[gentle orchestral fanfare] (Walker Golder) ...imitate small menhaden.

They just work really, really well.

(Stuart Caulder) There we go.

Doesn't matter whether it's a top water bait, or a diving bait.

They seem to just work terrific.

(Stuart) Sure does.

I'll tell you one thing, these low-stretch lines... these low-stretch lines are really making a difference on some of this stuff.

You can really get--the bites are so subtle on some of 'em.

You can feel every bite that they do on that thing.

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

Well, if you like fishing for puppy drum, you're gonna have a great time with us today.

Joe, it is all about puppy drums.

It is, and it's fishing for puppy drum in an area that they like to frequent, and that's a structure along a shoreline.

Uh, any of our coastal streams that generally have puppy drum, you'll see 'em especially in the fall.

Knocked down trees--trees that have fallen over into the water.

Or even stumps that were growing out of the water, that's a great place to find them.

I think, because the baitfish have moved in, and use that structure to hide, brings these fish in.

But we had just a great day, um, fall fishing for puppy drum.

Around the structure, any special bait we're gonna need for this?

Yeah, you gotta be careful.

Because you can--you are gonna hang up quite a bit.

Uh, that day, the guys, we used a variety base.

And we'll talk about that in Gear Time.

But you have to keep--be cognizant of the structure that you're fishing around, because you will, um, you'll get hooked up quite a bit, But fishing out of a boat, you can go up and unhook yourself.

That's where the fish are, and we just caught a lot of fish.

We'll talk about that during Gear Time.

Donna's in the kitchen, she's got a recipe for wild cherry quail today.

It sounds like a delicious recipe to me.

Just the name alone's got me excited.

Stick around, there's more to come on the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

(Walker) That looks like a decent fish.

(Stuart) Look at him up in there.

On the spinner bait.

[reels whir] (Stuart) Gotta love Bass fishing.

Yeah, thank heaven for Bass fishing.

That's right.

That looks like a decent fish.

It might be fairly nice.

I don't have it-- that ten-pound test on here, so I'll have to take it kind of easy on him.

(Stuart) All right.

I got a nice little fish right there.

Oh.

There we go.

Look at him.

Yellow as a can.

Uh-huh.

(Stuart) Watch out.

All right.

Isn't that a pretty fish?

(Stuart) Look at that pretty little thing.

There ain't nothing wrong with that redfish at all.

On the spinner bait.

Isn't that a perfect little red.

Perfect little fish.

That is a beautiful fish.

All right.

All right.

Let's get us another one.

That was nice.

That was nice.

I love it.

I swear.

It is always nice to get that first fish of the morning.

Get the stink off.

Now let's see if we've got another one in there.

You keep going with that, you're gonna make me switch to a spinner.

There he is.

[reel whirs] Oh, he broke me off.

There goes the spinner bait.

You're kidding.

No.

He broke me off on something.

Wow.

Gosh.

Well, I sure am glad we got to come up here to the new river and... fish on all these puppy drum up in this creek.

It is a beautiful day.

A mid-November day.

A little chill in the air this morning.

And, uh, you just couldn't ask for a better setting here.

These fish are up in-- Anywhere from two to four feet of water.

And...just kind of laid up against the bank.

Uh, since this water's a little chilly, we're starting off with some plastic baits.

But when it warms up just a little-- There he is.

We'll go to--all right.

Fabulous.

We'll try to catch these fish on top water.

This plain bait is working all right now.

Yeah, they sure are.

[reel whirs] There's so many baits we can throw on these things too, Walker, it's amazing.

Spinner baits, and-- (Walker) You've already landed one on a spinner, And now a little crank bait.

Crank bait, and we got grubs.

Also that water worm's on up here.

We'll be able to get them on top water, I think.

(Walker) I think when the fish get a little more active.

Fantastic.

(Stuart) All right.

It's a little-- It's a pretty fish.

Look at how blue the tail is on that fish.

All right.

(Stuart) You need some pliers?

I got 'em.

(Walker) Look at that gorgeous little puppy drum there.

Look at the colors.

Look at that tail.

Nice pretty blue tail.

In this water, they're just lit up.

All right, little fella.

(Stuart) Mm, that's beautiful.

Swim away.

That's the best part, watchin' them swim off.

Fantastic.

Let's see if there's another one in there.

(Stuart) Oh, yeah, let me put this down here.

This might be a little nicer fish, or at least he's pretending like it.

They're all nice.

That's right.

[laughs] I haven't met one yet I didn't like.

That's right, let me hop down here now, to get this fish.

(Stuart) Look at that grub hanging out of his mouth.

(Walker) Well, he's a little one, he's just acting bigger than he is.

(Stuart) He's gonna get big and mean one day.

[Walker laughs] (Stuart) Once he gets big and moves off shore and gets out there hanging with his big brothers.

(Walker) All right, now.

All right.

All right, little fella.

(Walker) You're all right.

There we go.

(Walker) Just slips out of his mouth.

Look at the color, look at the red fins on that thing.

(Walker) Pretty fish, pretty fish.

It is a pretty little fish right there.

Mm, terrific.

You gotta love being able to get these.

I'll take these all day.

Maybe throw in a ten-pounder every now and then.

Yeah, yeah.

Nice.

25 or 30-inch fish would be terrific.

[reel whirs] There he is.

(Stuart) That's a nice one right there, now.

Catch up with him.

Oh, look at him.

Look at him in there.

That is great.

I love it.

(Stuart) What a beautiful day.

(Walker) Yeah.

No wind, gorgeous conditions.

Fish and a good friend to go fishing with.

Hey, this is a little better one.

(Walker) Little better fish, (Stuart) They're liking that red grub.

I'm glad we put that thing on.

(Stuart) Right on.

(Walker) Come here, little fella.

(Stuart) God, look at his tail.

Look how lit up that tail is.

All right.

Look at that blue tail on that.

Yeah.

Look at that thing.

I think I got all my barbs smashed down, so the baits just slide out.

Perfect.

All right.

I love it.

Terrific.

It's hard to beat it.

Now give me a second to get this one in, before you catch another one.

[laughs] (Stuart) All right, let me turn the boat and get us out of here.

Oop, oop.

He came up and thumped it pretty good.

I just don't wanna get on top of them here with this boat.

(Walker) Stuart are these fish in here all year long?

They pretty much are.

Um, the spring, summer, fall, even into the wintertime.

Right now, into late fall.

You know, they just tend to bunch up a little bit tighter now.

And then when the water warms up, they tend to spread out a little bit.

You'll find the schools right now will be relatively large.

You know, 30 to 50, to, you know, maybe even 100 fish.

If you find the right school.

But in the summertime, they tend to break up into small pods.

You'll find five or six over here.

eight or ten over here.

And what not, something like that.

But luckily, we're here when they're all balled up.

So it's kind of nice.

What about the size class of fish?

These are two-pound fish.

Occasionally pushing three pounds.

Do you see bigger fish at other times of the year?

Yeah, sometimes, if you just find the right school.

Sometimes you'll be in a school of fish and they'll all be just about the same size.

Um, but then if you find another school, it might be a school of the next size fish or whatnot.

But normally, you know, you'll find one big mixed in here sometimes.

You know, you'll catch a seven or eight-pounder mixed in with all these three to five-pounders too.

Here he is, all right.

Yeah, come on.

(Walker) Great fish.

I love it.

[reel whirs] We slid in a little bit closer, we got up in here a little bit, and there he was.

Now, which bait did you get that one on?

This is on the gold spoon with the little D.O.A.

trailer on it.

With the little scented trailer.

(Stuart) You can't go wrong with a gold spoon.

Look at the spots on that one, boy.

God, look at all the spots.

I love that.

(Walker) Look at the spots on that fish.

Both sides are like that.

(Stuart) That is beautiful.

Look at his colors.

(Walker) Look at that.

(Stuart) That is a beautiful colored fish right there.

I gotta press those barbs down.

(Walker) Yes, you do.

(Stuart) Before you get upset with me.

[both laugh] (Stuart) Look at the colors on that pretty thing.

All right, little fella.

Look how gold that one is.

That is a pretty fish.

All right.

All right.

Let me hold those pliers you got, Walker.

I'm gonna press these barbs down on here real good.

You know we're not-- We're not gonna keep any of these fish.

That's right.

They're all undersized anyway.

Plus, I personally don't think you need the barbs.

It enables you to release these fish without harming them at all.

That's right.

I don't--as long as you keep your line good and tight, I think you're fine without 'em.

All right, get a quick leader check.

There's a little fray up here.

I'm gonna cut that back.

(Walker) This is--this is a decent fish.

(Stuart) Let's see what we got here.

And he just blew up on that top water bait.

Golly.

(Stuart) There's something about top water.

I tell you, it gets your heart racing.

There is nothing likeit.

It gets everything going.

I think this is a nice fish.

Oh, it's a trout.

Is it?

It's a nice trout.

Look at that.

Oh, yeah.

All right.

Just take it easy on him.

I'm gonna let you play him, 'cause that's a nice trout, Walker.

The by-product of a drum trip-- (both) Is a nice trout.

(Stuart) All right, just take it easy, 'cause you've barely got him.

Oh, Walker, you barely got that fish.

(Walker) Don't get your hands in there.

(Stuart) I'm not.

Got 'em.

(Walker) All right.

(Stuart) Look at that pretty fish.

Fantastic.

(Walker) We're sitting, casting right out here.

Right out in the middle.

And he just blew up on this top-water bait.

We're probably on a little creek channel in here, a little bit of change in depth, but he... Just throw out the other way.

Just the perfect, perfect bait looks just like a little pogie crippled on the surface.

And he jumped all over-- Look at the colors on that fish.

Look at the back on that thing.

What a beautiful fish.

That's a quality fish anywhere.

Here's the best part, right here.

Absolutely.

This is what you do with these pretty fish like this.

This is the best thing about it.

Is letting that big ol' trout swim away.

A great man said they are too valuable to catch only once.

That's right.

Fabulous fish.

Awesome.

Terrific.

Right on, man.

That was great.

That little peanut pogie imitation worked again.

We made it down here to this next point.

Just came on down to the next point, and there they are.

There are so many little menhaden in here that these baits that imitate small menhaden just work really, really well.

There we go.

Doesn't matter whether it's a top-water bait or a diving bait, they seem to just work terrific.

(Stuart) Sure does.

I'll tell you one thing, these low-stretch lines-- these low-stretch lines are really making a difference on some of this stuff.

These bites are so subtle on some of them.

You can feel every bite that they do on that thing.

Look at that pretty thing.

You need some pliers?

There you go.

(Walker) Yeah, you're gonna have to reach in and grab him out.

Just reach in and yank him out.

(Stuart) Oh, yeah, he's barely hooked.

He'll be just fine.

All right.

All right.

It's a pretty fish.

That's a pretty fish right there.

Terrific.

There we go.

All right.

(Stuart) Awesome.

(Walker) The little pogie baits work again.

Joe, a lot of structure, but a good day of fishing.

It really was.

We got a lot of puppy drum.

And that's a great fish to catch on any size tackle.

They're just really strong.

Strong runs.

They hit the bait with a vengeance.

Putting them in that structure, makes it interesting.

And we just had a lot of fun.

You mentioned the bait and the structure.

Let's find out more about that.

Let's join our anglers now on Gear Time.

Stu, it's been a fabulous day here on the New River.

Late November, and you couldn't ask for prettier weather.

Wind's calm, sun's out.

It's nice and warm.

And the fish have been quite aggressive today.

(Stuart) Yeah, it was a beautiful day, we pulled up in here and dropped the trolling motor down and started covering these banks pretty good.

Started off with a couple of grubs.

Went over to the gold spoon here.

All of 'em seem to work pretty good.

Eventually, once that water warmed up, we switched over to the hard baits.

I started out with a little crank bait, then you started up on top-water plugs there for a little bit.

It seems that when the water temperature gets up a little bit, these bigger baits that look just like a small menhaden seem to work really well.

And the water temperature that's hovering about 60 degrees.

The fish get a little bit more aggressive, and they'll hit the top.

And we can hear the background noise here.

We're near Camp LeJeune, so we hear some firing in the background.

But that doesn't seem to bother the fish at all.

At least, it sure didn't today.

No, it sure didn't.

One thing we've been using that's been really good and helpful to us, I think, is the PowerPro line, or the braided lines.

They seem to be working really well.

Those low-stretch lines, you can rub 'em up against all this timber that's up in here, and you don't have to worry quite so bad.

Mm-hmm, and those lines are super sensitive.

It seems like, that sometimes, these fish, especially in the morning, the water's a little colder.

They take the bait just a little bit more subtly.

And the no-stretch line enables you to feel and just grab the bait, and I think it helps you catch more fish.

That's right.

But what do you use for a leader with the braided line?

What I was using today, since the water is relatively clear up in here, I've gone to 15-pound fluorocarbon leaders.

And it seems to work pretty well.

Just tie a little double-surgeon's knot, tie it to a uni-knot, and then you put you little bit of leader on there.

It just gets that line away from the base.

That's about three foot-- three feet of fluorocarbon there.

Yeah, about right there.

And it seems to work good.

The fish really wanna bite up on it, and I don't really see that you need to use much more.

Mm-hmm, well it sure worked today.

And the rod you're using?

Today, the one I like to use most is this little Cape Fear 140, and I just cap it with a little Fin Nor Megalite in a 2000 size.

Sort of medium action?

Yeah.

So it gives you a rod that's stiff enough to work these bigger baits, but also you can throw a light plastic bait without too much trouble as well.

That's right.

So this was an awesome day on the water.

It was a fabulous day.

We caught a lot of nice fish.

The fish weren't big, but boy, they were just quality fish.

And you couldn't ask for anything better.

That was terrific.

I look forward to it.

Let's do it again.

Enjoyed it.

All right, buddy.

Thanks, guys, for that valuable information.

Now let's catch up with Donna, she's in the kitchen with a recipe for wild cherry quail.

Hi, today we're going to be making a wild cherry quail in the kitchen.

This is a great recipe.

It's really kind of an elegant recipe.

It goes together fairly quickly.

There's kind of a few steps, but it-- there's nothing that's really hard to it.

We're gonna start out with our quail that is dressed.

And I halved the recipe just for the-- But you can use eight if you'd like, which would serve four people.

And I have my breader down on my wax paper so it'll be easy clean-up.

And what I'm gonna do is just take my quail and dredge it in my breader.

You wanna coat these really well.

So you'll get a nice, crisp coating on the outside.

We have our butter in our pan already cooking.

I've got some going.

And I added a little bit of oil to it as well.

So we're just going to place those in our pan.

And we're gonna pan-fry these until they are golden brown on either side.

So about two to three minutes on either side.

You just wanna get 'em brown.

And then we're gonna finish it in the oven.

So once we've got those in, we're going to let those fry, and then we're gonna turn them over once they start to get golden brown.

And then we're going to add in about a half a cup of shallots.

And shallots, if you've never used them, they have a little bit stronger flavor.

They are like an onion, but they look similar to a small little onion, but they look similar to a clove of garlic.

But they're a really great flavor booster.

So we're gonna sauté those.

And if you don't have shallots or you can't find them, you know, you can use regular onions.

They'll be fine too.

We're gonna go ahead and turn those.

Those are browning up really nicely.

So while these are browning, we're gonna go ahead and sauté the shallots.

We're gonna add to this some dry or some cream sherry.

Which is one of my favorite things to cook with, 'cause it smells so good.

We're gonna add about a half a cup.

And it just has such a great flavor to it.

And it smells really nicely too.

We're also going to add in about 3/4 cup of cherry jam.

And I use the jam made out of bing cherries.

Not the black cherries.

But if you like black cherries, you can use those as well or if that's all you can find.

So we're just going to mix this together until your, um... your jam begins to melt a little bit.

And then we're gonna add a little bit of fresh lemon juice, about a tablespoon, which is about a half a lemon.

And just let that cook down.

And then I've made a brown sauce that I have the recipe for.

I'm not gonna show you how to make that.

It's a very simple brown sauce using either, um, venison stock, or you can use beef stock.

It has carrots and celery and onions in it.

and use a little bit of breader to thicken it.

You make a rue with the butter and the breader.

And then you put in the beef stock, and just kind of cook it down until it is-- your thickness that you like.

I'm gonna add that in here too.

So this is gonna make a nice little gravy or a little sauce to go over.

And I served mine with some pasta.

You can use white rice.

You can use potatoes if you'd like.

And then you just mix this together, put your lid on, bake it at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Until your sauce is nice and thick.

I served mine with some additional cherries.

And I just kind of turn mine and coat it on both sides with the sauce and then bake it.

It is a wonderful recipe.

It's a nice hearty dish.

You can also use-- if you don't wanna use the quail, or you don't have quail available, you can use duck breasts as well, which will be a great addition as well.

So we're gonna cover that.

This is what it looks like when it comes out.

I just kinda baked mine in a casserole dish, and put some buttered noodles with a little bit of parsley and some extra cherries on it.

So I hope you enjoyle--enjoy the wild cherry quail.

And I'll look forward to seeing you next time on Simple Cooking.

Thanks, Donna, for that recipe.

It sounds like something that we can enjoy.

Joe, can you catch the puppy drum year round like this?

You really can.

The fall seems to be one of the better times.

I think they're more concentrated.

This area that we were fishing, that's the best time to fish for 'em.

And Stuart guides for 'em.

So if you've never caught puppy drum before, especially in that setting, give him a call.

He fishes at the southeastern part of the state, down in the Wilmington area.

Knows those areas very well, and is quite an accomplished fisherman.

But just a great sport fish.

It is our state fish.

The red drum is our state fish.

So we're catching 'em when they're anywhere from 18 to 22 inches in length.

All the light tackle, it doesn't get any better.

That's the key.

Light tackle.

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 & 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] ♪