[piano intro] - Get him with the back of the net.

- Did you see how I recovered without you even noticing.

That's alright, not this one though.

- Oh man we're holding him over there.

- Son.

You can't keep a good man down hahaha.

- Nope.

- He's coming, he's charging the boat.

- He is charging.

- Do a retake, here you go.

Hahaha, you recovered.

- Put him right there.

- I believe that other one was a little bigger.

- That's alright.

Take what the good lord gives you.

[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 if you like fishing for Speckled Trout you're gonna like today's show, Joe it is all about Speckled Trout.

- It really is John we got a fun trip for you today.

It's a fall trip, October, for Speckled Trout behind, well actually near the new river inlet, back in the marshes.

It's all tied related, as is most of our coastal fishing you need to know your tides because fish are driven to eat during certain times, so this particularly was true on this trip.

A good class of fish, and a lot of fun.

- What about Gear Time today?

- The guys will share with us the plastics we use, the plastic baits we used today, and talk about the tackle too.

But again you can't stress more the need to know your tide table, and when to fish, cause that day once the tide dropped out the fish ended.

Anyway, good show today.

- And the recipe today, we got some crab meat going on.

- Really good tasting crab, recipe from Donna today, right from her kitchen.

- Alright let's go to work, it's time to go fishing here on the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

- [Ricky] Alright Dean I'm rigging this DOA shrimp, with a jig head.

Good quality, look at the gap on that thing.

- Nice.

- Trout gets that in his jaw, we gonna see him.

See how clear this water is?

- Right.

- Just that clear metal flake, I think you got what, a natural?

All day it's been working good, we're catching this tide, incoming tide.

- Just kinda bouncing along with the current.

- That's it, making it look natural.

Waiting for that thud.

Gonna put this loop knot on this.

Just give that bait some more freedom.

That one killed it right there.

- Get the net.

- Perdy perdy.

- He's not happy.

He's a solid one.

- Yup perdy fish.

- That's been the class last couple weeks.

Beauty ain't he?

- Let's get it started.

- Yeah sir, let's do it again.

- Watch him right here.

Hehe, tried to spray me.

- Ricky I know we got a rising tide, do you have a preference when you're down here near the inlet like this on tide?

- Yeah about the time we left, a dot while ago, it was dead low just getting ready to start in.

You can usually see that dirty water kinda move out and that green water come in outta the ocean.

Man it gets right when this tide gets up here in the marsh like this.

Just that, see like the clean water, matters back here.

I just like high because when it falls out, see it's four-five foot lower than this.

- Right.

- And there's not a whole lot of water back here anyway.

We're fishing probably six foot deep.

If you lose four foot you ain't got a lot.

- There he is.

- Sit down on that one buddy.

That's the kinda stick I like to see Dean.

That one's perdy there.

Hit it good didn't he?

- Yup.

- Bring him up here, beauty.

All of them just solid trout.

- Yeah they all solid.

- Mmm, got that tide working against him.

He's like that double, that double take.

You see him get hung in the net?

- Ohh yeah.

- I tried to knock him off Dean.

- That's alright, we got him.

Finally got him hooked right.

- You got it good.

Quick pop.

- He's trying to figure out... Quick pop from the outside in, there you go.

- Beauty buddy.

- I like it.

- We got a bite here now looks like.

And that DOA's got it good.

Good gap on it now.

Do it again.

That's a good one Dean.

Dean I would love to know if that's the one that got off of yours.

- That can't even be right.

- Nah it ain't right.

- Now this is a good fish I seen way out there.

- That's a real good one, look at him just leaning on it.

Look at that fish.

Mad ain't he?

He don't know I got the TFO on him.

Perdy fish there now.

- Pretty fish.

- That's a beauty right there.

A perdy one Dean, he hit it good.

What in the world, he ain't pulling off that right there.

Alright, that's getting above-- - Yeah, nice.

- That's getting above the three slot there.

Beauty, good old salty trout.

Alright buddy.

That drift right there is deadly.

A good one right there.

He hit that thing just as far, ohhh, just as far as I could throw it over there.

He's wanting to stay down there now.

He's holding his ground too now.

Got my old TFO...in a bind.

- Is that a drum?

Oh no that's all trout there buddy.

I like him into that like a drum.

- Geugh!

- Way to knock him off.

- I did not knock him off!

[laughing] I did not knock him off.

- He went down by the time you went after him.

- Golly!

Well he must not have been hooked very good.

- I can't take them head shots, wit the net.

- Yeah you gave mine a headshot while it was going, and fortunately we got him.

Hit him with the back of the net - Did you see how I recovered without you even noticing?

That's alright, not this one though.

- Oh man we're holding him over there.

- Son.

You can't keep a good man down hahaha.

- Nope.

- He's coming, he's charging the boat.

- He is charging.

- Do a retake, here you go.

Hahaha, you recovered.

- Put him right there.

I believe that other one was a little bigger.

- That's alright.

Take what the good lord gives you.

Look where it's at.

The DOA buddy.

You put that in him.

He's usually coming to the house.

- Hurry up and get that fish back in the water so I can-- - Well hold on I gotta, rub him on the head a minute.

Send him on his way.

Son he put on a show for me.

Alright Dean.

- Nice.

- He was back in the...

He was back there now.

[calm music] - Ricky it's toward the end of October, seems like that's a good time of year to be down here near the inlets.

Is that when they start coming out of the ocean?

- Prime time Dean.

That's just always, if you're ever gonna catch a trout, in October is always a great time of year.

We've been catching, you know, all year, but just last couple weeks they just have popped up outta nowhere you know, like they always do.

- That's when it starts happening.

- Yeah but you can just count on em, you can almost set your calendar.

October's just, October, November, just hope and pray we don't have no cold storm you know?

- Right.

- But now this 40 inlets, it's been good right on down the coast, you know, I've got friends that's been catching em.

From Morehead to Myrtle Beach, you know?

- Right.

- There he is Dean.

- Alright nice.

- Good nice son.

He hit that thing, he don't even know what to do, look at him.

Son.

- That is a good fish.

- Get him right there.

- There we go.

- Ohh son.

- Nice.

- I can't even tell you what I was doing with that one.

This is one of those salty ones right there Dean.

- Yeah.

- He hit that thing and sit still.

Watch him right there.

Mmm Alright.

- Nice.

- Look at there, that one hit it now.

- You need the net?

- You see him?

- You need the net?

- Yeah I need the net.

- I mean you know, sometimes your fish aren't that big.

[laughing] I'll take him like that, I'll take little ones like that all day.

Son.

Salty specks, lay him right there.

- Nice.

You know these fish too, you can tell they've just come from the ocean.

They're silver.

They're absolutely beautiful.

- Look at that bait down his throat.

- Like that DOA don't you boy.

- Nice.

- That is.

- Beauty.

Get her done.

Pop them over there in the shallow quarters, hold on a minute.

- This came jumping like a Bass.

- Keep him out there a second, let me get the net.

Now that will swallow it.

Beautiful, back here in this little ditch.

Here you go buddy.

There you go.

Hehehe yes sir.

Perdy fish Dean.

Another two and a half.

- There you go.

- There you go.

- Ricky you wanna keep one for supper?

- Yeah let's keep one.

- Let's keep one.

- I promised one.

- He's perfect eating size.

- Yeah he is.

Ain't nothing wrong with him.

- Put him in the live web.

- Nothing wrong with keeping one or two.

- Ricky you know, most of these fish that we're catching are in that two, two and a half, three and a half pound range.

Last year this time, the water was full.

- Lots of fish.

- There was 12 and 14 inch fish.

- Mhm everywhere.

- So, it makes sense that these fish are a year older now, same class of fish.

- Well that's what the tagging program is kinda showing, you know?

We've been tagging fish, an inch a month roughly is what they've been growing.

You know we'll get tags back and that's why we do it.

You know we measure and date, and all that to try to get some information on em, and that's what it's leading to.

And it only makes sense, you know?

Cause like you said, last year, and supposedly they come back to an area where they were born.

So it would make sense, and that's happening all the way down the coast right now, you know?

Where they were catching-- There he is right there.

Right there.

Like that right there.

Good old fish.

He's one of those... That ain't a bad fish, don't get me wrong.

But that's a 16-17 inch fish.

- Little smaller-- - I recognize him from last year.

[laughing] He's a perdy one.

- Nice.

- But yeah, it's crazy how it works.

- Well that's good, maybe next year this time these will be five or six pounds.

- They will, you know?

Nice one Dean.

- Good isn't he?

- You want me to fight him for a minute?

Alright.

Make me come down from here.

Son look at that beast right there.

- That's a nice fish.

- One more time, take your time with it.

Crickets out.

Dean that's what we've been looking buddy.

Come through... - I guess that made a-- - That's what it's all about right there son.

- Now that one was hooked like he was supposed to be.

- DOA buddy.

- Get it out of there, come here baby.

- That is beautiful.

- Beautiful isn't he?

- Four pounder all day.

Ease him back in there.

Grab that tail [mumbles] Right there man.

You missed a bunch but hey that's what counts right there.

At the end of the day that's what counts.

Alright, you caught it.

- Joe I don't know of any other way to put it, except it's just a good class of fish.

- It really was, your typical fall fish, nice and thick.

To me the best time of the year to pursue Speckled Trout here in North Carolina, you can catch Speckled Trout year round, our climate is such that we can generally catch them through the cold winter time.

But October's a great time to be on the coast, and just a really fun fish to catch.

- Let's catch up with our anglers, let's go to Gear Time.

[calm music] - Well Ricky what an October afternoon.

- I'll tell you what, it's been good.

- Sure has.

- You have to work for them but you usually do.

- This was awesome, we're right over just behind the beach here.

- Right here on it, you can hear it, off shore wind today so it's kinda calm, a little bit breezy inside but the beach is slick calm.

- Right, and these DOA shrimp really did the job today.

- I'll tell you what I've been using last two-three weeks.

Rigging em with the jig head just to get the extra weight.

You know DOA makes a good jig head also.

So just use a jig head you know if you got a little bit of tide cause you want to be able to maintain the bottom.

- Right.

- And I'm running, you know-- - Is that a quarter ounce?

- It is.

- Quarter ounce head.

- And I got a, you know, a foot and half, two foot of good quality monofilament, line-- - Two pound test, 20 pound.

- Yeah there's oyster rocks in here, you know.

You don't wanna get cut off.

- Right.

- You know that's about it, I mean simple.

Seven foot medium action TFO on that Clash Pin 2000.

That's a good combination.

- Yeah, perfect set up.

- I mean nice smooth drag, and 10 pound braids I'm running on this one, that's all you need.

Catch reds and trout on it.

- That's what I'm using.

- Just throw it out there and twitch it, make it look real.

- And you know, what we did today, we let the current as that rising tide, we kinda let it float the bait along.

- Yeah use it to your advantage.

Yeah you can throw it out there, let it sweep around.

- Right.

- Nothing better than that thump when it's falling back with the tide.

- Absolutely.

- That natural fall, cause that shrimp, when it falls it's level.

- Well I missed a few fish today but we made up for it.

- If you ever talked to anybody that hadn't missed any, give me their number so I can call em.

- Well it was a great day, I really had a great time, and I'm looking forward to doing it again soon.

- Oh yeah, should just get better.

- Appreciate it, like always.

- Appreciate it.

- Thank you.

- Thanks fellas for that information, now if you wanna go Speckled Trout fishing, I want you to give Captain Ricky Kellum a call, his number's right there on your screen.

He'll be more than glad to work with you.

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

She's got a recipe today using crab meat.

[calm music] - Hi, today in the kitchen we're making a lump crab and artichoke dip.

And it's a little different than what you would normally think of when you think of an artichoke dip.

We're just not gonna have any of the mayonnaise and the sour cream, it's not gonna be a creamy base.

But it's really tasty, it's gonna be a little different, but really great.

So what we've done here, is I have in my small pan, I put some olive oil and some pinko, which is a Japanese bread crumb.

And I have just sauteed that until my pinko is turned a golden brown.

And it's kinda cool, kinda pops a little bit in you pan so be careful.

Then I've got some butter heating in my larger pan and I'm going to add into that some chopped onion, and some minced garlic, lots of garlic.

And then we're going to add in some fresh oregano leaves, a bay leaf, a little bit of Cayenne pepper, and if you like it hotter you can add more, some salt and pepper, a little bit of salt, and a little worcestershire, oristershire how ever you call it.

We're just gonna give it all a nice little stir.

We're gonna add in our artichokes.

These are canned artichokes that I just popped in my food processor and pulsed to chop them roughly.

You can do it by hand if you want.

And this recipe makes about five cups, so it makes quite a bit of dip.

So if you want you can half the recipe, if you don't need that much.

Then we're gonna add in some white wine, kinda deglaze everything.

We're gonna add in our pound of lump crab, and I have some crab claws and some crab, that I have in here.

Some scallions, adds some nice color, a little lemon juice, and some chopped parsley.

We're just gonna give that all a stir.

And then once your white wine has reduced, we're going to put this in a serving dish and we're ready to go, and we're gonna top it with our pinko crumbs, and you're ready to go.

You can see it just has some really beautiful colors in here it's just a little bit different than what you're used to, it's not creamy so it's a little, maybe a little healthier.

You can serve this with some fresh chopped vegetables.

You can serve this with some crusty bread if you'd like, bagel chips, whatever you happen to have that you like.

I have some baguettes that are crisped up, they have a little bit of butter and parsley on em, which I think are a nice crunch along with the great flavors.

So you can serve this warm or you can serve this cold.

So I hope you enjoy the lump crab artichoke dip, and I look forward to seeing you next time, here on simple cooking.

- Thanks Donna for that recipe, you'll find that in our cookbook and it is waiting for you online.

Joe let's go back, tell me just a little bit more about the tide.

- Well of course we have tide change on the coast, and that drives the coast, I mean that drives what the fishes' feeding periods.

And the more you understand that, the more you learn when to be at a place at a certain time.

And of course it changes, that's why you need to get you a good tide chart, they're available most places for free, or you can go online now and Google it and it'll come up.

But if you know you're gonna be in an area like we were in, Ricky fishes professionally and weekly and daily, and so he stays on the tides.

Which gave us a little benefit knowing when to be there.

But if you that that drives the activity of fish on our coasts, and learning that will make you a better fisherman.

Trout are particularly that way, of course everything is.

But trout, it's really really strange to be out there and one minute you're getting bites left and right, and suddenly the tide ebbs, and they just turn off.

It's like they're on a schedule.

But if you can catch it right like we did that day, it can prove very beneficial and you can catch a lot of fish.

- Bottom line, it's a good day of fishing in North Carolina.

- Absolutely.

- For Joe Albea, I'm John Moore we thank you 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] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪