October 2022 Fishing Thread IT IS DRUM SEASON AND FRENCH IS ON THE BOARD

Well, October has finally arrived. And, while it is the drizzling shits for watching football right now, October is the pinnacle of my fishing season.

After working half a day on Thursday, I headed to Buckroe Pier in Hampton to try and catch bait for this weekend's north wind in the OBX. While there were a decent number of large spot caught, I couldn't get hardly any action on my bloodworm fishbites. I managed three, but folks using real bloodworms caught at 10 times the frequency that I did (and I would rather buy cob mullet than drop $18 a bag for bloodworms.) At dark, I drove down to Chesapeake and got a little bit of sleep at a Fairfield Inn.

At 3:00AM, I got up and headed down to Jennettes Pier in Nags Head, armed with a bag of around a dozen spot heads graciously donated by the Buckroe patrons cleaning their catch, and my three whole spot. I didn't have great expectations. The weather Friday was beautiful, almost flat calm wind and 70 degrees. Unfortunately, that usually means poor fall fishing. There weren't any bluefish, spot, or anything else I could use for bait. I soaked the spot heads off the end, and one drum was caught in spite of the conditions. I also realized that the FHB Drum Tournament kicked off the next morning with the windchange, so I knew the end of the pier was going to be a mad house. I made the call to leave the pier at 11:00AM and go get corncob mullets. I loaded the cooler with corn cobs at Ocean's East, grabbed a Jersey Mike's sub for lunch, and slept from mid-afternoon through 3AM Saturday.

As expected, Saturday was a madhouse. Between a north 20 mile an hour wind, 30+ rods set up in a confined space, and a slow bite to start the day, it was an excercise in patience. I didn't enter the tournament this year, so I tried to give the tournament guys (many of whom are long time acquantainces) as much distance as I could. It is still early, so most of the red drum are local fish coming out of the sound to feed, so most are caught in the South corner. I fished the North corner most of the day, which was a little less hectic. To hold, I had to use 10oz pyramid sinkers.

Well, most of the morning was shark after shark. I caught a dozen 3-12 pound Atlantic sharpnose shaks (called "purple biters" by the locals) while maybe four drum were caught before lunchtime. But, starting around 3:00PM, the bite got stronger, and I got two nice fish about 45 minutes apart. The first fish was 44 inches, but was as wide as any drum I have caught. It's tail was almost 16 inches wide.

On the board and one of my biggest #drumtour2022 pic.twitter.com/mHHYQbueSY— TKP-Mode French (@french60wasp) October 8, 2022

The second fish was almost 48 inches, didn't have the width, but was much more difficult to get to the pier. I got it right before sunset.

Second fish of the day #drumtour2022 pic.twitter.com/Bq7t9TcLHs— TKP-Mode French (@french60wasp) October 8, 2022

On my next cast, I promptly blew up my Penn Fathom II (I kept loosing the brakes to improve casting distance, and like Icarus, I flew too close to the sun), but I was so worn out that I didn't bother retying. I sat around for a bit to watch the chaos, and then packed up and made a bathroom pit stop before leaving the pier (keep in mind, at that point I had been on the pier for nearly 15 straight hours without a restroom break.) I declared victory and went to bed.

With the wind flattening out on Sunday, I made the call to sleep in, and then meet up with two friends from Maryland who were spot fishing at Rudee Inlet. I headed out around 8:30AM, washed the salt off my Trailblazer, made a side trip to get A Bite of Maine lobster rolls for the boys lunch, and then arrived at Rudee a little before noon. The bite started out slow, but as the slack tide started moving again, we filled the cooler for their annual Thanksgiving fishfry. We caught around 60 spots, two keeper trout, and two croakers (this time almost all were on bloodworm fishbites, as the pinfsh made quick work of the regular bloodworms they brought.)

My buddies are huge buffet afficianados, so we wrapped the day at Captain Georges. I am not a fan, but when in Rome, do as the Romans do. They pounded the crab legs and we had a great time talking smack and planning future fishing trips.

Hopefully I can get back down to the OBX for the next NE wind.

Tight lines everyone.