[piano intro] - He's up on top.

I felt a little thump and I was wondering... Nice fish here.

Might be a drum though.

- Coming with us?

- Not a full trout, little trout.

- Cool.

- Pretty work.

- Hey man.

- It worked.

- Thumped it.

- You got me on the trouts.

- Thumped it.

Easy now.

Easy.

I'm gonna let you go.

I'm gonna let you go.

I'm gonna let you go.

- Try to get us back over there since the trolling motor's done.

- [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.

For all your fishing needs, EZ Bait & Tackle.

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

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

Have you ever heard the term, "Inshore grand slam?"

Joe, I'm gonna let you explain.

- Well, yeah.

Everybody hears that term for offshore grand slam, which is your sailfish, white marlin, blue marlin.

Inshore, at least on the Southern end of our coast, is the speckled trout, the puppy drum, and the flounder.

And today we're gonna take you and catch all three down around the Southport area, back in the marshes along some structure.

Fishing with captain Tyler Stone and captain John Huff, two of the better guys we've got down in that part of the country and catch some fish.

- Might wanna get pen and paper for gear time today, cause that's gonna be interesting.

- Well, they'll go over it.

Pretty simple actually, using soft baits, plastic baits, variety of colors.

Again, we've always talk to you, tell you to mix those colors because you never know what color of fish you're gonna hit that day.

So they'll share that with us in your time.

- And you gotta have the pen and paper again for the layered crab dip recipe that Donna's giving us today.

- She's got...

If you like crab in any form or fashion, you need to jot this down.

This is a really good crab recipe.

- All right, we're gonna be busy today.

Welcome to the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

[intermission music plays] - And John, we snuck in here yesterday and trying to find a few fish.

We hadn't been able to find the drum like we thought after that storm.

But you know, we caught a few trout in here yesterday.

It'll be interesting to see after this little cold snap if they're gonna cooperate again today.

- See if they'll come back and play a little bit.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

Conditions good for in the marsh, but just fish weren't cooperative.

- Yeah.

This drum just aren't up on the flats like we had hoped.

So we having to kind of regroup and we found a few fish in here yesterday and hopefully we can scrap 'em out.

And we caught some trout in here yesterday and we found some drum and flounder down on the creek edges.

So we're going do our pattern again, see if they'll see if they'll do.

- Give it a shot, see what happens.

- We'll see.

- Same spot as yesterday.

- I'm switching baits.

- I don't need to see anything again.

- Yeah, there he is.

- Pretty little trout.

Look at that.

- There it is right there.

- You got him?

- You need help?

- Nothing humongous, but nice bite.

- Yeah man.

- Pretty little fish, I think.

Boy did he inhale it.

- Where are those baits you're hiding?

You go ahead and get your fish.

- They're the ticket.

- I'm kidding.

- They have been the ticket.

- I don't need two days of that.

- He wasn't messing around.

He's already full.

- Yeah.

He's a fat little sucker, isn't he?

Little buck trout.

- See if we can get him outta here no worse for the wear.

- Yeah.

- Pretty little fish.

- Hey, man.

Enough of that.

Where are those baits?

- What baits?

That was the last one.

- I see.

'em.

- You gonna throw in a little bigger one?

There's some more of those white ones in there.

- Are there?

- Yeah.

Two or three more.

- I'll try a different color, though, but just... - The other super secret?

- Yeah.

The other super secret.

See if we can... - I'm not gonna wait on you.

- No.

I wouldn't, if I were you.

- Good fish.

- Solid.

Nice trout.

- Yeah.

- I'm catching ribbon fish and you're catching trout.

Nice fish, man.

I'm gonna help you with that one.

- Yeah, that's a good one.

- Bring them over to see if we can get- - Lead 'em this way.

Yeah.

Solid little...

They got some shoulders on him.

- Yeah.

- These look pretty good.

- I'm gonna put it down.

- All right.

Nice job.

- Nice.

- Fat fish, man.

They're just- - Yeah, they're eating.

Geez.

- Really- - It's a good one.

- Well fed.

A lot with the mountain bait.

Pretty.

- Waiting to see the ribbon fish come up, but- - You ain't got quite as many teeth.

- It's a little school-size fish.

- I mean, chunk.

Pretty full.

Glass minnows and shrimp and everything else.

- Well.

- I'm sitting here changing baits.

You're catching fish.

- Still not gonna wait on you.

- Two to nothing.

Pattern is repeating itself from yesterday.

- I'm not gonna say how many of those little baits are left.

This exact size.

- And John, we always want to fish...

Seem to want to fish you know, some moving water.

This is a little extreme.

We're fishing a hole in this wall.

Tide's dropping.

And normally you would think you'd wanna be on the other side of this thing, but we've been having pretty good success, fishing the water falling away from us and kind of fishing down current along this wall.

But pretty graphic example of how current and structure will concentrate fish.

- Definitely see the water's moving.

- Yeah.

- Almost looks like a trout stream with the rocks in there.

- Yeah.

Well we've been catching a few trout.

Just the salt water kind.

Well, I should say you've been catching some trout.

I have yet to- - Well- - Put the hooks in one.

- I think you're probably due for a nice one.

Anytime would be fine.

- Finally.

Got one.

- There he is.

- Nice little trout.

Nice little trout.

Maybe we'll find him.

He was right on the wall.

Not a little buck.

Easy, easy, easy, easy.

If we were fishing in the fall, I'd have a net.

We'd be catching little bigger ones, but he's grunting like crazy.

- I've got a net, Tyler.

It'd only take us 20 minutes to get to it.

- Get a good look at him.

- All right.

- Just right.

- Trying to steer him, but he doesn't want to cooperate.

Nice fish.

I cranked it down once or twice.

I mean I had the trout drag and I thumped it up once.

- Solid.

[indistinct] coming.

There you go.

[crosstalk] - Finally, you're getting a little bit tired.

- All right.

Pretty copper.

- Keep thinking I got a little control on him.

He's not fat inside.

It's a good fish.

- Nice fish.

- Thank you, Cap.

- Solid.

- Eight and a half, nine.

Maybe.

- Eight and a half.

On the nose.

- Nice.

- Good call.

Let's see here.

- Flounder.

Nice little flounder.

He popped it though.

- That's a good one.

- Yeah.

- I 'll tell you, man, they liked these little swim baits.

- Adding to the slam.

- Yep.

I just need a red, now.

Here we go.

- Nice.

[intermission music plays] - We had to have a little change of tactics.

We had a tide change, and where we were fishing we're fishing some pretty solid structure up river aways and the bite kind of quit.

So now we going to fish some grass points and hopefully we can find those fish again.

- Looks good.

Water's clear.

Water's pretty.

Oh, there he is right there.

- Prophetic.

What you got?

What you got?

Little flounder?

- Flounder.

Little flounder.

Yep.

Sure enough.

They still chewing.

- Scare your fish, huh?

- Yeah.

- Drives into the weeds.

- Yeah, I got it.

You got it?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- That's good right there.

See if we can- - He piled on, I think.

- Yeah he did.

pretty little flounder.

- Yeah.

He thought he was twice his size.

- Yeah, he did.

- Let's let him go and get- - Barely legal.

If that.

- All right.

Do something a little bit better than that.

- Wow.

- I just got hammered right there.

Wasn't even paying attention.

Huh.

Right in this mud.

Look at all this- Coming right to the boat.

- You want me to get him?

Or you got him?

- I got him.

Some flash on it.

There we go.

- Trout.

That's nice.

That's a little healthy fish.

- That's right.

Get you preoccupied.

- I saw that.

That was sneaky tactics, Cap.

- Easy.

Yeah.

He piled on that one.

I think he's gonna be alright.

These fish aren't as fat as the ones we were catching earlier.

- Early morning, those fish were full.

Those fish were full.

- Don't you have something else to do?

You're not allowed to fish anymore.

- What do you mean?

What are you talking about?

You gotta get re-rigged up now.

- Ah, no.

He- - It's too bad.

I will deal with the same color.

Deal with what works.

And John, we've been pretty lucky.

The river's cleaned up pretty quick after the storm.

And I mean, we had a good amount of rain, but we've got pretty good water clarity to that.

Certainly has helped us in catching some fish on artificials.

You know?

- Definitely.

That water gets too murky, you know, just kind of your odds go downhill quick.

- Well, they can't see it.

And you know that pretty much relegates you to fishing bait, or you know, live bait or cut bait.

We got one rod out now, but we've caught a handful of trout and a handful of drum and a couple flounder today on artificials.

And that was bottom, but it it's certainly nice to have clean water.

- Oh yeah.

It's just pretty stuff.

You got a bite right there?

- Yeah.

I think so.

Right on edge of that bar.

He's up on top.

I felt a little thump and I was wondering... Nice fish here.

Might be a drum though.

- Coming with us?

- Nice little trout.

Little trout.

- Cool.

- Pretty work.

- Hey man.

- It worked - Thumped it.

- You got me on the trouts.

- Thumped it.

Easy now.

Easy.

I'm gonna let you go.

I'm gonna let you go.

I'm gonna let you go.

- Try to get us back over there since the trolling motor's done.

- Thumped it, let on the grass edge.

Yeah.

Here you go.

- Pretty work.

Put me right in a spot.

Now we've had pretty decent day so far today, but we've got lucky on the weather.

We've talked about the temperature, but the fish are down here all summer long aren't they?

- Sure all summer long, you know.

Today's kind of more like a fall day, but even in the heat of the summer, you can usually get some red fish to cooperate.

- Yeah.

Cover some ground.

Yeah.

June, July and August have been consistent.

- Yeah.

I know you've [indistinct] fish down here.

So, you know, it's been a treat to come down here and spend the day with you.

It's been real nice to catch a few speckled trout too.

- Sure.

It always is.

Enjoyed having [indistinct].

- Always makes my day.

- We always have a good time when we fish together.

- No doubt.

- Yeah.

Nice one.

Nice one.

- Wow.

Right there on the drop.

On the drop.

- Nice trout.

- Come here.

Easy.

- It's not gonna be happy.

He hasn't been... - Still a little green.

Easy, easy, easy.

- That's a good one.

- Yeah.

- Pretty work.

I like his little topwater.

- Look at that yellow mouth.

- There he is.

- Pretty.

Two pounds.

- Not bad at all.

- Not worse than to wear.

He is ready to roll.

- Talk about your grand slam.

Joe, we had a good time.

We really did.

They caught a good variety of fish, which made up the slam.

And fishing with guys that know the waters.

You know, we fished pretty much five or six hours, so it's not an easy day on the water.

we had to had to work for it.

But they changed up their baits, and mixed it up and found out what the fish wanted.

And we had a really pretty day.

You could see that.

and just had a lot of fun.

- Talking about the mixing up, changing up.

Let's learn more.

Let's go to Gear Time.

[light instrumental music] ♪ - You and I both know, spending a lot of time on the water, you don't always get lucky on the weather.

And today we got pretty lucky.

We had a cold front come in two days ago.

It was about a high of 85 today for early August, which is pretty cool.

It was 60 this morning.

Week after Alex came through.

So we, you know, had a big storm come through here and churn things up.

But I think we got real lucky on the weather and the wind and the water clarity.

And we came down here wanting to fish artificials.

And like I said, we had good water clarity, but we ended up catching some trout and drum and flounder on artificials.

And tell us a little bit about what we were using.

- Sure.

We had, you know, this.

The standard red jig head with the root beer colors.

A good one for the darker color waters.

And the old standby red and white.

We got a jerk bait rig weedless with a DOA pinch weight.

If you got a lot of, you know, cover, it's good to pull it through grass.

It slides through it.

- Tell us about the hot one.

- Well, it's been red hot.

You know, your red and white, mostly white.

It's a Calcutta swim bait.

And it's just a big paddle tail.

You know, the red hook.

I don't know if that has a bearing.

I really don't know all it's secrets, but I'll keep throwing it.

And it's produced the last two days.

- Yeah.

Trout, drum and flounder.

- Yeah.

Well you were putting it on me until you ran out.

And then- - I think you broke my last one off, didn't you?

- Yeah, I think I did.

I think I did.

Well, we moved around a lot today and fished some different structure.

We fished some rocks early on, on a falling tide.

And then we had to switch up when we lost our tide and we had a tide change.

Tell us a little bit about how we did that.

I mean, I know we have trolling motors and that certainly helps.

Being mobile to fish.

- Right.

Right.

Well, you know, you learn spots over time, but you're looking for fishy areas.

Something current, maybe oyster bars and along grass lines.

And you know, you're looking for activity and we had our spots that we stopped on and they were, you know, they seem to work.

But if you can cover ground, especially with your soft plastics, you can really pull it across a lot of fishy water and hopefully connect.

- Yeah.

I know the trolling motors you have, they're stern mounted.

I mean, you've got a little box to control it.

That certainly helps and being able to work the current and work the grass edges in the rocks.

I mean, I think that had a large part to do with our success today.

- Sure.

They're really fun.

I mean, you run this little boat like a big boat.

A twin screw.

It's just the remote control, carry it anywhere in the boat and just, you know, put it where you need to put it and fight the wind and current a little bit and try to cover your fishiest-looking areas.

- Yeah.

Well, you certainly put us on the fish today and it was enjoyable.

I think we got lucky.

I mentioned the water clarity.

I think that's key.

And when you're fishing artificials, to have good water clarity, cause fish just aren't gonna find it if it's murked up.

And I think we got pretty lucky on the weather today.

- Sure.

Definitely did.

You know, you get that east wind and light east winds.

Pretty.

- Yeah, sure.

Cleans it right up.

- Sure enough.

Well, we're gonna do it again, but this time I might let you run the boat.

Run the trolling motors.

- Drive all you want.

I'll fish.

- All right, brother.

- Thanks, Tyler.

- Thanks guys.

You gotta be ready to change up and mix it up.

And that's what we had to do that particular day.

- Yeah.

You need to have that good mix in your tackle box.

And most fishermen know that.

Depending on the lighting of the day, whether it's a bright, sunshiny day or cloudy overcast day, or the clarity of the water, makes a difference.

So have a good mix of bait.

The soft baits are really a good way to go on those types of fish, and it proved it that day.

- All right.

Now, if you like crab, you're gonna like this recipe.

Donna's got a layered crab dip for you.

Let's join Donna in the kitchen.

[light instrumental music] ♪ - Hi.

Today in the kitchen we're making a layered crab meat spread.

It's a great dish.

It's a great appetizer just to sit out on your deck and enjoy.

So let's go ahead and get started.

We're going to take eight ounces of cream cheese and soften that.

We're also going to add to that some lemon pepper and a little bit of seasoning salt.

And about two tablespoons of lemon juice and some lemon rind.

And I'm just going to get that off there.

And you wanna make sure when you are, if you're going to use fresh lemon peel, that you only use the yellow part.

You don't wanna get into the white part, the pith, because that will make it a little bit bitter.

So we're just gonna use a little bit of lemon, and you can also use fresh lemon juice if you'd like, depending on what you have.

Then we're going to turn on our hand mixer.

And this just an easy way to incorporate all of the ingredients.

We're just gonna mix that together until it's nice and smooth.

And then we're going to layer this in our baking dish.

And if you have a nice, clear bowl, that would work out great.

Or I just used a pie plate, cause that's what I had and it was handy.

And it's easy to transport.

So we're just going to add our cream cheese to the bottom of this and spread this evenly.

And then we're gonna begin our layering process.

It's just not wanting to come out today.

There we go.

- Okay.

- We'll just put that over there.

And we're just gonna spread this out into the bottom.

And it doesn't have to be perfect, cause we're gonna cover it up anyway.

So there we go.

So then we're going to add to that some cocktail sauce.

And you can make your own, or you can buy the store bought.

And I just kind of shake it around.

It's kind of like making a pizza.

And then we're going to add our lump crab meat to this.

And this is about eight ounces, four to six ounces of lump crab.

We're just gonna put that on the top.

See it goes together really quickly and it's a lot of fun to make.

And you can add or subtract things.

If you don't have any crab, you can use like a cooked white fish, if you'd like to just cook a white... Or if you have some leftover, just kind of add that onto the top.

Then we're going to add some Monterey Jack cheese that is shredded.

And I bought some just for convenience purposes that was Colby and Jack together, that was already shredded.

Cause that was easiest.

Cause you wanna be able to enjoy this, not just have, you know, the time it takes to make it.

And then we're going to add some orange peppers that we bought and chopped, or you can use red or green.

Whichever you like.

And if you don't like them, leave them out.

Also some green onions.

There's about three green onions that we have chopped.

See it adds some nice color to this as well.

And some black olives.

And if you don't like black olives, like I said, just leave them out.

Or you can put green olives on this too, if you want.

So you can see it goes together really quickly and it's really colorful.

And then we want to put this in the refrigerator covered for about at least one hour.

You can make this ahead of time and serve it that evening.

Or you can make it ahead of time and let it sit in your refrigerator overnight.

And instead of serving it, this is what it looks like when it comes out of the refrigerator.

And you can see the nice layers in it.

It's a great dish.

And then you can just use a nice little spreader.

And instead of using crackers or the traditional avenue for getting your dip, I chose to make some cornbread waffles, which are kind of fun.

And I cut those into little triangular slices or pieces.

And it just adds a little bit of different texture and a little different look to your dish.

And something just, you know, something fun.

So enjoy the layered crab meat spread.

And I look forward to seeing you here next time on Simple Cooking.

- Donna, that sounds like something everybody needs to get on their to-do list.

Layered crab dip.

Joe, let's go back down, talk about the grand slam.

We had a good day of fishing down there.

It just makes for a good day.

- It really did.

And we caught a good variety of fish.

Didn't catch any big flounder.

We were kind of hoping for a big flounder here, cause that Southport area is known for good size flounder.

And we fished, as I said earlier, over five or six hours.

So it was not just a slam dunk.

We had to work for it, and they had to change up the baits and kind of mix it up a little bit.

But we did catch fish, had a good day.

And if you want go down, there are fish in those waters.

Give Tyler or John call and go have some fun.

- But we can say we did the grand slam.

- We did that.

- 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] ♪ ♪ ♪