[gentle orchestral fanfare] - We've been whipped before, haven't we?

But maybe we're gonna whip this fish this time.

- [Kurt] You got him coming good, now.

- Yeah.

- [Kurt] But he's gonna go away from here when he sees you.

When he recognizes you.

He's still pretty deep, isn't he?

- Oh, he's right here!

He's a pretty one!

- [Kurt] Oh yeah, then we gonna gaff him!

- Yeah.

- [Kurt] Where'd we put the gaff?

- Right there, right by your arm.

You can get that one.

- [Kurt] I'll be surprised if we get a chance to gaff him right now.

That's a pretty fish.

All right!

Look at that king!

Ain't he pretty?

- [Announcer] The production of Carolina Outdoor Journal is made possible in part by: - [Female Announcer] Wildlife in North Carolina Magazine.

ncwildlife.org/winc.

- [Male Announcer] And by EZ Bait and Tackle, family owned and operated.

We've been fishing since 2003.

Come see the crew in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and we can hook you up for all your fishing needs.

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

Well, today's program will take us down to the coast in the Moorhead City area, and Joe, we're gonna be rigging light for kings today.

- That's right.

The fall time of the year, which is probably, arguably, the best time of year for big kings.

We don't catch any real big kings today, we really went out in early fall, targeting king mackerel with light tackle just for the fun of it.

Just to say we did it.

And you'll see the tackle that they'll show you at Gear Time.

But the fall time of year is the best for numbers, and again, as you get later in the fall, they do get bigger.

But just had a lot of fun.

Up close to the beach, you'll see, I think we're a mile or two off the beach.

But I had a lot of fun!

- And the trick is rigging light for this.

We'll talk about that in Gear Time.

- Yeah, they'll share with us how they rigged up.

Again, we're using live bait.

And for this size king we were catching today, it was perfect.

You know, they gave us some good strong runs, and I just had a lot of fun.

- I wanna write Donna's recipe down for grilled venison.

That ought to be tasty.

- It will be.

She's taken venison and... Again, putting it on the grill, and just real tasty.

- Be prepared to take down a recipe today, 'cause I think this is one you're gonna wanna keep.

And get ready for some great fishing action here today, on the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

- [Kurt] The end of September, this sure is king time, isn't it.

- [Anthony] It is, we're fishing off Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.

And we have another beautiful day down here.

- Slick.

Wind blowing just enough to keep us cool.

Had pretty good luck catching baits.

They weren't real big, but.

We probably got enough.

- Well let's hope we don't have enough.

- I'll go along with that.

We're fishing from real light tackle.

I know we got one line out there that's 10 pound test.

- Well maybe that smoker won't hit that one, but maybe the smoker hit the little bit bigger reel.

- We got plenty of string in the box.

If he strips us, he wins.

- [laughs] That's it, that's it.

So.

- I see we got some frantic baits back there.

- [Anthony] What you got, eh, Kurt?

- Just got a look at him, looks like a king.

Maybe eight pounds.

- [Anthony] That's good!

That's what we're here for.

- This light tackle makes 'em fun.

- [Anthony] Anytime you catch a fish it's fun, isn't it?

- That's right, but I always like it on light tackle.

There he is again, coming up.

- Nice little king?

- [Kurt] Might be a little bigger than eight pounds.

- [Anthony] Yeah.

He's strong, ain't he?

- [Kurt] Not quite ready yet, is he?

- [Anthony] That's a nice king there, Kurt.

- [Kurt] See that knot in the line on the mono?

- [Anthony] Yep.

- [Kurt] Below that's 40 pound test.

Everything above that's 15.

- [Anthony] So I'm gonna grab that, and we're gonna do a quick release on it.

All right.

- [Kurt] Good job.

- There we go.

All right, Kurt got one.

Now it's my turn!

- Found another rig on this one.

There he is right there!

There he is!

Yeah, it's always good to see that strike.

He bit this other pogie right in two.

[fishing reel winding] - Maybe we shoulda had it over here.

But we'll see who's gonna win.

And we have line.

[laughs] Kurt, we're gonna have to get it to 'em.

We ain't got a lot of line on this reel.

[laughs] - [Kurt] Yeah you have, I haven't been stripped yet.

Go ahead and take that clicker off of that thing.

Wanna go around the outside of the boat?

- Yes sir.

I tell you what, this is light tackle here.

- [Kurt] Yeah, it is.

You were scared for a minute there, weren't you?

- I was, but I think we're gonna get 'em?

- [Kurt] That's 15 pound test and it lasts with 6500, so you probably got 200 yards.

- This is something like I would use in a river for stripers.

- That's exactly what I use it for a lot of the time.

Versatile.

- It is versatile.

But out here, you never know what you're gonna hook.

- [Kurt] Well you can get whipped.

- We've been whipped before, haven't we?

[laughs] Maybe we gonna whip this fish this time.

- [Kurt] You got him coming good now.

- Yeah.

- [Kurt] But he's gonna go away from here when he sees you.

When he recognizes you.

He's still pretty deep, isn't he?

- Oh, he's right here!

He's a pretty one, Kurt!

- [Kurt] Oh yeah, we gonna gaff him?

- Yeah.

- [Kurt] Where'd we put the gaff?

- Right there, right by your arm.

You can get that one.

- [Kurt] I'll be surprised if we get a chance to gaff him right now.

- That's a pretty fish.

All right!

Look at that king!

Ain't he pretty?

- [Kurt] It don't take anything but 15 pound test, does it?

- That's it.

Man, what do you reckon he weighs?

17?

18?

- Yeah, I'd say he's in the 15 pound space.

- [Anthony] He's nice.

- [Kurt] Need to get that bait out of there.

- [Anthony] Go ahead and stick your hand by his face.

- [Kurt] I'm not gonna trifle with him!

I'll tell you, we'll just leave it in, and let's put him in the box.

- [Anthony] Okay.

- I'm surprised he didn't take another room when he came to the boat.

- Oh, I whooped him.

- You whooped him.

Good job!

Well we got a 10 pound test rod sitting out here for you too, now.

- [Anthony] All right!

- Anthony, what's your favorite bait for these kings this time of year, early fall?

- If you can get them, I love menhaden.

I mean, menhaden's the preferred bait, but if you can't get 'em, bluefish work well.

Spots.

Anything like that.

- Mullet.

- Mullet work great.

Also, if you can't find any bait, then pull some frozen cigar minnows, or some ballyhoo.

- I always like that live bait thing, when a lot of time your bait gets frantic up there at the top, and you get to see the strike.

- That makes it exciting, to see the fish sky right on the bait.

- [Kurt] You wanna release this fish, or?

- We can release him.

Here he comes, Kurt!

- [Kurt] Have you had a look at him yet?

- I saw a little glance.

Here he is, right here.

- Yep.

- A nice king.

Look at him.

- [Kurt] He's a 15 pounder!

Isn't he?

- Yeah, what I like to do is somehow take the pliers and cut the wire, and let him go.

- All right.

- Boy, these fish move from side to side.

Look at this nice king coming up, Kurt.

- [Kurt] Yeah, see if you can hand me the line.

- [Anthony] Grab him by the tail!

[laughs] - [Kurt] Tell you what, we'll just go ahead and cut the line on him, and then we'll... Nice fish, though.

- [Anthony] Yeah.

There he goes!

- Look at him shaking.

Good job.

Anthony, did you check the tides before you come out this morning?

- No, I didn't have the opportunity.

I knew it was coming in, but I don't know exactly at what phase were we in.

- I feel like we're kinda in slack tide right now.

- Yeah.

Fishing has slowed down some, and it'll probably pick up when the tide changes.

But, you know, sometimes, I just felt like you just have to have a bait in the water to be able to catch a fish.

- That's right.

You gotta go to know.

- That's it.

Tide or no tide.

You just gotta be out here.

- [Kurt] We got a fish in the baits, fish in the baits!

- [Anthony] Oh!

There he is!

That was all right.

- [Kurt] You want me to pull aside a gear?

- Yeah, probably just swing around a little bit to your left.

Excuse me, to your right.

I was looking at my left.

- [Kurt] I know.

That's why they got the port and starboard thing going on.

- Sometimes I can't think that fast.

- [Kurt] Well so much for the slack tide theory, right?

- That's it.

I mean, when you have a fish on, [laughs] sometimes you just don't think about everything.

- [Kurt] That's right.

We were looking for excuses a little early.

That didn't look like as big a fish, I got a decent look at him.

- That's a fish.

- [Kurt] I could've just seen part of him.

- That's it.

Maybe you just saw the head.

- [Kurt] Gonna move out of gear now?

- Yeah, yeah.

Tell you what, those engines sure are quiet.

Lets you sneak up on the fish, won't they?

- [Kurt] Yeah, that's right.

It makes mighty enjoyable fishing when it's so quiet like that.

- Hearing that with no smoke.

- [Kurt] That's right, no smoke.

- [Anthony] Try to gaff him in the head, now.

Here he is.

- [Kurt] All right.

I don't like going across that line, Anthony, I'm gonna get a better shot than that.

- [Anthony] Okay.

- [Kurt] 'Cause if I happen to miss, I'll be knocked him off.

- [Anthony] Oh man, nice king, Kurt.

- I believe he's the smallest one we got, but he'll probably be a little better eaten.

- [Anthony] True.

There we go.

- [Kurt] Pretty fish, pretty fish.

Put him in the box.

- [Anthony] All right.

- Anthony, we getting in the time of year you'll be catching nice kings, aren't you?

- That's it.

I mean, this time of year, you catch anything from the smallest school king, from eight to 10 pounds, all the way up to 40, 45 pounds.

- I'd like to see a 45 pounder today.

Only not on that 10-15 pound test line.

- [Anthony] Yeah.

I think that out here we just gotta, gotta wait our turn for the bite.

- They'll be biting right on until December, won't they?

- In December, they're more offshore on the east side, mainly like the tanker, the 1700 Rock.

But this is nice, because you're only two miles from shore.

- [Kurt] No doubt that's a king!

- [Anthony] No doubt!

He come up beautiful.

I mean he's smoking it.

I'm trying to turn that way to lead to him.

- I'm gonna take that clicker off.

- [Anthony] It never fails.

Whenever you grab a little food to eat!

- I saw that bait come up, and I put the peanuts down.

- [Anthony] Man, he smoked it, didn't he?

- He wasn't fooling around.

He wasn't fooling around.

- [Anthony] You can tell that those light rods are getting more bites, more action than the heavier rods.

- I believe it's got to do with the light line.

And I don't run much wire on.

That's just tied directly.

I put about less than a foot of wire on them.

I've always liked that rig.

- Yep.

It works good.

Well maybe it's in that prop wash.

I mean the prop wash brings up a lot of fish, too.

- We've been fishing these rods a little shorter.

Just so it gives us an extra 20 yards.

- 20 yards of line!

That was a good strike.

I saw that bait come up, and I wasn't sure if he was... You know, just getting tired?

About time.

- When I saw him roll up on top and flip out of the water, and then that king just nailed him.

I thought you were gettin' him, Kurt!

- I was, but you know he's gonna take that second run.

- [Anthony] Tell you what, there's great action out here.

- There you go, look at him smoking out of there.

He might get under the boat a little bit there for us.

- [Anthony] Look at that pretty king!

There he is!

He's a pretty king!

- [Kurt] Yeah, he's 12, 15 pounds, isn't he?

- Sure!

Can't ask for anything better than that.

- Nice job gaffing him.

- Nice king.

Gaffed him in the head so we won't lose much meat when we clean him.

Well he's nice, isn't he?

- If he doesn't bite me!

There you go.

We saved that rig we were liking.

- That's a nice king.

- They got good fish this time of year.

That smoking run.

- [Anthony] See how that dip in the lateral line right here?

- Right here.

- [Anthony] Yep.

- That identifies him as a king over a Spanish when they're smaller.

Plus the Spanish on his dorsal right here.

Well, they got a different, their dorsal folds up farther than his other.

No, it's this one right here.

It's always black right on the front.

He has gray right through there, but a Spanish always has black on his first two buttons there.

- Yep.

But anyway, that's a nice king!

Good job!

- What'll the fish do with him?

- Joe, that was a good day of fishing.

Now, if you're going just for the sport of it, you need to rig light.

- And that's what we did that day.

We knew about what size kings were out there.

We had some advance notice.

And then, as I said earlier, the later in the season, they're gonna get bigger.

So you don't wanna go out there with too light of tackle if you're gonna be targeting 30, 40, 50 pound king mackerel.

But these were small kings, you know, under 20 pounds.

So we purposely rigged light for them.

We didn't have any problem with the bait, we had plenty of bait that day.

As you can see, we were right off the beach.

A couple miles.

And that's the thing about it, that king mackerel fish during the fall will allow for small boat owners the opportunity to go back and really have what I consider some world-class fishing.

If you wanna feel the tug on your line, and hear that drag screech out.

The king mackerel can do it on any tackle, but the lighter, it's gonna take a little longer to get him in, but it's just a quality fish, and we have them every fall.

- If you're gonna be fishing just for the sport of it, rig light.

And let's find out more, and find out how to do that on Gear Time.

- Well Kurt, we had another pretty day on the water today.

I mean, everything went smoothly.

Everything went in our favor.

From getting up, getting to the boat, catching bait, and getting out here.

I mean, as soon as we got out here, we were hooked up.

- Yep, it probably wasn't three or four minutes until we had the first fish, and we didn't even have all the lines out.

- That's it.

- Caught the bait pretty quick.

- I mean, fall time fishing off Atlantic Beach is hard to beat.

I mean, kings are here.

- [Kurt] I've always loved catching some kings.

Good, fast, run.

You get see them make the hit a lot of the time.

Your bait gets frantic, see them make that strike, and then they take that smoking row and they drag, just peeling out.

That's just king mackerel fishing, isn't it.

- That's it.

Now what I really love is when I see them skying behind the boat, or skying on the baits.

I mean, that really gets your heart pumping.

- We saw a few fridge up in the day, but we never actually saw one fridge up on our baits.

But we saw a lot of strikes.

I like something else about it.

We generally use light tackle.

This is probably one of the heaviest rods we use today, and I'd say 20-25 pound test.

- Yeah, so that's 20 pound line.

That's a Shimano TLD 15 with fast gear ratio to pick up the slack line fast, and silky smooth drag.

Yeah, I'll tell you, that drag is a crucial thing when you're king mackerel fishing.

Even some of the lighter tackle we were using down the 10 pound test, line capacity and a light drag, and you can catch a king mackerel.

- That's it.

The rods we were using, I mean.

They range from your light rods, but something with a soft tip, so you don't pull the hooks out of the fish when you're fighting them.

- Good point.

Lot of times, he's hooked in the side of the face, and not necessarily in the gullet or anything.

We got hooks out pretty easy today, and released right many fish.

- That's it.

- The terminal rigs we're using.

Get one up here.

- We're using menhaden for bait.

Short piece of number four wire.

These are number four trebles, I like number sixes also, especially when the bait's a little bit smaller.

- Number six is a little smaller hook, and they generally use extra strongs.

- Yes sir.

But single-strand wire, I like that because it's thinner and doesn't have as much resistance in the water.

- When you say number four wire, what pound test?

- I think it's 44 pound wire.

- 40.

I gotcha.

- But you can hook 'em in the back.

I like to hook 'em in the back so they pull a little bit deeper.

But there's always some that I hook in the nose.

- Keep him on top so you can see him darting back and forth.

- That's it.

- Yeah, we had a lot of good fishing today.

Had a lot of fish on.

Good success ratio.

It was just a good day.

Pretty day out here in the fall, not too hot.

I really enjoyed myself.

I appreciate the opportunity to go with you again.

- Well I appreciate it too.

I'm glad we can take off the day and go fishing.

- Always a good trip.

- It is.

- Thanks guys, for that valuable information.

Now if you're going just for the sport of it, you will want to rig light.

Now, Donna's in the kitchen, and she's got a outstanding recipe for us, and this is one that you're gonna wanna take down and try this one real soon.

She's got a recipe today for grilled venison.

Now let's catch up with Donna.

She's in the kitchen on the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

- Hi, today in the kitchen we're making some goat cheese polenta, and we're gonna serve that with some grilled venison.

It is fabulous, and polenta is such a great dish.

It's so versatile, and you can add so many different flavors to it, and give it different twists, or you can cook it so that it's not a wet polenta, that it's more of a firm polenta, and then you can mold it and then slice it and grill it.

So it's really great.

So let's go ahead and start.

And it's very simple, only uses two ingredients, and then you can add what you like.

So we have three cups of boiling water here on the stove.

And then we're going to add about four ounces, or about a cup and a half of yellow corn meal.

And we're just gonna mix that together.

And you can see it's already thickening up.

And then you can add a little bit more water to this.

We're gonna turn our heat off.

And we're just gonna mix this together.

You cook it for about five or 10 minutes, just until it's firm.

And it depends on what the weather is like outside.

If it's a moist day, then, you know, you probably won't need as much water.

You may need to add a little more water to this if you'd like.

Then we're going to add in some butter.

And mix that in.

And polenta is on all the latest and greatest restaurant menus, so you can serve this gourmet meal, or this dish, at home, and it's only corn meal and water.

So your friends will be impressed.

And we're just gonna mix that together until our butter is melted, and then what we're gonna do is, if you want this a little bit thinner, we'll just add a little bit more water to it.

But I like mine a little firm.

Then we're gonna add in some goat cheese to this.

And we, at our house, just love goat cheese.

It adds just really nice flavor.

And there's a lot of local goat cheese makers here in North Carolina, so we like to use those as well.

So we're just gonna mix that together.

You can add a little salt and pepper to this if you'd like.

A lot of people do some olive oil to this.

And this one is turning out to be a little bit thicker, but that's okay.

And if you do like yours thick, you can put it in a mold.

Like I said, you can spread it into a 9x13 pan, and let it firm, and then you can cut it, or you can roll it into tubes, or logs, and use it that way.

This one I just did in two logs, and then I just sliced it.

And you can put it on your grill, alongside with your grilled venison, if you'd like.

And just grill it up, and then top it with maybe some balsamic vinegar, if you want, or just a little bit of olive oil and some goat cheese.

So we're just going to move this over.

Put this over here with our grilled venison, which I grilled to be about medium to medium rare.

And we have our polenta.

We're gonna add a little more goat cheese on top.

And then we're just gonna sprinkle some fresh chopped parsley.

Or some cilantro would be nice.

And you have a great dinner, an unusual side dish.

A different change from potatoes or rice.

And it's a great dish!

It's quick, and it's easy, and I think you'll really like it.

So I hope you enjoyed the grilled venison with goat cheese polenta, and I look forward to seeing you next time here on Simple Cooking.

- Well, just as I expected, Donna had another fantastic recipe for us.

Joe, let's go back down to the coast, talk about king mackerel.

If you wanna just catch it for the sport of it, rig light.

But there's always king mackerel out there during their season.

- Yeah, well, actually, you can catch kings back in the spring, when the water starts warming up, through the summer months.

You might have to work a little harder for them.

They're smaller.

As you get into the fall, as we said earlier, they tend to get larger as it gets cooler.

You know, the class goes up to 50, 60 pounds.

I mean, the state record's over 70.

And they're available up and down the coast.

Hatteras has a great large king mackerel fishery in the wintertime.

But they're available up and down the coast.

Probably the most popular saltwater game fish we've got, just if you figure in the number of boats that are fishing for them.

There's tournaments up and down the coast every year.

Big one right there in Morehead City.

Atlantic Beach Fire Department puts one on every year.

A popular fish.

So if you've never tried them, give 'em a try.

They give you all you want on any tackle, but like I said, we picked the lighter tackle that day and had a lot of fun.

- It also makes for a great day of fishing in North Carolina.

- Absolutely.

- For Joe Albae, I'm John Moore.

Thanks for joining us today on the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

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

- [Announcer] The production of Carolina Outdoor Journal is made possible in part by: - [Female Announcer] Wildlife in North Carolina Magazine.

ncwildlife.org/winc.

- [Male Announcer] And by EZ Bait and Tackle, family owned and operated.

We've been fishing since 2003.

Come see the crew in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and we can hook you up for all your fishing needs.

[light instrumental music] ♪