Dr. Bogus
So what fishery was great this year?
Trout? Lots of specks around, but the vast majority are illegal shorts. Sea mullet? A pretty good bet, there were lots of big fish around. Flounder? When was the last time you limited out? Red drum? Amazing schools outside the inlets early this year, but that feels like last winter. King mackerel? Seems like they never came north this season.
For the big game fisherman, we’ll put cobia at the top of the list, but for the sinker bouncer, they haven’t seen a better season for puffers as we have had this fall. Yes, this year we had loads of toads.
One of the last vestiges of fall and one of the first harbingers of spring for bottom fishermen along the Carolina Coast is the lowly puffer fish. Okay, they are not pretty, eat anything they can get their beaks on, average only a pound or less, don’t put up a good fight, or any fight for that matter, and puff up like a balloon.
However, they make up for all of that by providing some of the tastiest morsels that come out of the sea.
Also known as blowfish, blow toad or swellfish and technically the northern puffer or scientifically Spheroides maculates, they are with us in the late fall and early winter and return to our beaches in early spring, when we need them the most to recover us from the long winter doldrums.
Gear and bait are pretty straightforward. Just a simple hi-lo two-hook rig and a three or four ounce sinker will do the trick. The only real trick on the gear is to use a long-shank no. 4 hook, because it goes deep in their mouth and you can hook them better, otherwise they will often just chop your line and hook right off.
The best baits for the puffers are fairly simple, as well.
Most anglers use small bits of shrimp, but you can also use artificial bloodworms (Fishbites, Bag o’ Worms), they’ll work just as well. They are a bottom feeding fish and they will eat anything you throw at them, including squid, shrimp or whatever, almost anything. I’ve even hooked them on a green grub meant for a speckled trout!
So, blowfish are very willing victims, one of the least fussy eaters, the gear is not rocket science, but this is where it gets interesting – cleaning the beast.
You must start with gloves. Their skin is about 10 times rougher than sandpaper, and they will take the skin right off your hands if not for gloves. And don’t forget a good sharp knife.
The easiest way to clean them is to cut them (from the top) right behind the gills, and cut them right down to the bottom skin and then turn your knife away from you and run the knife right down the fish and the skin will peel right off. You just rotate your knife as you pull it to the back while holding the head, and the skin comes right off and you end up with what puffer conoisseurs call a “chicken leg.”
It looks just like a chicken leg, all nice and clean, and yes it does taste a bit like chicken.
Chicken of the sea, sea squab monikers are designed to hide the “puffer” heritage of the fish, but the taste is tops and the rule is the KISS proverb, “keep is simple stupid,” and simplicity is the best preparation. Some just sauté in butter, I like to lightly coat it in flour and sauté in butter with a little lemon juice, it’s simple.
Another conoisseur dips them in an egg-wash then coats the fish in some Italian flavored breadcrumbs and then browns them in butter and olive oil.
Oh the puffing? It’s for protection. Blowfish can suck in water and puff up to a large spheroid when threatened by potential predators. On the pier they suck in air, I guess in response to human predators. As far as North Carolina regulations, unlike most fish, it’s quite easy, there are no size or bag limits.
And just to clarify the toxicity of puffer fish, according to US Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, poisonings from the puffer toxin, a.k.a. tetrodotoxin, have been almost exclusively associated with the consumption of puffer fish from waters of the Indo-Pacific ocean regions.
There have been no confirmed cases of poisoning from the Atlantic puffer fish. Other remote species of the family Tetradontidae, which includes many species of puffers that are notably toxic, such as the Japanese torafugu (fugu rubripes), should be avoided.
So other than puffers, what else is happening in out pre- Thanksgiving waters? Tiny trout still remain in the headlines, although some sharpies are finding a few citation fish. Spike specks are still all over and here are some of the locations:
Radio Island, the Morehead City Newport River Pier, in front and behind Shackleford Banks, the Haystacks, the Lookout Jetty, behind Bear Island, thorugh Bogue Sound and it’s creeks, and the White Oak River up at Stella, the Brickyard, and even out at artificial reef 315. You get the picture, but if you plan to keep any measure twice before they go in the cooler.
I’ve had good luck this year with the 17 MR MirrOlure (808-color), but remember to work it slowly, very slowly. Hits are usually on the way down and barely moving.
Red drum are showing outside the inlets along Shackleford Banks at Rough Point and at the Lookout jetty and even out to Shark Island at the shoals. In many of those places they are mixed in with specks. Sea mullet are also still biting well, especially around Beaufort Inlet and the shipping channel, along the surf in places like near the Sheraton Pier. The surf has been slow for redfish, and the insider fish are short and low slot size.
False albacore? The only place I’ve heard of them recently has been out at the Atlas Tanker, and these “sipping” fish have lockjaw even for small files. If you can’t get the albacore to bite there, the sea bass bite on the bottom is great, and the fish are big.
King mackerel have shown in good numbers and big in size east of the Cape Lookout Shoals, particularly in the vicinity of Chicken Rock, where fish in the 50-pound range have been landed, including a 59-pound monster.
Looks like the water has warmed a bit and brought them in. There have also been a few out at 210 and 240 Rocks. Farther out there are a few wahoo and blackfin tuna, particularly south of the Swansboro Hole at the Rise, where the water is a toasty 78 degrees.
Finally, there are some early reports of bluefin tuna around. Menhaden and good weather will determine how the bluefin season goes this year.
(Richard “Dr. Bogus” Ehrenkaufer of Emerald Isle is on the radio every Monday at 7:30 a.m. on WTKF 107.1 FM and 1240 AM. Call him at (252) 354-4905.)
