# Buxton Day 11



## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

High 4:42 am, Low 11:09, High again 5:03 pm, low at 11:14 pm. Chilly morning, maybe upper 50's and a good 15 MPH wind out of the northwest. I had waders and the flannel hat on to take the chill off. Perfect Buxton sunrise with clouds over the shoals and enough clouds overhead to light up bright orange for us.

Morning bite was delayed until the sun broke over the shoal clouds. Not a nibble before then. I had a couple double blues, 14", and some 10" sea mullet. About a dozen fish total. I was fishing the wash, Jay tried the inside of the outer bar. About the time the bluefish shut down Jay beaches a nice 27" red drum. Out comes the 10' pole and I bait up with cut mullet and cast it out to the bar. 3 ounces was holding fine, even with a long cast, no current, just a little wind. Seas 3' to 5' and rolling smoothly.

Fish were caught all day, pretty regularly. A few schools of 12" bluefish came through, lots of mullet, lots of the 14" bluefish with some going to 16". Two hours before the afternoon high Jay beached a 25" red drum while I kept catching the bluefish and sea mullet. Very few fish right in the wash today, most of the close ones were 15' out while the outer bar proved to hold the most action. I joked that that is a lot of reeling in for a 10" sea mullet.

Due to the blow for the past few days bait had gotten scarse, no boats going out. We heard rumor of RDT having some so I hustled down and scored a half dozen cobs. We still had several from a few days ago that were still firm but get it while ya can! With the tournament coming up this weekend folks were stocking up. You'd see them walk in with 4 - 5 gallon buckets and fill them up. That is a long time to keep it fresh but again... git it while ya can. I saved a few bluefish for bait too, so we can fill in any gaps with that. The best bait for bluefish is bluefish!

Wind calmed to a slight breeze during the day, nice and sunny, high had to be lower 70's, seas calmed just about to slick. Water was still cloudy but not as bad as the past few days. Came in at dead high tide for dinner. It promised to be a fantastic night, with the full moon tomorrow and no wind, so we planned to fish the evening falling tide. Jay cleaned up from dinner and I reorganized the bait cooler. Fileted the older cobs we had and a bluefish... or both of them I think. Layered them in ice so they would be ready to chunk up.

Out before dark as the tide fell and the bite was on! We fished and enjoyed adult beverages until almost midnight! We hooked up some neighbors, from Denver CO, up with bait and they had a ball on the beach by the deck. They were rigged up originally for salmon and I fixed them up with a bunch of my simple double bottom rigs, their hook up ratio increased dramatically! It was one of those evenings where you could not have two poles out. You'd cast one and by the time you casted the second one (already baited up), the first one had a fish on.

Didn't keep an exact tally, but we caught fish. For red drum, Jay had at least 6, 25" to 27", lots of the 14" blues and a few sea mullet. I had two 26" and three 16" reds. A crapload of bluefish from 10" to 16", most were the 14" range. Around a dozen trout, 10" to 12", bunch of sea mullet, boxed two 14" ones, most were 10" to 11". Two dogfish around 24"! one black drum at 13". Maybe a few other random fish I can't recall... We did have a few adult beverages.

OH, I did have a monster drum on! Hooked it by the outer bar. We saw it in the wash a few times as I was trying to beach it but it still had a lot of fight and would make a run. On one run all of a sudden we hear the dreaded POP, like if you cast and the bail closes. The line comes flying back and wraps around the pole, fish gone. We figure a bluefish swam by and bit the tight line as the drum made a run. It would have been my first citation red drum too.

All in all one of those bites where we were in the right place at the right time, it was GREAT.


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