[piano intro] - I think I'm just hung underneath.

- Yeah you are, you're hung alright.

Oh, son, play it now.

That's gonna be a nice grey there.

- Yep.

I'm hung.

[both laugh] - I'm hung on trouts now.

- That or a big lizard fish.

- [Joe] Oh no, not those [drown out by Ricky laughing] - [Ricky] Nah, you got what we're looking right there.

Come on.

- [Joe] You might need the net on this one.

- [Ricky] Am I goin to?

- [Joe] Maybe.

- [Ricky] I don't even know how to operate this thing.

- [Joe] Yeah you do.

[Ricky laughs] You gotta be the net man if you can't catch fish, you gotta be the net man.

- [Ricky] You're right about that.

I don't mind, just get him up here.

[light instrumental music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - [Male Announcer] 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.

- Hello and welcome to the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

Well today's program is a little different than what we normally do.

Today we're gonna be tagging fish, right Joe?

- That's right John.

We're gonna be going down to New River Inlet, join Captain Ricky Kellum who will be tagging some grey trout.

He has been a part of the Speckled Trout Program for a number of years and agreed to do the study on the grey trout.

Trying to learn a little bit more about the grey trout movement in North Carolina.

Their numbers, if anybody that fishes the coast knows, have been down for a number of years.

A number of reasons for it.

And so he's gonna tag grey trout today and we'll see how he does it.

- What could we expect in Geartime today?

- One thing I wanted to do, since we knew the trout were gonna be in that pound to up to two pound class, I wanted to downsize our equipment.

So we did, we went ultra light, just brought out the fight in the fish a little bit better and it was a lot of fun.

- And Donna's recipe today is all about shrimp.

- [Joe] Real tasty shrimp recipe from her today and we'll join her in the kitchen.

- Alright, it's time to go tag some fish here on the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

- [Joe] Now Ricky I know you've done the speckled trout tagging and release program.

We're gonna do greys today, or at least try to.

- [Ricky] Yes we are.

Yep, inside greys the first ones I've tagged this year will be.

So we need to catch a few nice ones.

It's end of August, it's perfect.

We've been doin real well last week on this tide, you know.

The change of the tide like it is now, we've got about an hour window, and they should be hungry.

- Yeah I hope so.

- Me too.

- The water temperature's terribly warm this year.

- It is, but I tell ya, it don't effect them.

You eat when it's hot don't you?

- Well yeah, I reckon I do.

Obviously I do.

- [laughs] Well they do too.

They like it when it's warm.

So all we gotta do is get down there and make sure we're on the bottom, give it the old twitch, and wait for the rod to bend over.

These TFOs, it's gonna feel good on these little things here.

- Well I'm curious about this tagging too, that's interesting.

- Oh yeah, yeah to see where these fish come and go?

Yes sir, it's the only way to learn 'em.

- Alright, well let's get some.

- Let's dive in, let's do it.

Good night, did you see that?

- Yep.

[both laugh] I did.

- You got us right right here too.

[both exclaiming excitedly] - [Ricky] Get that lizard up here.

- [Joe] Old grey, yeah look at her.

- [Ricky] Oh yes sir.

- [Joe] Look at that boy.

- [Ricky] Come on up here, I've got a tag for him.

[fish splashes around] Beauty.

Beauty.

- [Joe] We're gonna have to get our net out.

- [Ricky] Now you know that's a grey right?

- [Joe] Oh yeah.

- [Ricky] Alright Joe, we're gonna tag this one.

You reckon he's 18 inches?

- [Joe] He's not quite 18 inches.

- Just gonna put a little incision right there and this tag right here.

Tagging program first one we've done.

And here it just goes in like a toggle bolt, breaks that air sac and could get us a hundred dollar bill if you catch him again.

- Alright.

- Can't catch him today though.

- Oh come on.

We can't just keep him in the box.

- [Ricky] He's lively too.

Didn't hurt a bit.

Alright partner, good night.

- Mine came off.

- [Ricky] Well mine's on.

Good night.

- We doubled up right there.

- [Ricky] Ah!

It pulled off.

- He was comin to the boat.

- [Ricky] Nah, he pulled off.

- Oh man.

I tell you right there now, that was solid right there.

- What you got there big guy?

- Another little grey yeah, that's a nice fish.

- Guess so.

- [Ricky] Pretty grey's right under the boat wasn't he?

- [Joe] The last one I caught was right under the boat.

- [Ricky] Yeah that's a smaller looking little grey trout.

- [Joe] Yep.

- [Ricky] Pretty pretty.

That's a good fish Joe.

That's about the smallest we've caught now, the rest have been two, two and a half.

- [Joe] [grunts] There's a good hit right there.

- [Ricky] But that's a good fish.

- [Joe] It got away from me.

Oh, you not gonna tag that one?

- [Ricky] Nah.

- [Joe] Okay, we'll slip her back in there.

- [Ricky] Good to go buddy.

Good one.

You're gonna make me put on a chartreuse tail inch.

- [Joe] I aint gonna make you.

- [Ricky] [laughs] If you catch one more you are.

[both laugh] - [Joe] Nah, I've had my share of hits.

- [Ricky] Well you had fish on a while ago we just ... - [Joe] I think I'm just hung underneath.

- [Ricky] Yeah you are, you're hung alright.

- [Joe] Yep.

- [Ricky] Oh, son.

Play it now.

That's gonna be a nice grey there.

- [Joe] Yep.

I'm hung.

[both laugh] I'm hung on trouts now.

- [Ricky] That or a big lizard fish.

- [Joe] Oh no, not those [drowned out by Ricky laughing] - [Ricky] Nah, you got what we're looking right there.

Come on.

- [Joe] You might need the net on this one.

- [Ricky] Am I goin to?

- [Joe] Maybe.

- [Ricky] I don't even know how to operate this thing.

- [Joe] Yeah you do.

[Ricky laughs] You gotta be the net man if you can't catch fish, you gotta be the net man.

- [Ricky] You're right about that, I don't mind, just get him up here.

- [Joe] Well I mean, he's got somethin to say about that right now.

- [Ricky] Uh huh.

- [Joe] I aint sure ...

If that's a grey that's a nice fish.

- [Ricky] I'll tell you what, we've caught some three pounders out here.

Tell you what, a grey for his size I out pulled him, speckled, I hate to say that.

That's the truth.

- [Joe] I wouldn't thought you would've ever said that.

- [Ricky] They will.

- [Joe] Not old Speck Kellum.

- [Ricky] A grey's a whole lot stronger than a ... Look at that.

[both laughing triumphantly] Now that is one of the prettiest ones we've caught.

I will give you that big guy.

Joe that was solid there bud, that's a pretty pounder right there.

Leave that DOA close by cuz I've gotta put it on mine.

- [Joe] [laughs] No no no.

- [Ricky] I've got you right there.

Little incision.

Somebodies gonna be lucky when they get a hold of that baby.

Hundred dollar tag right there now.

Ease him on in there.

Tagging program, these babies are making a comeback.

- [Joe] They are making a comeback.

- [Ricky] Alright Joe.

- I'll take another one of those.

- I'm glad you know how to catch em.

[Joe laughs] - [Joe] Now Ricky, the tagging program, is that from the division marine fisheries or ... - [Ricky] It is.

They started it kinda right after Tim Ellis with NC State finished up with the speckled trout tagging.

I've been doing that for three years and that's pretty much done.

Tim's still doing a fin sampling project with them, but yeah just picked up the greys ... Oh, watch out now.

We need him in the boat to tag him.

- I understand.

- But just tryin to learn a little ... [sighs in frustration] - [Joe] You gotta put him in the boat to tag him.

[Ricky laughs] - Tryin to learn a little more about em you know?

You really don't know the migration pattern or anything about the greys, we know the speckles are showing up in Chesapeake, Virginia, the one's I'm tagging here.

So you gotta think the greys, there's no tellin where they're traveling to and from so, just tryin to learn more about the fish so we can manage them a little bit better.

You know it'd be good for everybody and especially good for the fish, that's the main thing.

- So you've had speckles caught in Chesapeake that you tagged here.

- I have.

Return tags.

- That's interesting.

- I had a wildlife officer from Virginia catch one.

- [Joe] What you got there Mr. Kellum?

- I probably got your lizard fish but nah ... - [Joe] Is that a cute little grey?

- [Ricky] Yes it is.

Pretty thing.

- [Joe] You need some help?

- [Ricky] I believe I can manage.

- [Joe] That'll be your first one.

- [Ricky] Look at that.

Isn't that beautiful right there?

- [Joe] They are pretty fish.

- [Ricky] So these things have saved me the last couple of weeks.

Yeah bring a charter up here and pop them things.

Look at that.

- [Joe] They're pretty fish.

And solid man, they're healthy.

Of course there's bait, man this river's full of bait.

- All the glass minnows, that's the thing with this tideline, it's full of bait.

I missed two or three.

- So they're eating glass minnows, just like the Spanish in the ocean.

- Yep.

I've not cut any of them open to see, but I mean well you've seen the Spanish already this morning working them over.

But yeah that ... Can you anchor us right here?

- I think I can.

[relaxing acoustic guitar music] - [Joe] Ricky when did they show up here?

This is the last week of August now, but have they been here a week, a month, or ... - I've been catching them for about the last two weeks but I really hadn't tried it Joe.

Usually when I see the bait start showing up, the glass minnows especially, cuz just like in the ocean you know these glass minnows I feel like that's where they're comin from is that ocean.

That's why the Spanish are in here jumpin and as long as the bait's here they'll be here.

- When I saw the Spanish jumpin in here July fourth weekend a month ago.

- Oh yeah, and see I didn't.

I didn't really stop and try, to be honest with you.

If the bait's here, and if them Spanish were here they're not here sightseeing, they're here eating.

But if the bait's here, you know just like anything, if there's a source of food a lot of times there's gonna be something there eating it.

So it's always worth trying it, but I just stop by here on the way in and give it five minutes.

I've not set on them and actually fished for them like we're doing today, and it's paying off a little bit.

Oh yeah.

- [Joe] Oh yeah you've got in the nest over there aint you boy?

- [Ricky] Yeah I did.

This is what we're lookin too.

- [Joe] Here he comes.

- [Ricky] TFO buddy.

It feels good on it.

Now I'm gonna keep these small ones off of you.

Let me tell you, I'll take them all day.

- [Joe] On this tackle.

- [Ricky] They're kinda fat.

They're full of roe too just like the specks.

Spawning.

Gonna let her have some babies.

Alright I got em figured out now [laughs].

- [Joe] Tell you what, on this tackle they're a lot of fun.

- [Ricky] They are.

And I tell you, you can handle a good sized fish on a six and a half foot rod.

Open water like this, that's what that drag's for y'know?

People get scared when they hear that drag start slipping.

I tell them ... - They get excited.

- That's why I got 150 yards of line.

If you catch a trout and it runs 150 yards of line ... [talking over each other] Yeah, he's gonna be the one you're lookin.

- [Ricky] We're picking it up now this tide's getting close to being ready to ... - [Joe] Turn around?

- [Ricky] Yeah.

Just another good quality fish.

- [Joe] Yeah I think you found the nest of em in there.

- Another good quality grey right in the corner of the mouth aint hurt a bit.

Beauty.

Look at that thing.

Looks just like a speckle on his head don't he?

- [Joe] Uh huh.

- [Ricky] Tell you what they're doing, they're thumping it now.

Just kind of dragging it.

No twitch.

Whatever it is he finally ... - [Joe] Yep, finally got it did he?

- It took four or five jabs but ... - [Joe] Well he's bumped you how many times?

- I don't know.

I just hope it's a trout.

- [Joe] A dozen or more?

He's got some shoulders on him eh?

- [Ricky] Well, you know how them lizards will do.

Hold on, this one we're looking ... - [Joe] That's old Mr. Trout right there.

- [Ricky] It is.

Hard to come by, but I'll take it.

Look at that pretty thing.

He's a beauty.

That one sucked it down.

DOA done the job that time.

The chartreuse tail, they can't stand it.

- [Joe] That old chartreuse tail's been working aint it?

- [Ricky] You caused me to switch.

Beauty.

- I snuck in your spot while you had your back turned.

- Great, now you the grave digger.

[Joe laughs] It's alright.

I got em now.

That big trout hit me.

That was the same bite ... Watch this right here.

I took that thing just a little pop, he aint gonna do it when you're ready.

[both talking over each other] - [Joe] I'm on top of the water.

[Ricky laughs] I mean that fish hit way up here.

- [Ricky] Oh there he was, right there!

- [Joe] Good night, okay.

- [Ricky] There he is.

Oh, son.

Got em coming to me.

- [Joe] You've got a little nest of em.

- [Ricky] Hold on, he's coming to the boat fast.

- [Joe] Catch up.

- [Ricky] Son, he's there.

Son he hit that thing.

Hold on.

- [Joe] Gonna need the net?

- [Ricky] Nah I believe I got it.

- [Joe] Oh yeah, that's a pretty fish.

That'd be a tag fish there.

- [Ricky] Yeah he's a beauty.

He hit me good now.

[fish splashing around] If I can get him up here.

That's a pretty one, I think we oughta tag down.

- [Joe] Yeah, you want to?

- [Ricky] Yeah, let me do it.

- [Joe] Alright, let me get this in, I'll help you.

- [Ricky] Get that little incision, it aint gonna hurt much boy.

Been thinking about the other tag.

- [Joe] It'll just sting a little at first.

- [Ricky] Make a little incision, the tag will do the rest of the work.

And I've seen some that's been caught six months later, the tag's just a little red but the fish isn't hurting.

- [Joe] There's one!

- [Ricky] Get him!

I need another one up here.

Alright I'm gonna let this one go.

- [Joe] While you're down there, do something with that one.

- Oh shit, I've got it.

Come on.

All this darting in this tide change.

Tide changes it'll turn em on.

- [Joe] That's exactly what it is.

- I tell you what, he bit it good too.

- [Joe] He bit it good.

- Little DOA's doing the job now.

- [Joe] Got that one a little deep didn't we?

- Yeah that's ...

There we go, he's good, he aint hurt.

He's a little smaller, we'll let him go.

He didn't act like he was hurt did he?

- [Joe] No.

- Alright bud.

- [Joe] They're thumpin it now.

There's another one now.

Well ... - [Ricky] Get him, I'm right behind you, he's coming to you aint he?

- [Joe] Yeah he's coming to me.

- [Ricky] Some of them things will do that.

- [Joe] Figure out they're hooked and then they get up here put a little show on.

- [Ricky] It's starting to perk up with this tide.

- [Joe] Yeah, that's a little better fish, yeah.

- [Ricky] Sure is.

Nothing wrong with that.

Hey for inside, I've never caught greys inside ... [talking over each other] - [Joe] You wanna tag that one?

- [Ricky] It's up to you.

It's a good one isn't it?

Let's tag it.

I tell you Joe, the growth of the specks are an inch a month I'm curious to see what the greys are.

- [Joe] Man I can't believe they grow an inch a month.

- They do.

I mean when you get fish back a year later, and you know we date em, log em, I measure em.

You know this one was 16.

So in a year's time ... Look at him, he's just stunned but he's good to go.

He thinks he's still got a hook in his mouth.

I'm just curious to see you know?

- [Joe] That's interesting.

- Joe I got a understanding of why we used light tackle that day now.

- Well yeah we've always said pick your tackle for the size fish you're gonna go after, and we knew ahead of time Ricky had bit all these fish this area that we were fishing before, so he knew that we were gonna be up to two or three pounds.

So that's why I wanted to go with ultra light tackle.

You know most of the time when people trout fish, they're a little heavier tackle, a more substantial rod, little bigger reel, but I thought today's trip, and we'll learn more in Geartime, why they went with the ultra light tackle and soft baits and it just kind of worked together.

- Well let's go find out more, let's join Ricky right now in Geartime.

[relaxing acoustic guitar music] - Well Ricky, I appreciate the invitation this morning, this was a lot of fun.

- It was.

- And educational man, I had no idea about these trout moving and the way you tag them and you've found speckled trout as far as the Chesapeake bays when you catch them.

- [Ricky] Several of them showed up in the Chesapeake, Virginia area.

- [Joe] Well that is interesting.

- [Ricky] Yeah, like six months now.

- [Joe] And they grow an inch a month.

- [Ricky] That's the specks, curious to see if the greys are gonna follow the same pattern you know, cuz that's a pretty good growth rate.

- That's fast.

I had no idea.

I figured they might grow two inches a year maybe.

- [Ricky] But that's been the pattern and we tagged four or five today and I gotta get busy and tag a bunch of them.

The jerk bait done good today, that DOA jerk bait.

- Yeah, that DOA did absolutely a good job.

- The big head, that's a good combination, especially on this setup, this 1,000 Penn Battle on the TFO 6-foot, man they felt good on that thing.

- [Joe] Well that soft mouth you know, you can't put much weight on it.

- No, you gotta play em.

Cuz sometimes they're just barely hooked, and that's the fun of it anyway.

- But the whole key was that tide, we got right on the tail end of that low falling tide.

- Yeah we had a small window and you know the wind, I think it kind of laid out for us a little bit, we had some weather come through this morning, but it was ideal.

I'd have liked to have another hour but you always want another hour when the fish is there.

- That's right, they bit as long as it was following, and then when it ebbed they kind of shut down for a little bit, when it turned around, started moving again, they picked right back up.

- [Joe] Yeah and I usually kind of anchor in that area, but you know you had your trolling motor with that navigation on it to hold that anchor setting.

- It keeps you from having to deal with that, get that off your mind but ... - You done caused me to have to go buy one now.

[Joe laughs] Cuz that was neat.

Just hit it and stay right where you want to.

- Well when I go monofilament line I need to concentrate because I'm not used to that.

You don't feel the bite with that mono like you do with the braid.

- Not when you're accustomed to the braid.

And I switched many years ago and it's so hard to go back you know?

- [Joe] Yeah it is.

- Yeah and I was throwing braid, you stuck with the mono and you hung in there good with it.

- Well, we broke one fish out with it.

Six pound.

- You also caught one.

You also caught the nicest fish, I hate to remind you of that, but that was a good fish, you caught probably a good three pounds.

We got him tagged so I'm gonna catch him by next year, we'll be in business.

- I hope to see where he ends up.

Well I appreciate the invitation.

Thank you sir.

- Yes sir, we'll do it again.

- As always Ricky, thank you for that valuable information.

Now if you wanna know more and you wanna talk to Ricky about this, his number's right there on your screen, we urge you to give him a call.

Now, let's catch up with Donna, she's in the kitchen, she's got a recipe today using shrimp.

[relaxing guitar music] - Hi today in the kitchen we're gonna make a sheet pan shrimp boil.

And a lot of times people make shrimp boils and it's a big production, well I have got one for you that you can make in a quick snap and you'll be ready to go and it's wonderful.

So we're gonna start out with our shrimp has already been peeled and deveined so we're ready to go there, you can leave your tails on if you like, I just like to take mine off cuz it's just easier when I'm eating.

I have my corn, which is just cut into ... You take your cob and you just break it into fourths.

We're gonna use some kielbasa that is already precooked so it really just will warm up in your oven and be nice and toasty and crunchy, which is really good.

We're gonna use some Old Bay spice, we're gonna use some garlic, and then we're gonna use some potatoes.

And you can either parboil your potatoes, or what I like to do is just make sure everything is cut about the same size so it will cook at the same time.

So we're going to go ahead, and I have a bunch of the little potatoes, we're gonna pull those out, and then we're going to pop those into about a fourth of a cup of melted butter.

We're gonna add our shrimp to that.

We're gonna add our garlic.

And our kielbasa.

So we're just gonna add everything into our bowl here and then we're gonna toss it all.

So I'm gonna cut my potatoes just so they're about the same size as everything else.

Like I said you can parboil them, but that's just one more step right?

And we don't wanna have to do that.

So we're just gonna cut these.

You can use leftover potatoes, if you have some leftover potatoes those would be great too cuz those would just warm up in there.

And if you wanna add in other things that you like in your shrimp boil that I haven't included you know, that's great too.

So we're just gonna dump all that in.

We're gonna put our Old Bays on top.

We're gonna give this a good toss so that everything is coated.

I have lined my baking sheet because that's one less thing I have to clean, or I can just rinse it off instead of having to scrub.

You can spray this or use a nonstick foil if you like.

So it's all nice and coated, then we're just gonna pour this in.

And now I'm gonna do my corn cuz that was a lot to do at one time.

You just give that a toss and get all those final ingredients off of there.

Spread this out, get my corn in there.

And just spread this out evenly on your baking sheet.

And you're gonna bake this at about 400 degrees for about 12-13 minutes, depending on the size of your shrimp, the size of your vegetables.

Everything should cook up nice and neat and tidy for you.

And then you're ready to go and you can serve this with other things that you normally serve your shrimp boil with.

You could do some cornbread or some biscuits would be great, some vegetables, maybe even a salad.

And so this is what it looks like when it's finished, you can see we have everything is nicely coated and tender the way it should be, and you're ready to go.

So I hope you enjoyed the sheet pan shrimp boil, and I look forward to seeing you next time here on Simple Cooking.

- Thanks Donna for that recipe, and there are more just like that in our cookbook that you can get online.

Joe what do you expect to learn from today's activities?

- Really movement of grey trout here in North Carolina waters.

By tagging them, when they're recaptured we'll know a little bit about it.

And in this situation we tagged four trout.

The tags were worth $100 a piece, six months after we tagged these fish one was caught just a few miles north.

We were at the river inlet right near it, the fish were caught near Brown's inlet, which is just north of New River and so it helps track the fish and we just try to learn more about the fish that frequent North Carolina waters and I think anytime they do that, the more we can learn, the better off we are.

- Just makes our place here a better place to fish, right?

- Exactly.

- No doubt about it.

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.

[light instrumental music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪