goes.

- I was stripped up about halfway on my strip, and he definitely took off.

- Good.

Now how many strips did you?

- I been doin' 30 long strips that'll get me off to the top and I was at about 14 or 15 when he hit it, so I was probably about 20 feet under the surface when he hit it.

- Okay, that's good.

- I'm a dollar ahead of you right now, Warren.

I've got the first, I don't know if it's gonna be the biggest, but I haven't gotten him in the boat yet.

We're back on the fly line anyway.

So he's only 100 feet out there.

I don't like to talk about him too much, y'know what I mean?

- Yeah, I know.

I know what happens then.

- Yeah.

We're bein' real careful with him 'cause the hook slipped out of his mouth and got him in the side.

King mackerel have real soft skin, and they pull out real easily, so we're taking our time with this one.

He's not a great big fish, he's in the mid teens somewhere.

But I can see that fly on his side, so I'm bein' very careful with him.

Gonna wear him out so Warren can tail him here.

- Well, uh-oh.

Uh-oh.

I don't wanna.

- I'm just takin' my time so he'll be worn, if he gets off, if he gets off.

We got him here, we're takin' our time with him.

I don't have much drag on him.

- Okay.

- I'm tryin', wanna get him back so we, we're not gonna keep him, we're gonna let him go.

- Yep.

He's not a bad fish, Joe.

- No he's a nice fish.

And he can swing back.

I'm gonna back up Warren, and see if you can just tail, I'll kinda drag him.

- Okay There ya go, there ya go.

- Alright, gotcha.

Gonna take that out.

Alright, Warren, we got our first one on the boat.

We got the stink outta the boat.

Not a big one, about 10, 12 pounds.

We're gonna throw him back and see if we can't catch a big one, how 'bout that?

- Sounds good to me.

Sounds good to me.

The only thing wrong with it is that you got him and I didn't.

- Ah, well, hey, you owe me a dollar, okay?

Throw him down head first like an albacore.

- Okey dokey, you're all set?

- Yep.

- Here we go.

- Alright.

- Good job, Joe.

Congratulations.

- Congratulations, sir.

We got the first one.

We're gonna go get us another one.

- Yes, sir.

(guitar strumming) - Well, Tore, here it is the first of November.

We're out here in beautiful western North Carolina.

The colors are changing finally, and we're gonna do a little trap fishing today.

- It looks like a beautiful day, and thank goodness we have somebody along to help us.

- Yep.

Roger, we really appreciate you havin' us out today, and we're looking forward to fishing on the river here, and hope we're gonna catch some good rainbows, maybe a brown or two, maybe even a brook trout from what I understand.

(water rushing) - This is one nice spot here for dry fly fishing.

Beautiful.

I don't think the water could be any better as far as the color goes.

What about the temperature, kinda for this time of year is especially warm I think.

But I hope it's gonna bring some fish up anyway today.

Tore, how you doin' down there?

- Well, I just had one come up and somehow missed my fly.

- Man, I tell ya, I can't believe it.

Might be just a tad early.

Hey!

Hey Tore, looky here!

First fish of the day, not a whopper, but he's a pretty good fish.

- One squirrel finds a nut every once in awhile.

- There we go, alright.

There we go, there we go.

Broke the ice.

There we go, Tore.

Hey, Tore, did you see that?

- Normally when they start hittin'.

- Did you see how I did that?

- That's a nice color on him.

- Boy, I'll say.

Looky there.

- Not a big fish, but boy, won't you look at how pretty he is.

- That must be the dumbest fish in the river.

- That's what they look like, Tore.

- That might be the dumbest fish in the river.

- That's what we're lookin' for right there, except maybe a little bit bigger.

- Got some right here.

- I believe I can get it out.

Yeah, there we go.

Oh!

He wanted to get back in in a hurry, didn't he?

- Atta boy!

- Ah, good deal.

Thank you, Roger.

Let's see if we can't do that again.

- There's more.

- Tell you what, Tore, this is a great time to be on the river out trout fishin'.

Clouds are gone, don't have to worry about runnin' into other fisherman.

- We have the whole river to ourself.

Also, today with no wind makes it much easier to control where you want your fly to go.

Normally, that works in to catchin' some fish.

- No question about it, we got ideal conditions for fly fishin' today.

Let's just hope the fish cooperate.

Tore, this looks like an ideal brown trout stretch here.

- I agree with ya.

It looks mighty good.

- Well, how 'bout catchin' one?

- I'm tryin' to entice one off that bank to come out and hit it.

- It's about time you pulled your weight.

Get that brown trout.

- It's a long worm that has no turn.

(laughs) - Uh-oh, I'm out.

I'm out.

That's gotta be a fish right over there against that bank.

Yeah, here we go.

- Atta boy!

- Ain't no while hang him, he's fish.

- Gotta start with somethin'.

- Okay, here we go.

He ain't exactly a wild lion, but a pretty fish, a pretty little old fish.

Looks like they bred good in this stream this year.

Oops!

There's my main man, Tore.

Always gotta get into the show, don't ya bud?

- Had to get in there somewhere.

- One way or the other.

- One way or the other.

- Let's let him go.

Go back and grow about 20 inches.

Ah, Tore, get your mess off of there.

There goes another caddis right there on the water.

Yeah, look at this, Tore, this is the kinda fish we've been lookin' for today.

- That's a nice fish, it really is.

- Yeah, he's a pretty good fish.

Well, they got some pretty color on them, too.

Nice fish.

Good gracious, what a red strip on that thing.

What a red stripe, whew!

There we go, oh man!

- Wanna get him up here and take him off?

- Yeah, boy I'll tell ya, won't you look what a pretty fish.

Good gracious.

It almost looks like a golden trout, doesn't it, with all the gold on him?

- That's a pretty color.

- Let's see if I can get him up here without hurting him too bad, boy I just barely got him.

- Barely got him.

There we go, man, he's.

There ya go.

See what you can do with him.

- I don't think it'll take long to catch one a little bit bigger than that, thought.

- You reckon not?

- I don't think it'll take that long.

- Look at that, Tore.

- Pretty fish.

- That's what we're after.

Boy isn't that a pretty fish?

- Nice fish.

- Lovely, lovely.

There ya go.

Let him go.

Let him grow about another 15 inches.

We'll come back and get him next year.

Alright, that's what we're after there, Tore.

(laughs) Now for a minimal fee, I'll show you how I did that.

- Will ya?

- Yeah.

- I think it's beginner's luck, that's what I'd say.

I have a hard time lookin' at the colors.

Look at that big fish tryin' to hit my fly!

Jeez!

- We're both gonna have to pay a little bit more attention, I think, of what's goin' on.

Oh, man, it is a pretty run right there, oh!

Oh!

Here we go!

Alright, another good fish!

Here we go, oooh!

- That's the one I just missed.

Are you the luckiest guy in the world?

- That's skill and you know it.

- Well, I mean I can't believe that.

- He might not be the catch of the day, but he's a pretty good fish.

Yeah, c'mon in here, buddy.

We'll take him.

Get to talkin' about the color, and oop!

He decided he wanted to fight a little bit.

- That got him heated up, didn't it?

Talkin' 'bout the colors?

Shoot, that's a nice fish.

- Nice fish there, Tore, looky here.

Aren't they pretty, that red streak in him.

Let's let him go back.

- I think that was the same fish, don't you.

- Grow up to be bigger, ooh!

Alright!

That's what I come for.

Good job, good job, God.

- Nice catch.

- Right there, missed that one.

- Alright, good job, Tore.

You finally got that hook set right that time, didn't ya?

- Well, it's down in the last two minutes.

- Down to a two minute warning.

- Down to the final minutes of the final quarter.

Good job.

Well, you gonna play with him all day?

Or are you gonna get him in the net?

- Well, it's hard to bring him around this way.

- Boy, that's a pretty good fish.

- I'm runnin' out of lane.

- Good job.

These are the prettiest rainbows I've ever seen on any stream.

Look at the fins on those things.

See those white tips on there?

I mean, you see that in only the really colored stream bred fish, y'know?

That's beautiful.

Alright, Tore, do it again.

- Joe Fisherman's luck, it worked that day.

- Well, yeah, the king mackerel, we didn't need but a couple of fish 'cause we were trying to catch, and we did catch, one king mackerel as you saw on a fly rod.

Which is the first time we've ever filmed that.

As you saw, the guys were surrounded by boats trolling and catching king mackerel on live bait, it really was amazing how many king mackerel were caught that day, but catching them on a fly rod was a little different situation, as most people who fly fish will tell you.

But Joe's got it dialed in out there the day just didn't work out, but we wanted to show you that footage.

And then the Nantahala trip was one that I was really, I knew about the river, it has class four and five rapids in it, and to say the least it was a pretty unnerving trip for me with the camera, but we did catch a few rainbow trout that day, but just not quite enough for a show.

- Alright, speaking of good stuff, let's catch up with Donna.

She's in the kitchen, she's got a recipe today using pasta.

(guitar strumming) - Hi, today in the kitchen, we're making a pasta salad with a lime tile fish.

Great recipe, one of those summer recipes that goes together quick and easy.

And you can reap the benefits of all the summer fruits and vegetables that you have.

And if you don't, if it's not in season, go ahead and buy some frozen, they work just as great as well.

So we're going to take our tile fish, and what I've done here, mine is already baked.

You can grill this if you like, or you can bake it, whatever works for you, but I brushed mine with this lime vinaigrette and then I just roasted it in the oven or broiled it.

So it'll give it some nice, great flavor, but it's quick and easy to do.

So we've that going on, then we're going to make our pasta salad.

So I have some bow tie pasta in my bowl that's already chilling down, and if you don't want to use bow tie, you can use corkscrew pasta, you can use elbow, you can use a mixture if you like.

That kinda freaks my kids out when I do a mixture of pasta, but you know, sometimes just have little bits and pieces left, and you wanna use it, so that's what you do.

So I've got that in here, I've also got some zucchini and some squash that I have sliced really thinly with my mandolin.

You can use a knife as well, or you could buy it off the salad bar if you really wanna go quick and easy.

I've got some red bell peppers in here, because I think it needs some color, more color, and we're gonna put that there.

Then we're gonna slice our nectarines.

You can use nectarines, you can use peaches.

Whatever is in season and whatever your family likes.

The nectarines are a little bit nice 'cause they're skin, you can still use your skin.

You get that pretty color, but it's not as fuzzy as a peach.

So then we're gonna toss that together, and then we're going to make a vinaigrette.

So we're gonna make this vinaigrette, and I already have my lime juice and my white balsamic vinegar in here.

We're gonna use some Cajun mustard, 'cause it's got some nice, great mustard seeds in there, it's gonna give it a little flavor.

We're gonna put in some honey and some salt and pepper.

You can put some olive oil in here if you'd like and just give this a great shake til it's thoroughly mixed.

And this is what it'll look like.

It's the same that we used to baste our fish with.

We're just going to add that to it.

We're gonna give it a toss and then what we're gonna do is we're gonna put this in a bowl, and we're gonna top it with some toasted almonds.

And to toast your almonds, I by them already sliced or slivered, and then I just put them underneath my broiler for like, two minutes and just give them a shake, and you'll get this nice golden brown, and it'll add some great flavor and some great crunch to your recipe.

So this is what it looks like when it's done.

I just put it in a great little bowl, I kind of broke up my tile fish.

And it's just quick and easy.

You can just chill it down and it's just a wonderful dinner or a side dish as well.

So I hope you enjoy the tile fish and I look forward to seeing you next time here on Simple Cooking.

- Thanks Donna for that recipe, and you can find that recipe and a whole lot more in our cookbook.

Joe, good days of fishin', some days you just go and it's fisherman's luck.

- Well, that's it and some days you catch enough for a show and sometimes you don't.

And in this case, that's what we had, but some good footage of really some good fishing, just not quite enough for what we needed.

- Alright, 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 has been delivering stunning photography and informative articles for more than 80 years.

- [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.

[light instrumental music] ♪ ♪ ♪