Wow, it's been eight years since I've added a blog post. Life happened. Mostly good, though. Except for my father's passing 6 years ago. I guess I'll always miss him. Anyway, a few things have changed for Boys week, so let's get to it and get caught up.
Shortly after BW'13, Rise of the Plastic Navy, we made Boys Weekend become Boys Week, and we moved it to the last week in October. We realized since big striped bass no longer migrate south of the Chesapeake Bay, and the chopper blues are no longer around, we should focus on red drum. And their peak Autumn bite is around the end of October.
Mike and Jerry have been in charge of finding cottages down on Hatteras Island, large enough for the whole gang, and we have had fairly good and consistent success with our transition. We've had our 30th BW, and this year we celebrated our 35th Annual Boys Week.
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| This photo of "Percy the Pelican" is the photo I'm most proud of over the last few years. Early morning, and a pelican who had learned humans are happy to feed him old bait. Here he is watching his cohorts diving into the ocean off the Point. |
We're consistently at least 10 boys now, and have been up to 14 or so. Yes, moving to October has been a welcome change. No longer needed are thick neoprene waders and lots of heavy layers. In fact, I haven't even used my lightweight waders the last several years, as the air and water temps are still quite warm and comfortable. No longer is frostbite a threat; now, we have to make sure we have sunscreen.
And we have caught fish! Lots of fish. Decent taylor bluefish have blitzed the beach. We've caught pompano, flounder, whiting, sharks, grey trout, speckled trout, stripers (off the bridge) -- and of course drum. I even targeted a school of houndfish swimming in the waves, and hooked a large one on a sting silver several years ago.
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| Blackened redfish for supper, from 2019 |
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| How to make blackened redfish. First, catch a slot sized redfish... something that proved to be a challenge this year. |
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| The group from 2 years ago. |
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| A stop at the little bridge to Manteo on the first morning, is usually good for specks, pups and a striper or two. Then it's off to Hatteras! |
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| Prime rib for dinner, from 2 years ago. |
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| My brother casting into the surf off Frisco 2 years ago. |
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A giant houndfish, aka a Marsh Marlin. And boy do they jump like one!
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But of course, the focus of our efforts is drum. Large drum. Puppy drum are delicious, so we are always happy to throw one of them in the cooler for dinner, and yearlings are fun, too. But we want big fish.
A little more than 4 years ago, the constant, shifting sands of the Point of Buxton created "Shelly Island". A spit of land directly south of the Point, only reachable at low tide. Not only was it an excellent place to find all kinds of beautiful shells -including Scotch Bonnets - but the fishing was awesome. There was one morning when our group and maybe one or two others were the only ones that made it on to the island before the tide made it unreachable. We had a great day of fishing, with Mark leading the pack with 8 large drum caught. The rest of us all caught at least 3 or 4. And the weather was perfect. These are just a few of the pics and fish from that year. Too many to count, total.
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| Alan with a pup |
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| J.J. with one, too |
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| Another pup |
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| Rob with one. |
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| Fred on one of his last BW's.... |
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| The beginning of another wonderful day on the island. |
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| Mark casting from the edge of Shelly Island |
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| Jerry with one of his drum |
Shelly Island only lasted the one year, before Mother Ocean reclaimed it. But the memory of it will always be there. Unfortunately, now it looks like Mother Ocean wants to reclaim the Point, too. It is significantly smaller than it's been since we've been going. And that only means it's more crowded, too. Especially when the fish are biting.
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| This photo taken this week shows a rising tide getting ready to reclaim a portion of the SW side of the Point, basically turning the Point into a Peninsula. Then it will take nothing to reduce that. |
With so many participants, it must be said we eat well! As one of the guys is a food rep, we eat better than if we ate at restaurants every day. And with one of the guys bringing his Blackstone grill, we have shown that just because you are on the beach doesn't mean that you must only eat sandwiches.
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| Denny's ain't this good for breakfast! |
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| Jeff J. serving up my bbq, wearing his BW35 sanctioned fishing hat. |
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| This week's supply of quality bourbon |
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| A good way to start the day... after coffee |
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| Enjoying my favorite craft DIPA, Lighthouse, by the lighthouse. |
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| Mike's famous "Beach Cobbler" is always a hit. |
So that brings me to this year's fish. This won't take long. They were few and far between.
Saturday, blues were the fish of the day, with a few sharks and flounder thrown in. Sunday was nothing but flounder - but with them out of season, they were all returned to the sea after being caught. At least we caught something. Monday there was nothing until dark, and then I hooked a 4 foot sandbar shark. Then 2 drum were caught. Mike caught a 38" drum (2 short of a citation) and Rob caught a 42" drum. He earned the citation for the week! Then John caught a 3 foot sandbar.
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| My last fish was my 2nd fish: a 16" grey trout that got returned to grow bigger. |
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Andre holding one of the many flounder we all caught the first part of the week.
BTW, Andre makes the best hot sauce ever! And we are so grateful he brings us each some every year!
His venison jerky and summer sausage are hard to beat, too! |
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| My biggest shark - that I landed, at least. A 4' sandbar. |
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| Mike's 38" drum |
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| Jeff D. fighting a shark on Saturday. |
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| A 3' sandbar looks even smaller when held by 6'4" Johnny. |
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| Rob with his winning big fish of the week: a citation 42" drum caught Monday night. |
I know i've neglected a lot of what happened over the last 8 years. And these are only a few of the highlights of this 35th Annual Boys Week. But, we're grateful we get to do this every year; and no sooner does one end, when we all are already looking forward to the next one.
I'm blessed with the best band of brothers a man can know. We had a new guy join us this year. Cam.
He didn't catch a fish. Didn't even get one bite. Yet he still said he had an absolute blast, and can't wait until next year. His words: We are over the top, with our commitment to doing this surf fishing thing, and doing it right. From the time we spend on the beach, to our menu, to our love for each other. Catching fish is way down the list of what makes this week so special. And yes, we can't wait until we do it again. Until then, Fish ON!
Addendum:
Many of the guys have sent me a few more photos from the past several years - from this year, to the "Shelly Island" day, to other years, to the Spring day that he went down to Buxton with Andre and Rob. Here's a bunch of those photos.
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| Another decent drum on Shelly Island |
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| When the fishing is so good, you all hook up at once. |
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| A large ray with a long fight. But this time Mark won, and not the ray. He returned back to sea shortly. |
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| Ted and Mark enjoying the Point in all its glory. |
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| No better feeling than that of your rod bowing down. And no greater sight to see. |
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| Andre with his citation drum from the Spring run. |
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| Mark with his 48" Bull red citation from this past Spring. Quite a run.... next Spring, I'll have to go. |
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| No shortage of short flounder were caught on Sunday. Here's Chuck/Butch with one. |
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Andre's large bluefish led us to believe we would all be having a great week of fishing.
It was a great week... just not of fishing. |
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| Time for lunch |
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| Filling up your plate |
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| Home made BBQ and all the fixin's |
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| Shish kabobs for dinner Saturday |
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| Just waiting on the fish..... |
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| The flounder liked the soft plastics. White and Chartreuse were the colors |
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| 'Merica! |
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| Time for lunch with JJ and his Blackstone. Nice red hats for the 35th year. |
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| Mike must have gotten up too early. Or caught too many fish. Naah. He got up early |
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| Sunsets |
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| Pretty.... |
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| Oooh.... |
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| AAah. But we missed the "green flash". |
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This is part of a group of brothers I am blessed to be a part of. Even when the fish aren't biting and we head back to the cottage for a break, we enjoy being with each other. Just don't point out something on the beach and say it is at "7:30" when it's in front of you. Right, Jeff!
I love them all, 24/7, though! Already counting down the days to BW'22! |
