[gentle orchestral fanfare] - We gotta big-- - I tell you what-- there he is!

- Yeah, black.

It's a black drum.

- I don't know.

I'm not gon' say that yet, but I do see it's a fish, not a, not a skate.

- Good pullin' fish, we mighta finally found the bait for 'em.

- That's a red, a nice red.

It is, that's a nice red.

Looky there, man.

Come 'ere darlin'.

That's a nice fish, Kurt.

- Not very fat though is it.

- Mm, mm, no, spring fish, don't gotta lotta belly.

But it's got at least 26.

- Mighty likely a 26, 27 inch fish.

- Let's get 'im back in the water.

- Yeah do that.

- Come on darlin'.

- [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, welcome to the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

Well today's program will take us down to the coast.

We're goin' to the surf zone.

Two days, two good days of fishing.

Weather changes, but all in all, pretty good.

- Pretty good, real good actually.

We caught fish both days, and like you say completely different weather conditions.

One day we had just a light north east wind, kind of a pretty day to be on the surf.

And then the next day we had, the weather kicked up on us, we had a front coming and the southwest wind blew, and churned up the water.

But as anybody that fishes for red drum knows, and that's what our target fish is today, they like it when it's dirty.

They get in that dirty water, and that's when they're feeding, they like to feed in those conditions.

So we caught a lot of fish.

- Now, talkin' about catchin' those fish, we had to rig right, we'll talk about that in gear time.

- We'll go back, and the guys will show us how they rigged up, again today we're using fresh shrimp, believe it or not.

This was earlier in the spring, and we couldn't find any bait fish, any mullet or anything.

So we used real fresh shrimp, and I think that made the difference.

- Now Donna in the kitchen, she's got a recipe for southern filets today.

- Yeah, this is another good recipe from her today, a southern recipe.

- Alright, we've got that and a whole lot more comin' your way today on the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

[relaxing music] - Kurt, mighty pretty day here.

Be, what is it now, the second week of April?

- Early spring, yeah.

- Early.

Water's still kinda cold.

We just had missed a great bite on that crab, but what we're really after is a drum about that long, red drum.

- Red drum.

- Red drum, might be a big one, Saturday they was a couple of nice fish caught, 48 inches and 47.

Not really expectin' that, but I would love to see it.

There's one on, that big pole just took a hit.

In the middle Kurt, see what's on there.

There he is, he's on it, get 'im buddy!

You got 'im I think, Kurt.

- Yeah this feels like a little better fish here.

- This'un's got a spot on his tail, I believe.

- I feel 'im shakin' his head.

- That's good.

- I don't think he's gonna stick to the bottom when he gets up there either.

- I hope he doesn't, we've had enough of them for the day.

Course it's like I said, it's not a bad sign cause a lot of times they'll feed together.

- Yep they'll be feedin' on, evidently they eat the same things, which obviously they do.

- Tryin' to keep an eye on them other rods.

- Yeah I'm watchin', I saw 'im in the-- - I saw one one right there.

- That's real good.

- I'll bring 'im right on up.

- Yeah, I'm gon' let you slide 'im right up here to me.

That's pretty man.

- That was pretty when he come across in that curl.

- That's pretty right there.

Look at that, that's a nice fish too.

That's the upper, that's the upper end of the slot fish right there.

- Yeah, he's a pretty fish.

This fish is a little over the slot, probably better go release him.

- Yep, 28 inches, I got a little one on here.

Yes sir, he's gone.

I had shrimp on it, I switched up.

- Ah, bout everything we've had bites on that shrimp.

- You said double shrimp, so I put two shrimp on one hook and flung it out there.

- Ya feel 'im shaking his head or anything?

- He's a right good size, whatever it is.

I'm not gon' say what.

- Look like he's comin' kinda straight in.

- Well, he took a little run down to the southern...

There he goes again, I hope it's not a ray.

He's right there.

- Oh I see, it's a drum, black drum.

- I believe that's a drum.

Yeah looky there!

- That's a nice black drum.

- Now that's a nice black drum.

- Yeah.

- Hot dog, looky there.

Looky there!

That's a decent fish there, bud.

- Yeah, caught two or three of them, not the reds we're after but... - Well no, but that's just as nice as a red to me.

- I hear ya.

- It's a pretty fish, that's a nice fish.

- Three or four pound, ain't it?

- At least.

- Double shrimp.

- Double shrimp.

Kurt told me to get my double hook, double shrimp.

- How you like that de-hookin' job?

- I like that, long as you didn't get hooked in the process, pretty work.

- Throw this one in the cooler, won't we?

- I think we'll eat that one, yeah that's a good one.

- There's a piece of shrimp right there.

- Okay, let me put it back on here.

- You know that piece works.

- Yeah, we'll try it again.

- Johnny you know I hadn't done much surf fishin', but I can't help but notice today most of the fish we're catchin' are on these smaller rods that we aren't throwin' out too far.

- Well that's, you know when we came up the beach at low tide you could see all these little holes, and now that the tide's comin' in, you've got a lot of water in these little holes.

If you walked out there you'd probably go to chest deep in that first step.

And that's a lot of times where the fish are.

Right in the surf, right close by.

- That makes sense, cause these fish we're catchin' lotta times when he's comin' in, he hangs up right on that ledge, don't he?

Don't wanna come over it.

- Yup.

Now that's a good ledge right there, for sure.

But since the tide's come in, is when these fish are really started to bite a little bit.

- Yeah, it's tellin' me a little bit about what it looks like, what a good spot looks like.

The only reason I liked this spot when we were coming by, It has all these big rocks here, and it looked like structure to me.

- It is, ya know when we came up the beach we saw the black rocks or mud, whatever, sittin' up here on the bank and in the water ya know we could see several bit black spots in the water.

And that's what these fish are feedin' around.

Anything like that is an attractant for the fish.

And they get around it.

- It doesn't necessarily have that structure a lotta times it's just been washed-out water flow, isn't it?

- That's all it is, that's all it is They talk about rip tides and things like that, well that area where the rip tide is, is generally, that's the place you wanna fish.

It's more of a, like a channel or a slue cut through that bar.

- Well current hadn't been that much of an issue today, it's mighty pretty.

- No, it's calmed down and gotten beautiful this afternoon.

Yes sir, come on with him.

- He's gettin' a little drag, we've got a real fish here.

- Yeah, well that last one was a nice fish.

If he'd a been on that small pole you'd a had a fish.

- The uh... Oh it's fightin' a little more than that other one, might just be another nice fish.

- Might be another nice one of them black drums.

Might be a big red drum too.

- I see 'im on top right there, look at 'im.

Right in that wave.

- Uh huh, That's good, good, we'll see what we can do with 'im.

What do ya think he is Kurt?

- Uh either a red or a black, probably a black the way he's fightin'.

- Either a red or a black, that's pretty good.

I ain't seen a pink one yet.

- Well, with the rays we've had, you know.

- It's not a flat fish though.

- No.

- Good.

Let's see what we come up with here.

We gotta big-- - I tell you what-- there he is!

- Yeah, black.

It's a black drum.

- I don't know.

I'm not gon' say that yet, but I do see it's a fish, not a, not a skate.

- Good pullin' fish, we mighta finally found the bait for 'em.

- That's a red, a nice red.

- It is, that's a nice red.

Looky there man!

Come 'ere darlin'.

That's a nice fish Kurt.

- Not very fat though is it.

- Mm, mm, no,spring fish, don't gotta lotta belly.

But it's got at least 26.

- Mighty likely a 26, 27 inch fish.

- Let's get 'im back in the water.

- Yeah do that.

- Come'on darlin'.

Right on.

Good job buddy, good job.

I'll tell ya what, high five on that.

- Yeah, I like that - See whacha got there buddy, yes sir, that's a drum.

I wanna see 'im, told ya we was gon' come down here and slip up on a school of 'em.

- Look at him, look at this, cuttin' through that us-- - In that little-- - Here ya go, one of his shoulders is outta the water, and he's still pullin drag.

- That's a nice fish, that's a real nice fish.

- I'm gonna swim 'im right up here.

- Swim 'im on up here.

- Yeah we have got that other line.

- Yeah we got that other line's what it is.

Yeah man, we just barely had him hooked in the corner, look at there, straightened the hook out.

That's a nice fish Kurt.

- Yeah, that's a pretty classy fish, there.

Little light there, compared to what we're used to catchin' in the sound.

- Well he's long and lean, he'll be fat in the fall.

- Yeah, I've noticed that, these are kinda rakish lookin' fish.

- That fish right there's 26, 27 inches long.

- Let's turn 'im loose.

- Let's turn 'im loose, and see if we can get untangled from this mess here.

Good job, good job.

- Yeah we caught everything that time.

- Oh yeah, I'm caught all up in it.

[relaxing music] Buck, looky here what Kurt's got.

- Man that's a good spot, I never even got-- we never even got back to that sand spot.

- That's a nice fish bud.

- Yeah!

- We hit it just right today.

- Lookit that pretty black spot on 'im.

That's a good fish right there, man.

He's a lot nicer than this one.

Get down, Buck, get down.

Bring 'im on up here and let me lift 'im for ya.

Get outta the way Buck, I'm gon' let this one go.

- Alright.

- Look out Buck.

Buck, you gon' have to get tied to the truck son.

Kurt, little difference between yesterday and today, isn't it buddy?

- Yeah yesterday was good, but I tell you what we both casted, never even got back to-- - Never even got to, never even got outta water and had 'em both on.

That's a pretty fish, man.

- It is, look at these, what is-- - That's, it's a little parasite that gets under their scales, and they say it doesn't hurt 'em.

A lotta times-- - Well still, a good fish, not real fat but it's not that time of year is it?

- Nu-uh now see later in the summer that fish'll be bright bronze red, you know-- - Washed out from the ocean a little bit as opposed to bein' in the sand.

- Part of it too, you see how muddy and milky this water is today, versus yesterday it was clear?

Fish had more color yesterday, there's more white like this here.

- Yeah they did.

- Aw Buck, no Buck, Buck!

He wants that fish bad, doesn't he?

- Look at him go up through there!

- Oh yeah, he'll chase that fish down, if you don't watch 'im.

- I'm ready to bait up again.

- Let's get another one!

I think we found 'em today man.

- This could bring me 'round to surf fishin'.

- This southwest is honkin' but it's turned the fish on.

- Amazes me how close they come up to beach in this rough water like this.

- Look there right 'tween your legs.

If you wade out here, most people people wade through the fish, you don't have to go far.

- Yeah, light tackle we using.

These rods what, not but seven feet?

- That's perfect, yeah, light action, cause you see that one's gettin' you drag now.

Ten pound test, it's lovin' it.

That's beautiful.

- Yeah, look at 'im.

- Yer havin' fun on that light tackle though?

That's what it's made for.

- Look at 'im right there.

- That's a nice fish, that fish weighs five or six pounds.

Yeah man, just look at 'im just makin' a wake.

And he can swim just as hard in this water as he can out there in 50 feet.

That's beautiful, look at that.

- Takin' drag-- - What about a bone, What's the difference in this an bonefishin?

- [Kurt] Takin' drag like that, his fin's stickin' right outta the water.

- Yes sir.

- Look, he's goin' around behind us.

- Yeah, you gon' have to bring im' back out here.

- Have you ever caught any big Pompano like this?

- No I haven't.

- Cause he'll lay side-wise in the water 'fore he drags.

He'll lay down flat side-ways like a big brim.

- I think we've 'bout got 'im now Johnny.

- Yeah you gettin' close.

Bring 'im on up here, I'll getta hold of 'im.

Nice fish man!

- Yeah!

- I'm gon' let you have 'im, I got this other pole here.

Got it wrapped up.

- Alright, I got it.

- Yeah, unwrap me, there we go.

There ya go, you just about to lose 'im too.

- Hold on a second, I got a bad twist there.

- Yeah, uh oh.

- I'll get 'im, I got him.

- Get under that gill plate, you'll be alright.

- Well I'm gon' throw out and catch one.

- I don't blame ya!

- I put the dog away, now I'm gon' catch a fish.

- Yeah, he's pretty Johnny.

- That's a beautiful fish, man.

That's a 26, 27 inch fish, I mean we gotta get the tape and see, that might be over.

- Nah.

- He might actually be over.

The thing to do is to get 'im back in the water live, let 'im go we can catch 'im again next year.

We can catch 'im when he gets to be 40 pounds.

- They right at home in water this deep, aren't they?

- This is home buddy.

- Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.

He hit it like a freight train buddy.

- Man we can't hardly talk about fishin' for catchin' fish.

- It mighta been on the bottom for 30 seconds.

I didn't even get back across the breakers.

- These fish love a bar don't they?

- That shoal, that cut comin' out, you know, when the tide goes down you'll see that's a nice cut that comes out and it forms a shoal right out in front of us.

They're feedin' right up on that bar - Not in the deep water, but in the bar?

- They're hittin' right, I threw that one right out to sea.

This's a nice fish, it's like four, five pounds.

- Yeah I see his tail.

- Yeah I finally got a decent one.

That's pretty, look at 'im makin' a wake.

- Yeah I like to see em comin' through the curl of that wave like that.

- I'd like to go out there and see 'em, boy.

See about five or six of 'em go right tween yer legs.

- Water'd need to be a little clearer than this for that doesn't it?

- Well to see 'em, but you'll feel 'im bump yer leg when he goes through.

That's a nice fish too.

- Yeah these are all pretty classy fish, specially for the tackle we using.

- Oh yeah, I'd much rather catch 'em on undersized tackled than over sized, more fun.

You get 'im?

- Uh, felt like he picked it up and was comin' to me with it.

Now he's a cleaner fish.

- Yeah he's a nice fish.

There ya go, I heard the drag, you get 'im?

- It don't feel good.

- Uh oh, that's a nice fish though.

That's 26, 28.

- Good fish to catch in the surf like we're doin' now.

- Top of the slot, might be over.

- I think the waves just got 'im turned around.

- Quick to pull in, that fish is no more hurt He'll scoot right on, he'll sit there and get his-- - Bearings.

- Get his breath and gone.

Look at that, that's beautiful.

That's the world's best drum fishin', I don't care what anybody says.

- I'm kinda surprised, as good as it's been that I hadn't had a bite.

- I can't believe you hadn't had a bite.

Mine sure didn't lay there very long.

- My chances are better, we got you outta the water.

- There ya go.

Hold it, don't let me get hung on that swivel, there we go, there ya go.

First time I've ever caught a drum that didn't have a spot.

- I don't know that I've ever seen one without a spot.

- I've seen em with as many as 15 or so apiece, - Yeah a bunch of 'em.

- But I've never seen one... That one has no spot, isn't that somethin'?

- You better let him go, he needs to go grow one.

- Yeah, we'll let him go back.

- Look at 'im right there.

- Look at 'im, just sittin' there look at ya.

- That's probably just the way they're feedin' out there when they pick up the boats.

- Oh yeah, he just amblin' along there.

I don't understand why you hadn't had a bite.

He'll come back, I'm gon' put some bait on and go out there and catch it for ya.

- I don't blame ya.

- Well there ya go Joe, coupla days of fishin'.

But the weather conditions changed over the coupla days.

- Yeah you could see the difference in the days, and then they were pretty dramatic, cause we went from a nice surf and a light northeast wind to a pretty brisk southwest churning up the surf zone, and we actually caught more fish on the rough day.

- Well let's talk about how we rig for that.

Let's go to Gear Time.

[relaxing music] - Johnny that's a couple good days of fishin' we had.

- Was, we had a real good day.

Yesterday was a beautiful day, and the fish didn't bite so well and today we got a blowin' gale and they're just beatin' the beach up.

- As the weather deteriorated, the fishin' certainly got better.

- It really did, I think that turned the drum on.

And I think the fresh shrimp help out a whole lot.

- It sure was, it's what we brought almost all the fish on.

We started out yesterday using a little bit of heavier tackle.

- Yep, big weights, big hooks, and pieces of crab.

- Yeah we used cut crab.

- And they work pretty well, but today we didn't even need the big poles.

- Well yesterday we caught most of the fish on lighter tackle with shrimp, and that's what we started out with today and bam, bam, never had a chance to even bring out anything bigger.

- Right, and the other reason for the big poles is if you throw a heavy weight, a heavy bait, you need to heave it out there, the lighter tackle, I think, with the smaller diameter line, we're usin' what, 10 pounds weighted line, that's like four pound test.

- Yeah that was a key factor in a lot of the fish we caught.

- Yer bait tends to stay stationary, it doesn't wanna wash with you near as bad, - And that's right.

- With a heavy line on makes it harder to fish.

- Yer bait stays better, you can feel the bite a lot better.

- That line right there does not have any stretch.

- No stretch, you can set the hook better.

That's the key thing that helped us catch fish, as compared to everybody else we saw, which weren't many people.

- That's true.

We're early April, there's not a lot of people over here right now.

It's a wonderful time to fish, you just have to really pick yer weather.

And we've had two beautiful days really, it's gon' blow up worse this afternoon, so we might get into another few fish.

- Most of the fish were on a seven foot rod.

- That's right.

- 10 pound, 15 pound test line, tops.

- Catch a seven, eight pound fish on it, it's a lotta fun.

- And just a regular bottom rig that you made yourself, which is what, 40 pound test.

- That's right, that's right.

- It proved to me, as far as surf fishin' goes, you don't need big equipment to get way out there, lotta times yer throwin' past the fish.

- Particularly with those drum this mornin', you saw 'em, they're pullin' drag in water that you just waded through less than knee-deep.

- That is right.

- That's where they feed.

- I hope we get an opportunity to go again this afternoon, maybe catch a few more fish, but I tell you what, up till now I have really enjoyed it.

- It's been a good trip Kurt.

- Thanks Johnny and Kurt for that valuable information.

Now let's catch up with Donna, she's in the kitchen.

She's gonna prepare some southern filets.

[relaxing music] - Hi, welcome to Simple Cooking.

Today we're going to make a great recipe, southern filets, you'll love it.

We're gonna talk first about our fish.

We're gonna use any type of white fish, I've chosen catfish today, but if you do catch a lot and you wanna go ahead and filet those and place them in a zippy bag, you can store them in your freezer for quite a while.

And then just bring them out as you need them.

I would put them, like two filets in one zippy bag, put 'em in your freezer, freeze 'em, and then you can just place them in your refrigerator to thaw overnight, or if you are gonna go camping or go somewhere where'd you'd like to grill your fish or cook your fish, go ahead and just place that frozen in your cooler and you're ready to go, it'll thaw as you travel.

So let's go ahead and get started with our recipe.

We're gonna use some yellow corn meal, which is gonna give this recipe some great crunch to it.

We're also gonna use some grated Parmesan cheese, if you don't have Parmesan, if you wanna use Romano or any kind of hard cheese works great with this recipe.

And then for a little bit of spice, instead of using a bunch of different spices we're gonna use some House Autry Spicy Hot Breader in here, which will give it some great flavor, as well as you don't have to think about what spices you want to use.

And if you don't like it really spicy you can change up this recipe and put in lemon-pepper butter if you'd like, or you can use the mild breader.

So we're just gonna shake that to mix it, then we're gonna take our filets that are nice and moist, and place them in our bag.

Close our bag, and we're just gonna shake to coat these.

And you wanna coat them really well.

We're just gonna coat those and then we're gonna place those onto our baking sheet that is lined with a non-stick foil, or you can use regular foil and spray it.

I just like to use the foil cause it's easy clean-up.

And then we're gonna take some olive oil and we're just gonna spritz that on top.

And we're going to bake this at 400 degrees for about 10 to 12 minutes depending on the thickness of your fish, bring it out and you're ready to go.

And the great thing about this recipe is you can change it up with the different types of breaders, the flavorings.

You can also use it as a salad, you can chop it up and use it as an appetizer, or you can use it just as the filets, or put it on a sandwich too, so it's very versatile.

So this is what it looks like when it comes out.

You can tell it's nice and golden-brown, you're gonna get the crunchiness of that um, from the fish baking.

We're gonna serve it with some fun different kinds of corn that I found and a great salad.

So I hope you enjoy the southern filets, and I look forward to seeing you next time.

- Thanks Donna, that's another good recipe for ya to keep up with there.

Now let's go back down to the coast.

Joe, we didn't have the bait we wanted, we had to go to fresh shrimp, but it worked.

- It did work, this was early enough in the season that Johnny couldn't find any mullet, which is a favored cut bait for the surf.

But he had some fresh shrimp that he'd put up and I think it made a difference, specially on that second day when we had the churning conditions of the wind and the surf, and it was just dirty conditions.

And they go by smell, I mean they're generally bottom feeders, specially in the surf zone.

And it made a difference, we caught a lot of fish.

- Had a big day doin' it too.

- We sure did.

- For Joe Albea, 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] ♪