# Buxton Day 14 - Last full day.



## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

Last full day here. High 7:08 am low at 1:42 pm, High again at 7:30 pm. 50 degrees, 35 to 40 MPH wind ripping out of the NW, rough small 3' to 5' seas but little current. Only clouds are on the shoals, hugging the horizon, blue skies otherwise. Windy even on the deck, cutting right through me. Watched the sunrise from the kitchen table, didn't even wet a line. Dirty water to outside the first bar, then it clears up. Of course, there are lots of birds working just in the clear water. Jay went out around 8:00, I went and took a nap, the puppy joined me after being out with Jay for a short time. Up and checked on him around 9:00. He sarcastically said one after another, biting like crazy out here, come on out! 30 minutes of watching him and the neighbors... They aren't even loosing bait. I mix today's first bloody mary and sit at the kitchen table, watching. Jay just came in and reported he is not skunked today, he caught an 8" sea mullet. I'm still at the kitchen table warm and sipping with the puppy napping on my feet.

I braved going out just now at 10:00 to take the puppy down for a pee. (We went out at around 4:30 for first poop & pee, it was brutal. I need to add that Sunshine is an excellent poop & pee'er. I tell her it is a business trip, go to a place, I tell her to go, she squats and comes right back, ready to go back. If you don't have a canine companion you can't understand. If you do, you understand what a very good girl that makes her!)

Actually not too bad now, windy but on the deck the house blocks most of it and with the sun up, it is almost fishable. Temperature is mid 50's maybe a little more. Now if only there were fish to catch... I've seen a few skates come in from the few folks fishing south of us. One group of young guys is in bare feet, shorts and no shirts down there. They all have cans of adult beverages, I'll have to find out what it is because it must be the good stuff to have them out there dressed like that! It is actually a bit amusing to see... Folks on either side of them are in chest waders/long pants, jackets with hoods up and their backs to the wind blasting down the beach. I chuckle as I think back to when I was young and indestructible. I very likely would have been in that group back then! LOL!!! Now, not so much. I'm not even in the group of folks on the beach with hoods up and backs to the wind. I am in the sitting at the kitchen table, sipping, looking out the window at them group. And right about now, I'm pretty happy with that group.


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## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

Wind laid down about low tide. Went on the deck and it was actually pleasant. In the sun it was nice, in the shade, maybe lower 60's. Wind laid down to a gentle breeze. Baited up and casted out. Did one pole in the wash, another the outer bar, which is now an easy cast out. Spent an hour or so catching a TON of... squat. Not everyone was catching squat, I saw a bunch of skates come in. Something at the outer bar was cleaning hooks, never felt a bite though.

Relaxed on the deck until the tide started moving and the 10" bluefish moved in. Only caught a couple, mostly just lost bait. The afternoon went the same, loosing bait and Jay did a batch of steamed clams. And for those wondering, yes, the puppy had a few. Evening set in and we had a beautiful sunset, thin whispy clouds all orange and red 360 degrees.

Evening bite!!! More squat, everyone caught it. A few skates and some little bluefish landed by others on the beach, but really slow. Still loosing bait though. We had nothing on the deck. Dark sets in.

7:43 I land a 19" floundah! Thought it was a skate as it came through the waves. Thick little bugger too, nice keeper. It was on the small pole, right in the wash, on cut mullet. Jay hooks up and looses a nice upper slot red drum in the wash. He hooked it at the outer bar. I bait up and toss one out there too. He hooks another one!!! Short battle as his line breaks, he never re-tied after the bluefish from the other day, what a moron. I think he is beginning to understand why I keep going in and tying on a new rig after a few bluefish.

That was the major action for the night. We landed a few small blues, sea mullet, black drum and lost a lot of bait to some small fish. I'll post the tally when I get back home but I'm sure to get smallest bluefish and smallest sea mullet, I had a 5 1/2 inch one today. The sea mullet wasn't much bigger, and the one black drum I caught looked like an aquarium fish. I recall a few 7" croakers and the neighbors tossed back some nice keeper blow toads.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Do you keep or release your catch...


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## bacpacker (Jul 15, 2011)

Woody I have enjoyed your trip postings. Thanks for sharing them. Takes me back to some good times over there.


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## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

*Andi said:


> Do you keep or release your catch...


In past years I brought the vacuum sealer and kept limits to freeze. The motel has two large freezers.

The batch from last year didn't freeze well for some reason. I was very disappointed when I thawed out the red drum and mullet to fry. They were very 'mushy' or not flaky and mouth feel was terrible. I used most of them in stews or Jambalaya and they broke down so you really could not tell they were in there at all. They added no taste and I hope they at least added protein to the dishes. Bluefish do not freeze well, at least for me, never have, so I toss all back except a few for bait.

This year I only brought home the floundah I caught the last day, it was DELICIOUS!!! Didn't freeze it, just packed on ice and fried it up last night and tonight. I cut it down the middle and filet up and down, so I end up with 4 filets. Even the bottom filets were thick and fried up great! My favorite parts are the edges, where you filet the meat off the fins, crispy deliciousness.

Other than that, I'll only keep enough for a few meals. I kept one red drum the first week. Hey, a 27" drum makes at least 6 meals for me!!!! Those are some BIG THICK filets! LOL! I always try something different there and this year was Abbitt's Seafood Breader, from Kitrell, NC. A basic cornmeal based grind I use dry. Very tasty. I cut the drum into 'fish stick' 1" strips, dry bread and fry in lard. Some of those along with some twice fried potatoes and half of a half pint of green beans canned this year makes a great meal.

Didn't fry up any bluefish. Other than the big ones I caught the first day, they were just too small to filet up. They were perfect smoking size though. And if we had a smoker, it would have been kept busy.

I kept quite a few of the sea mullet and blow toads. Mullet had to be over 13" to make it worth while to filet up. One makes a meal for me. Yeah, you can scale, clean and fry up smaller ones but with them right there, why bother. If all I caught were 10" mullet, I would have eaten them. If I wasn't catching them or drum, I would have been frying up the 6" croakers too!!! Heck, if nothing else was around, I would have gotten the tiny fork out and been eating the tiny pompano!!! A dozen of the little buggers would have made a meal.

I can't for the life of me clean a toad properly!!! Yes, Yes... I have watched the video's and seen folks do it so you end up with two tenderloin fish sticks but not me! I butcher the first one then end up skinning them like a catfish and taking the chef's knife to them. Ending up with a rib cage with two filets on top. Bread them and fry.


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## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

bacpacker said:


> Woody I have enjoyed your trip postings. Thanks for sharing them. Takes me back to some good times over there.


Glad you enjoyed sharing the trip with us!!! You appear to be the only one here who knew EXACTLY where we were fishing from when I mention the deck. If you fished the motel you probably looked up at it and thought... "Hey, it would be great to cast from there!" Except for the few years there was an actual beach there.

The structure on that stretch was EXCELLENT this year. But it always is, that is the best fishing stretch besides the point, in Buxton. No large, deep holes but a great consistent first slough. The only hole was just to the north, behind the other motel, and that is where the large rays lived. The outer bar was within a double bottom rig cast, and could be hit easily at times. My best fishing was within 10' of the dropoff, right in the wash. Jay caught all his fish just inside the first bar. He just loves to cast out. The best fish were caught right in the wash: 29" red drum, 36" red drum, 19" floundah...

The point fisherfolks did better on the morning bites of bluefish (same size we were catching) where they got tired of catching them on metal. We had consistent catches without packing the truck up and driving for a mile down the beach. They also caught paper fish there, we rocked, at times, on the puppies though and caught more than most of them did.

Twice, that I recall, we had folks come up on the observation deck, next to our house, and pretty much call us full of manure. We would be there sipping adult beverages, swapping lies....err... fishing stories... and one of the rods would double over. I would beach an upper slot pup and by the time I got back up to the deck they were gone. Soon after, they would be on the beach casting out! LOL!!! By then, of course, the school would be gone and you would have to put in your time until the next one moved through. These are the same folks I would tell that I am fishing right in the wash, they would nod and heave their lines to the outer bar.


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## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

*Recent storm in Buxton*

Not a fishing update, sorry. But here is the local news with a picture taken from the deck of the unit we stayed at. First picture with the deck/two blue chairs is the unit just south of where we stayed. The dunes are washed out, again, and the parking lot is flooded, again. This is the new spot Rt. 12 washes out in Buxton. Well, not "washes out" but floods over and closes the road until the tide goes down and the water drains into the sound. The photographer had to have chest waders on and the water rushing just to the right of the picture is over knee deep. You would have to time your arrival/departure from that spot by the waves. Time it wrong, when a wave is breaking, and you are over waist deep in raging surf, IN THE PARKING LOT. Add to that all the sand washing into the parking lot is soft. Not only do you have to time the waves, you have to take into account that you will be sinking well over ankle deep in wet sand with flowing water with each step.

The storm that flooded my poor little car was not as vicious as this. Yet, we watched many, many folks get knocked down and washed over trying to get where this photographer was. Preparedness come is! We had plenty of food, water and adult beverages while waiting for the tide to go down. Until then, we were like on an island.

When the Weather Channel or other MSM news reports on Buxton surf, remember how these places look, color/style. Every one of them will have a picture taken from here or of here!

http://www.wral.com/high-tide-knocks-out-some-outer-banks-phone-service/14257680/


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Thanks for posting ...


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## bacpacker (Jul 15, 2011)

I hadn't heard anything about this. Thanks for the update. That place is awesome, but has some really bad storms from time to time.


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## Jewel (Sep 6, 2014)

It took me a while to figure out what I was reading but it was interesting even then. Once I figured it out it was very cool 

I'm not a fish person but I love flounder!


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## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

The motel sure can take a beating! But is still standing.

A few years ago, Jay and I were there. I was woken up before dawn by the house shaking. You wake up and lie there, listening and wondering. You can hear the surf... then... BOOM! The whole house shakes!!! Get up and go on the porch to see what is up. Waves are breaking under the place and the rattling is only them going through the supports and braces under it. Not a huge issue, we knew a storm was coming and pretty much expected high surf. Went down the steps and let the puppy have her morning constitutional. There was no picking up after your dog, the next wave took care of that. She is a trooper though and squatted through waves running around her! She took off down the beach and came back a few minutes later, wet, sandy and all excited. You gota love labs.

Just before sunrise, we hear spray starting to hit the windows. Not every wave, but every few our place looked like in the picture I bet. At that point there is really not much of a choice. To go down the steps and try to make it across the parking lot, you were sure to get bowled over. With all the lose, soft sand, chances were good you might get stuck and have waves wash over you. You weren't going to get washed out to sea, but still, not a happy situation to be in. I decided our best bet would be to just stay put. The structure is more than adequate to handle it, it has been through much, much worse. And it was almost high tide, so would soon get better.

Spent the morning with a nice spread for breakfast, some cards and a few adult beverages. JUMPING as each wave beat the side of the house! No TV as the cable line was torn out during the night.

We did have warning that there was a storm coming, but the winds changed and it was worse then predicted. I have been there with other storms and we moved to a different unit, as a precaution before they arrived. I have never been there for a hurricane evacuation.

From a prepping standpoint? Nothing really we could have done differently. I didn't need to get all the water I could, while I still could. Or take stock of food stores. We were just stranded for a few hours. In a hurricane situation? I would have been the first off the sand bar and back in Wake Forest, all warm and fuzzy with the puppy and all my stores.

Still, something very exciting to go through. You can watch all the documentaries and news reports of waves, the ocean and all that. Until you are in a situation where the ocean is coming, the next wave is coming, and you realize there is absolutely nothing you can do to prevent it... You don't fully realize its power.


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