# Buxton Day 13



## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

Beautiful morning!!!! Upper 60's, no wind, PERFECT Buxton double sunrise. As the sun rose you got the first sunrise of orange under the shoal clouds with some orange overhead. As the sun rose over the shoal clouds you got the bright orange sky above while the orange under the shoal clouds stayed bright the whole time.

High 6:22 am, Low 12:02 pm, High again at 6:43 pm. Full moon night! Last night the clouds shaded it, we could see it but no moonlight on the waves. It is cloudy now with rain looking like the afternoon companion. Not a set in steady thing, but on and off showers.

Morning bite!!! The neighbors were already fishing when I went out at first light. They were bringing in 14" bluefish as I baited up. The dropoff moved in last night and is now only 12' from the deck, a really short fairy flip. I brought in lots of double 10" bluefish in close. Casting to the middle there were hard hitting 15" to 16" blues. I went in around 9:00 as the bite slacked when the sun broke out of the clouds. They are still bringing in the occasional blue.

With the shifting sands, we now have several sandbags in our hole off the deck. I lost 5 or 6 rigs last night where it was clear the day before. I found a few more this morning and lost rigs. Will have to restock on 3 ounce weights today. I fished the morning using 2 ounces and held fine, no current at all in our little stretch of beach. Folks slinging metal this morning did well on bluefish. I saw a couple blow toads come in too. Just saw on the weather channel that any rain should hold off until the front gets to us, late afternoon.

Forgot to mention. Yesterday parts of the outer bar were bare sand at low tide. I kept an eye out looking for tailing drum but never saw any.


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## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

Alrighty. 11:30 pm now. Jay beached a 28" drum at around 4:00 while I walked to get bait. Scored 4 horse mullet. I scaled and fileted enough bait to get us through the evening and got them on ice. The 14" blues moved in and they were hard hitting!!! Up and down the beach folks were having fun.

To backtrack a bit... I went out at low and cast the little pole with a carolina rig for flounder, ended up catching a lot of 10" and then 14" bluefish. Really fun on the small pole. Calm and warm, no wind, no current, overcast skies so no direct sun, beautiful. I put on waders because... because... well, I'm a slang term for kitty kat and my feet get cold in the surf. The puppy got some bug up her butt and spent an hour RUNNING a hundred yards up the beach, then back and a hundred yards the other way only to turn around and come tearing back up the beach..... Splashing through the crashing waves, being a general nut case. The only times she paused was when she hit an incoming wave that slowed her down. LOL! She was one wet, sandy, panting mess. She had her some fun, that is for sure. We did a lot of chasing shells in the surf too.

Anyway, after all that fun I walked to the store for bait. Jay caught his over slot drum. Baited up and spent time catching bluefish, mostly the 10" to 12" with a few nice hard hitting 14" to 16" guys in the mix. Jay went in to fix some steamed clams because the action had slowed down some. We had three poles out, two at the outer bar and one in the wash. One went off, BIG hit. Southern most outer bar pole. I grab it and the middle pole bent, the one in the wash. I held the first pole and just tightened the drag on the second pole. Then the third pole went off, bent right over. I called to Jay through the window to get out here! He said he was busy and for me to deal with it. I expressed a little urgency (some profanity was used for him to get out and grab a pole...) He ignored me so I let the third pole alone and fought the first pole fish.

About that time he actually looked out the window and saw me bowed up with a fish. His pole was the third one so he ran outside grabbed it. Not sure, but somewhere along the line the middle pole fish got off. He fought his and I tried to get mine to head south, so I could beach it. I'm not sure what happened to his, I was busy finageling mine around the stairway as the puppy and I went down to the beach. Being around high tide, waves were breaking under the house, around the pilings. My fish was being pushed in and around them! To cut the fight story short.... I was wet up to the waist walking the beach in front of the deck, waves beating me. With a 9' pole and 12# line it was hard to actually turn and guide the fish. It got wrapped around a piling before I could grab the leader and drag it to the beach south of the deck. Of course Jay was up on the deck, looking down giving me crap about being a woosie, not able to land a fish.... LOL! I had to agree it was an amusing event. So... I beach a 36" red drum. Not fat, nice and sleek. My largest drum to date!!! 4 inches short of a paper fish. I measured, unhooked and carried it back to the water, sending it back to grow. Anyone reading who has fished for drum can understand. They do not have stamena but the have some power to them.

So, I'm a bit amped up after that, ready to fish. Come 8:00 and Jay heads in, the puppy is more than happy to join him. Yeah, yeah, Man's best friend, stand by your side and all that.... But it is dark, she had been playing in the surf... She went in, hit the couch and.... who is Woody again??? Oh, he is the guy outside when there is a nice, soft, warm couch right here...

I stayed out and fished. Caught a few bluefish, not a ton but a few. The wind picked up a bit so I put a jacket on. Made some coffee and sat on the deck watching the poles. About 11:00 the wind picked up, front moving through. A bank of dark clouds overhead. It started raining, HARD! The wind BLEW, out of nowhere! NASTY outside!!! I went inside and stood in the doorway while it blasted for 15 minutes. The wind was out of the west so our east facing deck was shielded. I pulled in the poles when it let up a little. Lost one rig to a snag. It is blowing up a storm now, no rain, but way too windy to cast now. I am amped up after the fish and rearing and ready to go fishing but.... Mighty cold now, 50's at best and windy. The temperature did a *major* drop. Tomorrow morning isn't going to be any better. The puppy disappeared into the bedroom a while ago, I'm going to join her. Tomorrow is the last fishing day of the trip, it might be spent looking out the window.......


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