A Thanksgiving fishing trip off the coast of North Carolina will certainly be a lifetime adventurous memory for a group of men after a rare encounter with a Great White Shark.

Captain Watson has fished for about 25 years off Wrightsville Beach, where the shark close encounter happened.

“The fish kept circling. He kept getting closer and closer and he swam under the bow of the boat and hit it then came around the boat a couple minutes later, did a turn, and slapped the side of the boat with the back of his tail,” said Watson. “You could feel the whole boat shutter.”

According to the men, they were about 25 miles southeast of Wrightsville Beach when they saw the shark, which they estimate was at least 18 feet long and more than 4 feet wide. That’s nearly equal to the size of their boat.

It circled the boat for nearly 20 minutes

“I was probably 2 or 3 feet from the bow roller. His nose was at my feet,” fisherman Don Smith was quoted as saying. “His tail was pretty much in line with the rod that we had in the back of the boat in a rod holder. That’s a pretty good estimation of just how big the thing was.”

North Carolina waters are home to many sharks, but great white sightings like this are pretty rare.

Discovery News

A shark about the size of the boat I’m in? Hmmmm Nope I’ll stay on the mainland. Call me a wimp but I don’t want to even think about having to tangle with that guy.

Purple will be new color in the woods this fall

Purple paint is now a legal option for landowners to post their property with the passing of the Land Owner Protection Act. Gone are the days where mythical winds blows Posted Signs away making posted land umposted.

LANDOWNERPROTECTIONACT
The newLandowner Protection Act provides two ways for landholders to post their lands to
allow only hunters, trappers and anglers with written permission to legally enter their property:
• As permitted in the past, the landholder can place
notices, signs, or posters on the property boundaries
at a distance of 200 yards apart or closer.
• A new way for landholders to post their property is
with purple paint. The landholder can paint a vertical
line of purple paint on trees or posts around property
boundary, or areas intended to prohibit trespass. The
paint line needs to be at least 8″ long and the bottom
of the line should be between 3′ and 5′ from the base
of the tree or post. The paintmarks need to be placed
100 yards apart or closer.
Sportsmen need written permission, dated within the
past 12 months, signed by the landowner or lessee, to hunt,
fish, or trap on lands posted with signs or purple paint. You
must carry written permission on your person. If a hunting
club has leased the land, hunters must have a copy of their
hunting clubmembership and a copy of the landowner
permission given to that club. Wildlife officers will enforce
the Landowner Protection Act.
The Landowner Protection Act does not change general trespass laws nor have any effect
on lands which are not posted. It does not repeal any local acts currently in effect that require
written permission to hunt, fish or trap.
North Carolina law encourages owners of land to make property available for recreational
use. The law states that a landowner who allows someone, without charge, onto their land for
recreational purposes owes them the same duty of care theywould owe a trespasser.

NCWRC

Landowner Wallet Size Permission Forms

While I don’t think the new law is perfect, and many of the teeth was stripped from the original bill, this law should be a step in the right direction. It will be interesting to see how this law is enforced especially with people like myself that hunt multiple tracts of lands with multiple land owners. I’ll have to be extremely organized to make sure I have all my permission forms in order. I wonder if the wildlife enforcement officer will have the ability to identify the landowner in the field to even know if the permission form is legitimate. I guess I’ll have to carry at least 10 or more permission forms with me so I better get a bigger wallet.

Double B Wins 53rd Big Rock

Last years tournament ended with the top fish being disqualified when not all of the crew was appropriately licensed but this year there does not appear to be any issues with the winner.

Kenny Sexton, Manteo, captain of the Double B, grabbed the lead for good Monday afternoon when he showed up at the Big Rock scales with a 652.8-pound blue marlin reeled in by Travis Stephenson of Angier. Sexton and crew receive $524,375 for the victory.

Big Rock

That is a nice blue marlin and glad it held out for the week to give Travis the top prize. I’ve actually met Travis we worked some youth camps a number of years ago. Congratulations to Travis and the crew of Double B.

The Coastal Game Fish Bill classifies red drum, striped bass, and speckled sea trout as game fish and limits the take of these fish to hook and line. The bill also prohibits sale of these three species of fish. This protection is necessary given the current depleted state of these fishery stocks and overfishing pressure. These three fish are relatively less important to the commercial fishing industry since they constitute only about 1.5 percent of the commercial harvest in NC. The value of these fish to the local and state economies as game fish is hundreds of times greater than when managed as commercial fisheries.

NC Camo has some good info as well as a way to contact your lawmakers so check it out

The Omnibus Firearm Bill has made it through the second reading but an amendment eliminating parking lot language has reduced the effectiveness of this bill. If a business bars you from carrying on their premises as well as storing your gun in a locked vehicle then you have clearly lost your second amendment rights.

NRA-backed omnibus firearm bill, passed second reading on Tuesday afternoon. Unfortunately, an anti-gun amendment introduced by state Representative Chuck McGrady (R-117) was adopted by a narrow 59 to 57 vote. This amendment eliminated the Parking Lot language that would have barred any business from prohibiting Right-to-Carry permit holders from storing firearms in their vehicles while parked on the property of that business. Several state Representatives who have historically supported gun owners cast surprising votes in favor of this amendment.

The NRA has the list of those lawmakers who didn’t stand up for our rights as well as a way to contact them.
It’s going to be a hot day but remind lawmakers we’re not all on the beach and paying attention what is happening in Raleigh.

T Edwards Nickens first book

Last evening in a venue more often used for Rock Concerts then talks about navigating rocky streams I met T Edwards Nickens. He is currently Editor at Large for Field and Stream magazine and just released his first book The Total Outdoorsman Manual. A book filled with outdoor skills that if you can master will give you a PHD in the great outdoors. Every page is loaded with diagrams, photos, skills and tips to make your next outing a success be it fishing at Lake Raleigh or driving the Dalton road to Prudhoe Bay.

Sample page of how the book is laid out

T. Edwards Nickens signing books at Kings in Raleigh

Sports fishermen off the coast of North Carolina have been witness to an unusual event with a pod of killer whales working the waters. A specie that is more often seen in the Pacific ocean they can be found in just about every ocean in the world. Epic Blitz has the entire story and videos that is worth checking out.

so I grab my popping rod and work the popper about two pops and bam I get nailed by another large tuna. The fish takes off and I start working on it. It didn’t seem as big as the first fish I hooked and I got her under control. I almost had her at color when we saw to the left the pod of Orca’s coming towards us and the fish. Greg said ugh ohh and next thing I know the Orcas took a big breath and dove. As soon as they dove my Tuna took off for the the horizon. These Orcas were after my Tuna WTF do I do? Well about 150 yards out we see a huge explosion and the largest of the group of Orca’s nails the Tuna. I didn’t see all of it as I was kinda working on fighting the fish but everyone else did. Unfortunately we don’t have video of all of this but Greg wasnt sure the Orca had the Tuna so I handed him the rod and I started taking video. He realized once he got tight and the Orca came to the surface again that she had the Tuna. Captain Jaime saw it even better than we did.

Wow this is an amazing story and to think it happened off our coast is even more amazing. North Carolina has some spectacular fishing opportunities just can’t promise you’ll see anything like this.

Striped Bass US Fish & Wildlife

This past weekend I was on a bit of a road trip that took me by one of my old hunting buddy’s house so I had to stop in and see what was up. Jody had a couple of rock fish that had been caught earlier that morning he was getting ready to clean. Rock Fish or Striped Bass is one species of fish that I’ve always wanted to go after but thus far the opportunities to pursue them have alluded me.
Striped Bass or Rockfish are an Atlantic Ocean fish that come into fresh water to spawn so a number of river systems up and down the eastern seaboard are prime places to fish for them. They are a highly sought after sport fish as well as a commercial fish. Here in NC there has been a recent effort to have it officially declared a sport fish to help protect the specie from wasteful commercial harvesting practices that kills many more than they actually process.
Having a cooler in my truck paid off as Jody gave me two fish to take with me. That then began the quest to find the perfect recipe on how to prepare these fish. There were a number of suggestions from on line where I posted an inquiry as well as a few recipes I found in one of my wild game cookbooks but when it came down to decision time I opted for the traditional batter and hot grease.
So last night’s dinner was fried rock fish made with House of Autry Seafood Breader , some fries and some coleslaw. I took the fillets rinsed them off and dropped them in a ziplock bag of the breader giving them a good shake. Put the fries on to cook first and then mixed up the slaw. I make up a slaw by mixing the cabbage with some Miracle Whip, crushed pineapples, old bay, caraway seeds, and whatever other spices strike me. You get a spicy sweet slaw that I think is pretty good and goes well with fish. Adapt the ingredients to your own taste make it spicier or sweeter.

Rockfish and fries

Then the main event with the fries done I let the grease get back up to temperature then I dropped the rock fish in. The fish cooks a lot faster than the fries so be careful not to overcook it. The Rock fish was awesome and while I’m sure many of the other methods of preparation would have given me a great dinner as well the old fish fry was rocking last evening.

Photo of fish kill from Sports Fishing Mag

Commercial fisherman for at least the third time in a month have left a trail of dead and dying striped bass as they culled their catch off Oregon Inlet. Reports of the kill say it was ½ mile wide and 4 miles long !!! NC Marine Fisheries made new rules after the last kill to prevent this from happening again. Well obviously these rules are not enough to protect our valuable resource and something has to be done.

“You can’t allow the use of deadly, indiscriminate and highly destructive trawl nets among large schools of striped bass,” said Jay Dail, CCA North Carolina chairman. “The MFC knows this will happen, yet continues to allow this gear among these schools of valuable fish. It shows how antiquated our management system is – at the very least they should be requiring more selective gear that doesn’t generate tons of wanton waste.”
CCA North Carolina is considering asking the NC Marine Fisheries Commission to completely eliminate trawling as a permissible fishing gear for striped bass. If they do not accept that, anglers will have no choice but to ask that these valuable fish be designated a gamefish and removed from the market entirely.

Sports Fishing

Unless procedures can be put in place to protect the resource from over harvesting and wasting them I would agree commercial fishing for them should be stopped. A recreational angler can only keep two fish and these trawlers are dumping 100’s if not 1000’s of fish that will not survive.

Searchers recovered George Feeter’s body today from the lake. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Mr. Feeter’s family and friends as they mourn their loss.

After a day of searching both on the water and surrounding land there is still no sign of Mr. Feeter. Our thoughts and prayers are with him, his family and all the rescue personnel who are searching for him.