[gentle orchestral fanfare] ♪ (man) Sixty-pounder, seventy-pounder maybe?

Now I've gotta hand-to-hand with 'em-- hand-to-fin.

Black tip!

Ha, ha, ha!

(man #2) He had to splash me.

Now I gotta clean my glasses.

- [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 & 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.

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

Today's program is gonna be one of great interest because today, we're headed down to the Cape Fear River, and we're gonna be fishing for shark today.

That's right, the-- these shark shows that we've done in the past are all a lot of fun.

They're strong fish, and if you want somethin' that will give you a good, good test on your tackle, sharks tend to be that way.

This show is a catch-and-release show, and all the shark shows we've done have all been catch-and-release.

But we're targeting blacktips behind Bald Head Island, near the mouth of the Cape Fear River, in an area that draws sharks in the summertime when the bait fish are there.

These are some channels that the guys have learned to fish this time of year using cut bait, and we caught some pretty sharks.

"Geartime" is all about heavy tackle.

(Joe) Yeah, you really need to gear up for the size fish that you're gonna plan to catch, and these guys know, on average, these sharks are gonna run 40 to 50 pounds.

Not unusual to catch one 100-plus, so you need to have the right tackle, some stout rods, good reels with good drag systems, and you'll see as the show unfolds why you need that.

And today's recipe-- it's all about scallops.

Real tasty scallop recipe-- kinda goes with the show today.

It's a coastal recipe.

(John) We got a lot to do, so let's go to work here today on the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

(man) Nicholas, here we are again this summer in our shark hole, gettin' ready to set a chum slick out, see if we can get a hot blacktip bite goin' on.

That smells!

Yeah, sometimes, I mean, these fish get in here fired up, and it's just one after the other after the other.

They, you know, jump and airing out and just a lotta fun on some light spinnin' tackle.

Something to pull drag, man.

Heck yeah.

Nobody doesn't like a tight line.

You know, I take younger anglers here that don't have a lot of experience with, you know, bigger rods and really get 'em some practice with fish that will pull drag.

I mean, we've got 300 yards of 30- and 50-pound braid, and a lot of these fish will burn it down.

We may have to pull anchor and chase some.

I mean, they're good sport.

If people knew the size of the sharks in this river, they'd never swim.

Never swim in it again.

Let's get set up.

Get 'em goin' on.

Let's get our chum line out.

You got everything rigged up?

Pull it out of the buckets here.

Yeah, it's always a fun job.

Pull yours out; we'll drop 'em overboard.

Yeah, that nice suction sound.

Heh, heh!

Here we go.

Let 'er rip.

Look at that!

That's just-- there's some soup.

Heh, heh-- you thirsty?

Yeah, lunch?

Cut up some fresh-- fresh menhaden, put 'em in these buckets and, you know, keep some chunks flowin' back there and-- July, August.

What do you want, one balloon and two bottom?

We'll fish a top bait, and we're fishin' the edge of a deep hole here with some incoming tide, and we'll be spreadin' our chum slick, you know, off the edge of the river channel and beyond and might get some fish come up here right tight.

Maybe get some, you know, bite shots and-- and get 'em-- drop the bait right in their mouth.

I'll rig up a real light tackle, but we'll fish a couple on bottom.

Fish that balloon on top and see if we can't get 'em fired up.

Cool, man.

[line whirring] (Jon) Wow!

(Nicholas) Watch this thing when you step back, bud.

[whirring continues] We've caught a lotta sharks in here, up to 100, 150 pounds maybe.

Pretty sure it's what we've got.

Well, if the sharks are here, we're not in the wrong spot.

(Nicholas) No.

[whirring continues] (Nicholas) Ha, ha...ha!

She's comin' this way-- well, was.

(Nicholas) Yeah.

Heh, heh...heh!

A big old blacktip or bull or something.

Let me move this balloon rod out of your way.

Sixty-pounder, seventy-pounder maybe?

Now I've gotta hand-to-hand with 'em-- hand-to-fin.

Blacktip!

Ha, ha, ha!

(Jon) He had to splash me.

Now I gotta clean my glasses.

(Nicholas) Heh, heh!

I don't think I'll be grabbing him.

(Jon) Grab him by the lip.

See ya, buddy.

(Nicholas) He's plenty green.

(Jon) All right, we're not in the wrong spot.

(Nicholas) Think a little chunk in the chum slick's gonna bring your sharks up to ya?

(Jon) Can't hurt, I don't think.

I mean, like you were sayin', uh, one chunk every once in a while, just as they're sniffin' along in a chum slick, maybe one chunk here and there will just pique their interest to keep comin'.

We need to get one up behind the boat, where we can sight cast 'em with a little chunk bait.

Throw that light rod.

Some of these sharks that are 20-, 30-pounders would be fun on a light rod.

Our luck, we'll catch one of these 150 ones.

Yeah, it'd be all you could handle on some of 'em that are in here.

How often do you like to throw the chunks?

When the other one disappears, throw a new one?

Yeah, I think you were... [splashing] talkin' along those lines.

Don't feed 'em; just keep 'em comin'.

Right.

That's the theory.

I'm full of theories.

I know you are.

(Nicholas) I'll leave him a little slack on the drag here.

[reel ticking] I'll throw this back out when you get him close... unless you can't handle him.

I don't know.

He's all of probably 35 or 40 pounds.

[ticking continues] Come on up top, boy.

Let's see you.

He's not exactly... tearin' it up.

Ooh!

Big head shake.

(Jon) That was a bite; that was a cool bite.

That was a great bite.

You want to finish this?

No, here, you can grab him.

(Jon, chuckling) No, wait a minute!

I'm not gonna take the pliers to him.

(Nicholas) Aw, come on!

You scared?

(Jon) Yeah.

(Nicholas) Heh, heh...heh!

(Jon) Little bit.

Want me to try to get it out?

(Nicholas) Yeah, get 'em; grab him, man.

Heh, heh...heh!

Great, now, he's gonna jump in the boat.

Pretty work.

(Jon) heh, heh OK. (Nicholas, sighing) whew All right, well, pretty little shark.

(Jon) You wanna check the balloon?

Yeah, I believe I will.

♪ ♪ ♪ (Jon) Decent fish.

(Nicholas) Get your balloon out of the way.

[reel whirring and ticking] Heh, heh...heh!

Uh-huh.

[quick whirring] He's pullin' him out a little string.

(Jon) Doesn't like being hooked.

(Nicholas) I don't blame him.

[intermittent whirring] I'm gonna put this balloon short right here in the slick while you're messin' with that shark.

[whirring increases] (Jon) He might come up on top.

Jump for us, buddy.

Hand me one of those little rod gimbal cups.

(Nicholas) Ah, swimmin' in the bay.

Ha, ha...ha!

Come on, jump, sharky.

Roll him up here beside you.

I wonder what he's gonna be, a sand shark?

(Jon) A brown one.

(Nicholas) One with teeth--heh, heh!

(Jon) Yeah...don't know what kind.

Dusky.

(Nicholas) He's not finished yet.

Ooh, that hook's gonna be hard to get out.

(Jon) He can have that hook.

(Nicholas) I'm gonna let him.

All right, bring him over here.

(Jon) Not quite as feisty as the blacktips.

(Nicholas) No, sir.

Let me get the blade outta here.

Play with him for a minute.

[clacking] All right.

Watch, that weight's gonna come over and knock me out.

(Jon) That'd be funny.

Hey, little shark.

(Jon) He's gonna get mad.

See ya, buddy.

(Nicholas) heh, heh Huff, what do ya reckon we'll catch in terms of species of sharks?

What do you see down here?

You see your blacktips and-- and your duskies, maybe a bonnethead.

Right.

And smaller brown-- kind of sand sharks, but I'd say mostly blacktips and some duskies in 20- to 50-pound range, somewhere in there, and plenty of fish, hundred pounds and bigger.

Sure.

If I was gonna target-- say we had a target species, it'd be the blacktip, spinner shark.

I don't know that there's a lotta difference in the species, but you know, plenty sporty on 30-pound tackle and jumpin', and they're great-- great sport fish.

Yeah, gotta be good for a charter or somethin' like that.

You can take some kids and-- and catch somethin' jumps around, pulls a bunch of drag.

Definitely, I mean, they're fun to catch.

For sure, anything that pulls drag is... great.

Want me to get the balloon out of the way?

There he is!

Whoa!

Goin' crazy.

He is.

You're over top.

(Jon) I mighta just had a bite there, to tell you the truth.

(Nicholas) Blacktip goin' fairly haywire.

(Jon) What we're lookin' for.

(Nicholas) Yeah, he was fired up.

Get him up here close.

Is he a big one?

Nah, he's somewhere between 20 and 40 there.

You know, he looked pretty decent.

Here he comes, right here on top.

He's just a little sporty size.

(Jon) Fifteen, twenty pounds, maybe?

(Nicholas) Yeah, maybe 20.

He looked bigger when he first jumped.

Always do.

Yep.

Let's see if he doesn't get a little second wind here.

Can get fired up.

We'll let him have that hook.

That won't really bother him too much.

No, it'll rust out in a day.

Look at him.

Go ahead and grab him, Jon.

Look at him snappin'.

I'll let him have that hook and let him get on his way.

(Nicholas) Well, why don't you go ahead and cut him off.

I'll pull him up here for ya.

(Jon) Oh, a 15-pounder.

(Nicholas) Watch him.

They like to get crazy beside the boat.

Little sharky-- that was fun.

Nice bite.

Cool.

(Jon) See if we can't get a little bigger one.

We know they're in there.

If he's in here, they're probably in here.

He made a nice jump there behind the balloon rig.

Thought I was gettin' a bite.

I don't know if I got a small bite.

Or maybe your bait flipped out when he saw that shark come right by him.

Cool.

Well, Mr. Huff, you got me here in the middle of July.

Are we at the top of the season for the old Mr. Shark?

(Jon) Probably so, now through the end of summer, you know, the inside, you get a lotta menhaden.

I think the sharks are in here feedin' on the menhaden-- blacktips, anyway.

In the fall, you'll get a lot of blacktips along the beach.

Spinners, blacktips, kinda interchangeable, but chasin' the mullet down the beach.

You catch 'em almost any time of the year-- early spring.

But in here, in the river and edges of channels and holes, I think summertime's probably your best bet.

Old razor mouth.

June, July and August, that's it.

[reel whirring and ticking] Ooh!

Big head shake.

(Jon) That was a bite.

That was a cool bite.

Yeah, that was a great bite.

Every time I'm about ready to nod off and take a nap-- Uh!

(Nicholas) Oh, blacktip.

No wonder we saw him jump.

(Jon) He jumped; I looked right at him.

Couldn't tell you what he was.

(Nicholas) They're pretty little sharks.

I love that they look kinda like a cobia with that little stripe down the side.

Let me see if I can roll him.

Roll 'er over there for me.

Ooh, he swallowed it.

Circle hooks did not work in that case.

(Jon) Off he goes!

We were right that day with heavy tackle.

Yeah, and you could see, those sharks-- any shark really, no matter what size, are pretty powerful animals, and you really need to have the right tackle to do this, and you don't want to wear the fish out either.

Good heavy equipment will bring 'em in fairly quickly, and that's what we wanted to do that day.

But, uh, a great, uh, opportunity to feel some-- some really, uh, good fight on the end of a rod, and we've got lots of sharks up and down the coast there.

You know, particularly the Cape Lookout area is known for the variety-- variety of sharks that we have there, so if you've never tried it, give it a shot.

Give Jon a call.

He'll take you shark fishing, and it's a lotta fun.

Let's find out more; let's go to "Geartime."

[mellow acoustic guitar leads soft rock arrangement] ♪ Well, Nicholas, we had a good day down here shark fishin' in Southport.

The weather was nice, you know.

Not as humid as it's been and real nice, and it took us a little bit to catch bait, but you got the net on some menhaden, uh.

You know, we use fresh and dead menhaden and-- (Nicholas) They were hard to find.

Yeah, but, you know, when we did finally put the net on some, and that's what we needed, we fished in some spots with some deeper drop-offs and some-- some heavy current, um, yeah, fishin' two deep rigs and a float rig, and our deep rig was a basic fish finder.

Sure, Carolina rig.

Carolina rig with a--a swivel, a short 2-foot section of 80-pound fluorocarbon, and a circle hook worked really well.

Didn't lose as many fish.

Circle hook gets 'em in the corner.

You can cut 'em off without trouble.

Feel like we had as many bites on mono and caught as many fish on mono as wire-- or fluorocarbon, I should say.

Definitely, you know, and our top rig was a little wire trace-- a light wire trace with a circle hook.

Again, you can cut it off without gettin' in the way.

About six feet up and tied a balloon right above the swivel so you can watch it.

Lotta fun to watch.

We had some good surface bites.

You know, it's a lotta fun with heavy spinnin' tackle-- 30- and 50-pound braid.

You can put all the heat you want on.

Put some heat on 'em, see your tackle limits.

You get some sharks pushin' 100 pounds, and you know, we've seen some, you know, well over jumpin', and it's a good fish.

A blacktip shark, he's gonna air out.

He's gonna get some good bites, and you know, he'll burn 200 yards off the spool pretty quick, and you can see where you can put some heat on that.

You know, yeah, pretty-- pretty fun day, um.

I enjoyed fishin' with ya, you know.

Yeah, we always have a good time.

Always seem to find a fish or two.

Yeah, I'm sure we'll do it again in the near future, go shark fishin'.

I mean, you know-- They're here and fun to catch.

(Jon, chuckling) Yeah!

You get the action red hot and get plenty of bites.

You can get some good jumps outta some blacktips, uh.

It's a lotta fun.

The circle hook, you can cut it out.

Every one was in the corner of the jaw.

Very few had it, you know, anywhere past the corner.

You cut it out, and it's gonna come out in a day or two.

That's not a stainless hook.

Rust right out.

I had a lotta fun, man; enjoyed it.

We'll do it again.

OK. Well, you see why that heavy tackle was so important.

Now, if you wanna go, give Jon Huff a call.

His number's on your screen; be sure and give him a call.

Now, let's catch up with Donna.

She's in the kitchen; she's got some scallops.

♪ ♪ ♪ Hi, today in the kitchen, we're makin' scallops with taco pickles.

This is a great recipe, super fun, something you can make ahead of time and have in your fridge so that when you do have friends over or you want a quick dinner, you're ready to go.

So we're gonna heat our skillet.

I have some canola oil in here.

I have these beautiful scallops, and we're gonna place these into our pan, and we're just gonna sear these.

Scallops take about seven minutes total to cook, so quick and easy.

Three minutes on one side, four minutes on the other; you're done.

So we're just gonna place those in there and get a nice good sear goin'.

[sizzling] And then, we're gonna put some salt and pepper on this.

And just salt 'em and do some pepper.

You can put some spicy red pepper on here if you want as well.

So those are ready to go.

So while they're cooking, we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna make, um, a vinegar base for our pickles, and so, I have some sugar in my pan.

We're gonna add white vinegar, cider vinegar... and some red wine vinegar, and you're just gonna give that a stir.

And just continuously stir that until it starts to boil and all of your sugar has dissolved.

So it's quick and easy, and then you're gonna chill this down.

This is something' you might do ahead of time, a day ahead.

You're gonna chill it to at least room temperature before we're gonna pour it over all of our vegetables that we're gonna pickle.

So I'm gonna give these a turn real quick.

You can see they have a nice-- they're startin' to get nice and golden brown.

[sizzling] We're just gonna let these finish, and we're gonna go ahead and go over and start workin' on our pickles.

So we're gonna use a mandolin, or I like to use my mandolin.

You can use a sharp knife if you like, if you don't have a mandolin, or you can also use a vegetable peeler.

So I have my mandolin set to be a thin slice, and I'm gonna take my radishes and just slice along-- You have to be careful; this can-- make sure you pay attention when you're using it.

And we're just gonna get a nice, thin slice.

We're gonna take our carrots and do the same thing.

[clacking] And then, I'm gonna take my jalapeño, and I just cut and seeded and took out the membrane.

And you can just run this along your mandolin and get a nice matchstick if you like, or if you want, you can take your peeler and just peel your carrots, and you're gonna get a nice, great shave.

We're gonna fill up our jar, and I have one here that I've done.

We're also gonna put a handful of cilantro in this.

So this would make a great gift to give.

Instead of making it during the Christmas time of year, you could do it during the summertime, when all the vegetables are nice and fresh, and it would be a great thing to give to someone.

You're gonna fill it up.

We're gonna top it with our cooled vinegar.

You're gonna put it in your fridge until you chill it down, and then you're ready.

So I have my seared scallops.

I'm gonna use my tortillas, put some scallops in my tortilla, top it with my pickled taco-- my pickles, and you're ready to go.

Quick and easy, it's a great thing.

You can use shrimp; you can use fish.

You can use a combination if you like.

So I hope you enjoy the scallops and the taco pickles, and I look forward to seeing you next time here on "Simple Cooking."

What a great recipe.

There are more in our cookbook.

Just go online to Carolina Outdoor Journal, and you'll find out more about our cookbook and how you get those great recipes.

Joe, let's go back and talk about the sharks right quick.

Really, a lot of fun, and the North Carolina coast is noted for shark populations.

As I mentioned earlier, we've got a number of different species that frequent our coast, especially in the summertime, when this was done.

Blacktips, uh, are really known, uh, for their fighting ability, uh.

They're close kin to the spinner shark, and both species do jump, uh.

We didn't have any jump that day.

We were expecting to see some, but they didn't do it, but they're known to go airborne when they feel that hook, but it is, for the most part, a catch-and-release fishery.

We--blacktips are good on the table.

You can eat 'em.

They are edible, but most of the shows that we have done-- actually, all the shows we've done in the past featuring sharks has been catch-and-release.

But if you have the right tackle, and again, you get some real stout tackle and you get some bait, uh-- fresh bait's always the best, but that day, we had kind of a mix.

They had caught some bait the day before and had the chum line out, putting out the chum that draws sharks closer to the boat, so all that came together, and we just had a lotta fun.

Just another great day in North Carolina.

For Joe Albea, I'm John Moore.

We thank you 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 & 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.

[light instrumental music] ♪