[00:00:21.200] [music] [00:00:22.240] Morning comes almost timidly [00:00:22.440] but with a soft golden glow to the [00:00:25.000] Outer Banks of the Atlantic off the North Carolina coast. [00:00:27.600] It's a deceptive quiet [00:00:31.400] because treachery often [00:00:32.800] lives in these waters [00:00:34.200] and among the shifting sands. [00:00:36.920] The banks are two islands really - Hatteras and Ocracoke. [00:00:42.120] They are narrow strips of sand with few scrub trees [00:00:47.440] stretching more than forty-five miles, [00:00:49.840] but never more than a thousand yards wide. [00:00:53.280] They're a buffer for the coast of North Carolina, [00:00:56.200] a cushion against the rage of the sea. [00:00:59.760] They've been battered by hurricanes and ravaged by pirates [00:01:03.560] and they've survived both. [00:01:05.543] [music] [00:01:08.800] They are thinly populated [00:01:11.240] but the very fury of the years and the seas [00:01:15.040] has bred a people that have come to know quiet and tranquility. [00:01:20.360] But they also attract a breed that is not tranquil [00:01:23.520] and far from quiet - [00:01:25.560] the surf fisher. [00:01:27.371] [music] [00:01:44.440] There were three of us. [00:01:45.880] This is Whitey Krueger, a fishing equipment field tester [00:01:49.520] and veteran salt water patient. [00:01:51.840] Nick Carris, a traveler to many parts [00:01:54.360] of the world, and experience in the fishing waters of the Outer Banks. [00:01:58.480] And myself, [00:01:59.320] Roland Martin, I've been a tournament fisherman [00:02:01.880] for freshwater bass for ten years, [00:02:04.480] but when I was a boy I fished the surf off Massachusetts. [00:02:07.960] The salt of the sea [00:02:09.640] never truly leaves a man. [00:02:11.900] [music] [00:02:15.080] Here along the restless sands meet the Gulf Stream, [00:02:18.680] moving up from Florida [00:02:20.200] and Labrador Current, coming down from the north. [00:02:23.640] They meet in anger [00:02:25.480] and the force of their junction is such that it creates some of the most [00:02:28.920] dangerous sailing waters in the world, [00:02:32.280] but they also produce some of the finest sports fishing [00:02:35.040] known to this country. [00:02:36.680] From the great bluefin tuna off shore [00:02:39.120] to the giant sea stripers in the surf. [00:02:42.600] There are few finer waters for the surf fishermen in the world. [00:02:46.360] And he's, he's a queer breed [00:02:48.120] this man who stands on the shore and casts to the sea. [00:02:52.280] He may sit for hours [00:02:53.400] studying the sea, waiting for the first [00:02:56.760] finny movement of a school in the rolling surf. [00:02:59.880] He dreams of the great blitz [00:03:02.160] when the fish come by the tons. [00:03:04.640] He remembers it as only yesterday [00:03:07.160] and forgets it was seven years past. [00:03:10.400] His prize is the striped sea bass, [00:03:12.800] the true giant of the surf waters. [00:03:15.520] And this was our pursuit. [00:03:18.600] But the surf fisherman takes anything he's dealt. [00:03:22.080] He pursues the fish sometimes in a mad race along the sands in trucks and campers [00:03:27.240] that are often more expensive than his family car. [00:03:30.360] Even the birds of the sea become a part of his chase. [00:03:34.600] But if there seems to be a madness about him at times [00:03:38.160] he's calculating in the equipment he uses. [00:03:41.280] There are skills involved in fishing from the surf [00:03:44.280] but they are lost without the proper equipment. [00:03:47.200] The most important fundamental in surf fishing [00:03:49.760] is balanced tackles [00:03:51.440] and few know this better than Whitey. [00:03:54.080] What do you consider balanced tackle? [00:03:55.560] Well let's just take this particular rod and reel here. [00:04:00.000] Notice that the face of this particular spool [00:04:02.880] matches the face of this guide. [00:04:05.640] It's the same diameter. [00:04:07.040] It's so important that it [00:04:09.280] doesn't have any of this line friction, [00:04:11.480] what we call line slap, against the rod as you're casting. [00:04:14.520] Why do you mean the size of the spool really has to match that first ring? [00:04:18.560] Now, if we take, [00:04:19.880] let's say, a quarter ounce lure [00:04:22.080] and put on a twenty pound line, [00:04:24.640] it sure is not going to get a good distance cap. [00:04:27.320] Is there a maximum size line that you can use? [00:04:30.320] Most of your rods will tell you the type of line that can be used [00:04:34.200] and the weight of the lure that can be used [00:04:36.680] and they shouldn't go beyond that particular point. [00:04:39.240] Let's say we're using an eleven and a half foot rod. [00:04:43.200] We wouldn't go beyond twenty pound [?] because here we're [00:04:45.800] not going to get the distance. [00:04:47.560] I see. [00:04:48.520] Now you can take this particular rod here, [00:04:51.160] will handle the three ounce lure [00:04:54.080] and get distance with, let's say, [00:04:57.600] a seventeen pound line, because this happens [00:04:59.720] to be a nine foot rod. [00:05:01.600] But when we're going into the longer rods, [00:05:03.320] we should never go beyond that twenty pound [?]. [00:05:07.600] The movement of the birds is the signal for the surf fisherman to go mad. [00:05:11.240] Just as Hemingway's old man [00:05:12.720] of the sea followed his birds to the great marlin, [00:05:15.560] so the surf fisherman races the gulls [00:05:18.080] to the schools that lay off shore on the Outer Banks. [00:05:21.080] But this is a [?] pursuit and done by car and not in an ancient boat. [00:05:26.000] Let one bird move and insanity takes [00:05:28.800] over the surf fisherman. [00:05:30.280] He knows no friends then and forgets his neighbors. [00:05:33.440] And heaven help anyone who strays into his path. [00:05:37.480] We found the birds, [00:05:39.040] but they've led us to frustration. [00:05:41.040] The school is hanging out in the surf [00:05:43.440] just beyond the longest cast we can make them ashore. [00:05:47.760] A boat rolls outside and its fishermen are picking at the school [00:05:51.880] and this can drive a surf caster mad, [00:05:54.160] to watch others take from his school, [00:05:57.800] to be so close and yet too far away. [00:06:01.600] We think we can almost see the school, [00:06:03.920] which of course is not so. [00:06:06.120] The surface boil, which has brought the gulls, [00:06:09.640] is from the trash fish and below them [00:06:12.080] are the bigger fish who've come to feed. [00:06:14.800] At last I can't stand it any longer. [00:06:17.080] There were fish out there and I had to find a way to reach them. [00:06:20.240] So I waded out into the surf and took my [00:06:22.880] chances on getting a saltwater bath. [00:06:28.000] Whitey and Nick stayed on the shore [00:06:30.240] and once more tried to cast to the school the birds had spotted, [00:06:33.400] but I kept walking out to the sea looking for a fish and getting closer to trouble. [00:06:38.714] [music] [00:07:12.320] The first strike went to Nick who had hit a drop out [00:07:15.640] that had strayed away from the main school. [00:07:18.360] There was no way to tell at first, just what Nick had hit into. [00:07:21.800] The tumbling sea has such a force that it often disguises the strike [00:07:26.080] and makes it difficult to tell the species [00:07:28.160] or even the size of the fish [00:07:29.720] at the other end of the line. [00:07:31.800] But once this fellow had made its run [00:07:33.760] there was no doubt about what he was. [00:07:36.160] It had to be a bluefish. [00:07:38.240] It's not one of the bigger fish that live in these waters, [00:07:40.800] but certainly it's one of the meanest. [00:07:45.640] The world's record blue, [00:07:47.080] thirty one pounds twelve ounces, [00:07:49.120] came out of this very same [00:07:50.920] three mile slew only last year. [00:07:53.480] I'd walked my way into trouble [00:07:55.240] taking a saltwater bath [00:07:57.480] and had to change to dry clothes. [00:07:59.520] And Nick's catch sent me back to casting from the shore. [00:08:03.200] There's one! [00:08:04.840] Now watch the tip of that rod. Keep it high. [00:08:08.080] Let the tip do the work. [00:08:09.520] The drag'll work on that reel. [00:08:11.760] Now, when you want line, you go down toward the fish [00:08:14.680] but not with pressure. [00:08:15.880] If he's pulling that line off, don't ever take line in [00:08:19.120] because all you're doing is twisting. [00:08:20.920] Now I pump him in. [00:08:22.680] Now I get line. [00:08:24.560] This is -- There he goes. [00:08:25.920] He's off again. [00:08:27.200] Just let him work on the tip. [00:08:28.600] Now go pick up line again. [00:08:31.760] Now he's coming. [00:08:33.040] Nice and easy. [00:08:36.360] Yep. There he comes. [00:08:38.120] Right in the wash. [00:08:40.360] Alright. [00:08:43.600] There he is. Right there. [00:08:45.560] Whitey and Nick had started across the beach [00:08:47.880] to gloat over their trophies and tell me how it was done. [00:08:56.600] But just then, I've piled into one. [00:08:59.040] Although I couldn't be sure what it was, [00:09:01.360] it had some of the moves of the blue, [00:09:03.400] but it also had a habit of squatting on the bottom [00:09:06.160] and daring me to move it. [00:09:08.800] I've got no trophy and certainly no prize. [00:09:12.440] It's a small shark. [00:09:14.960] A tough little son of a gun, but never a surf fisherman's dream. [00:09:20.000] But a blue is. [00:09:21.640] There are only a few fish tougher or meaner in the world. [00:09:25.840] The basic savagery of these fish sometimes is terrible to watch. [00:09:30.360] When they're on a feeding rampage, [00:09:31.960] they kill or maim anything in their way [00:09:34.560] including their own kind. [00:09:37.520] We'd been picking only the edge of the school. [00:09:40.240] We had to get farther off shore and that meant using a boat. [00:09:44.440] We went back to the lodge for a new set of lures [00:09:47.080] and different rigging. [00:09:48.520] We would be trolling and that requires different gear. [00:09:51.814] [music] [00:09:54.600] We'll go out there and troll some at forty and fifty foot water [00:09:57.360] with this down rigger. And you can do it with light tackle [00:10:00.760] because we control with that seven and a half pound [?] [00:10:02.600] get plenty deep. [00:10:03.960] And with just light tackle like this [00:10:05.920] the fish hits, it breaks away, [00:10:08.240] and now we're uninhibited. [00:10:09.640] We can fight these big fish in. Nobody down here's trolling this way. [00:10:12.720] Nick, this models got a thermistor on the end, [00:10:15.640] you know, right down by the weight, [00:10:17.040] so when we drop this down say, thirty or forty feet, [00:10:19.560] we're actually reading the depth, [00:10:22.200] the temperature, that particular depth. [00:10:23.600] Now, by throwing this little switch on - [00:10:25.440] Well, right here at sixty five degrees [00:10:27.040] but you know, it probably would be fifty or forty-five degrees down that depth. [00:10:30.400] Now what I'll do to actually get ready to work it [00:10:32.800] I'll run this out and lock it down in place. [00:10:35.800] And its has got a counter and it tells how many feet I lower it down. [00:10:39.640] And it's just merely just lower it down to the right depth. [00:10:42.720] And we're in. We're ready to go. [00:10:46.560] Hey Whitey, Roland, come on over here. [00:10:48.240] Let's check this map first before we head out that inlet. [00:10:51.440] Now this Hatteras Inlet here is one of the most [00:10:53.800] treacherous inlets on the whole coast [00:10:55.440] and I want to pick my way through there slowly. [00:10:57.880] You don't want to put the boat on the shoal. [00:10:59.560] There's no markings on the map. [00:11:01.360] Well, that's because it changes almost every [00:11:03.920] time they have a storm or a big wind [00:11:05.560] the channel shift so much here, so treacherous. [00:11:08.960] Well, I tell you, we could probably plot the actual depth on this graph. [00:11:12.760] Once we get out here, we can head our for the shoal [00:11:15.280] and maybe find that hole we were looking at from the beach yesterday. [00:11:18.760] Oh boy, that's a good looking sandbar. [00:11:20.960] Now there ought to be a good drop off connected with it [00:11:22.760] and that's usually the place we ought to be. [00:11:24.640] Now you see Diamond Shoulder there? [00:11:25.760] There's not a sounding on that whole spot there. [00:11:28.120] That's because it shifts so much. [00:11:30.280] The only way we're going to find out what's on there is start running courses [00:11:33.080] across there with the graph and start reading that. [00:11:35.920] Well, you know, between the map and the graph [00:11:38.160] we ought to be able to find some good fishing holes today. [00:11:40.480] But even as we plotted our course, [00:11:43.200] the weather began to change and it became thick and ugly. [00:11:48.160] A faint rainbow fell across the sky. [00:11:50.600] It was getting black, but it was not [00:11:53.200] a good omen. [00:11:55.120] Whitey's discretion drove me back to shore. [00:11:57.920] But despite the rising seas, Nick and I [00:12:00.520] decided to take our chances outside in the little boat. [00:12:03.943] [music] [00:12:12.000] As we moved out of the slip towards the sea, the temperature began to drop [00:12:16.240] and a low winter fog started to form. [00:12:19.800] We went through the cut that separates Hatteras and Ocracoke [00:12:23.120] and almost ten miles more to the Diamond Shoals. [00:12:26.200] [music] [00:12:36.120] We thought first we would try to cast to the shoal, [00:12:39.480] throwing the lure up on the reef and then dragging it off [00:12:41.760] to bump along the bottom. [00:12:43.500] [music] [00:12:53.040] But the wind wouldn't let up [00:12:54.520] and it kept roughing up the sea. [00:12:56.680] It was the danger that we might be driven into the shoals. [00:13:00.120] And anyway, the sea by then was in such an uproar [00:13:03.120] that it was impossible to get a lure to the bottom. [00:13:06.120] We decided to go out a little and troll. [00:13:10.120] [music] [00:13:25.960] We had to rerig. Changing from a casting spoon to a trolling lure. [00:13:30.243] [music] [00:13:38.960] And we tied these to the down riggers. [00:13:41.157] [music] [00:13:55.680] We dropped them to about twenty-five feet down. [00:13:58.443] [music] [00:14:10.680] And then checked the temperature. [00:14:12.840] Unbelievably, it was sixty-two degrees. [00:14:15.920] Very unusual for this time of year, [00:14:18.320] but it's a great temperature for striped sea bass. [00:14:20.886] [music] [00:14:20.890] Nick had to fight with the boat to hold off the sea [00:14:29.960] and still keep us close enough to the bar to stay within range of the fish. [00:14:33.600] [music] [00:14:56.200] I pulled the first strike and Nick confirmed quickly [00:14:59.040] on the graph sounder that we had passed over a school [00:15:01.840] and not picked up just a stray. [00:15:04.880] The first run of the fish made it clear we weren't in the striped bass. [00:15:09.000] There was too much speed on the first trip. [00:15:11.600] It had to be a false albacore trying to set a track record with its speed. [00:15:15.900] [music] [00:15:37.040] The false albacore puts most of his bite into the first run, [00:15:40.800] and he can cover a lot of ground. [00:15:43.720] But if you can hold onto him until you can make him turn [00:15:46.840] you usually have won the fight. [00:15:48.880] He doesn't give up entirely but he does start [00:15:51.520] panting for breath on the return trip. [00:15:53.857] [music] [00:16:02.240] He's a beautifully streamlined fish [00:16:04.360] and I got a nod of approval from Nick. [00:16:06.571] [music] [00:16:10.200] Nick knew a school was somewhere [00:16:11.200] near and began scanning the rough seas. [00:16:13.586] [music] [00:16:19.320] His binoculars picked up the gulls off the port side [00:16:22.386] [music] [00:16:25.480] and we turned toward their feeding grounds. [00:16:28.157] [music] [00:16:53.240] On the first cast Nick got a hit. [00:16:54.057] [music] [00:16:58.040] For a moment, he thought he'd lost it [00:17:00.080] but it was just the speed of the [00:17:02.000] false albacore putting slack in the line on his dash toward the boat. [00:17:06.080] It took a while [00:17:07.800] and even as Nick was playing the the fish [00:17:09.700] he was watching the sky [00:17:12.120] trying to judge the growing danger [00:17:13.160] in the weather. [00:17:14.157] [music] [00:17:33.680] The false albacore is also called the Little Tuna, [00:17:37.040] but actually he's a member of the mackerel family. [00:17:39.429] [music] [00:17:58.200] But in miniature, he's almost a duplicate of the bluefin tuna, [00:18:02.320] which ranges from [00:18:03.280] the soft, clear waters of the Caribbean to the cold [00:18:06.000] depths off Newfoundland. [00:18:08.120] He's perfectly molded for speed. [00:18:10.600] Each fin fits compactly into the [00:18:13.120] contours of his body until he becomes [00:18:15.800] an engineering marvel of streamlined design. [00:18:20.640] As soon as we freed the false albacore [00:18:23.160] our locators spotted a new school of fish. [00:18:26.080] This time there were no birds to lead us to the school. [00:18:28.760] We had to depend on man's invention [00:18:30.800] to locate the fish too deep for the birds to find. [00:18:35.280] And the action began almost immediately. [00:18:38.320] It was another school of false albacore, [00:18:40.520] this group deeper than the first. [00:18:42.571] [music] [00:19:23.760] But there was no time for another cast or another catch. [00:19:27.680] The sea was getting higher and the sky darker. [00:19:31.600] And the fog was becoming [00:19:33.040] so thick that Nick was afraid we might not be able to [00:19:35.920] find our way through the cuts between the two slender islands. [00:19:39.960] We turned for home in a treacherous sea [00:19:42.800] and it was a rough, wet ride. [00:19:45.371] [music] [00:20:12.600] Fishing changes on the banks just like the weather. [00:20:16.040] When we finally reach shore, we step [00:20:18.400] right into a big run of flounder in the surf. [00:20:21.720] It was an unusually large school. [00:20:24.280] Flounder are taken here by the surf caster but [00:20:26.840] usually only from small groups, [00:20:28.880] but this was a big party! [00:20:30.480] The shore had come alive with surf casters. [00:20:33.640] Whitey, who had stayed behind, already had caught supper [00:20:37.120] and there wasn't an empty handed surf caster on the beach. [00:20:40.600] The fish were laying hardly more than fifteen feet off shore. [00:20:44.480] We used small jigs and waited for the light touch [00:20:47.200] that signifies the strike of the flounder. [00:20:50.400] He's not much of a fighter, but he's great [00:20:52.360] on the dinner table and the surf caster's not fussy about his game. [00:20:56.600] He'd like a big sea stripper, [00:20:57.480] but if he can't have that he'll settle for the tasty flounder [00:21:02.040] or anything else that comes his way. [00:21:04.480] But Whitey kind of overdid it with this puppy of a bluefish. [00:21:08.300] [music] [00:21:19.240] When the fun with the flounder was over the day was almost done. [00:21:23.760] The wind was softer [00:21:25.640] and if there still was a roll to the sea [00:21:28.880] it didn't come with an angry rush [00:21:33.520] of the earlier part of that day. [00:21:34.480] It was close to time to quit, [00:21:35.400] but somehow the surf fisherman always finds one more cast. [00:21:44.320] And Whitey's last cast brought him a strike, [00:21:44.960] a big one! [00:21:47.120] This was not the bluefish and certainly [00:21:49.760] not the timid flounder. [00:21:51.400] This one had big shoulders. [00:21:54.680] Such was its strength that Whitey thought for a moment it might be a shark, [00:21:59.320] but there was too much movement in this fish. [00:22:02.360] Too much desire to run and fight [00:22:05.480] and not just sit and sulk on the bottom. [00:22:08.560] This was no shark. [00:22:10.786] [music] [00:22:38.040] It was the prize of the surf fishermen, [00:22:40.720] the fish that all surf castors dream about - [00:22:43.920] the striped sea bass! [00:22:46.086] [music] [00:22:55.680] And this one was no kid. [00:22:58.520] He went thirty-eight pounds, [00:23:00.440] enough to keep a surf caster in dreams for quite a while. [00:23:04.386] [music] [00:23:16.000] It was a trophy big enough qthat we could have closed [00:23:18.680] the day and called it a winner. [00:23:21.680] But I wanted that one last cast myself [00:23:25.120] and apparently so did a hundred other surf casters [00:23:28.120] who had seen the catch and rushed to the scene. [00:23:31.440] But I got the strike with hardly any light left in the day. [00:23:35.320] I kept yelling I had a champion, [00:23:37.680] but down deep I knew I was short of that. [00:23:39.880] The world record came out of these waters and mine felt just as big. [00:23:44.386] [music] [00:23:51.600] It took time. [00:23:53.000] I had the steal line when I could sneak it. [00:23:56.320] Sometimes he'd give a foot and then take a yard. [00:23:59.786] [music] [00:24:31.400] But I got him! [00:24:32.200] Even if I had to go to my knees to capture him at the finish. [00:24:35.214] [music] [00:24:41.120] I was so exhausted Whitey had to help me carry him in. [00:24:45.320] He was forty-two pounds. The best of the day! [00:24:51.040] For ten years I fished the freshwater bass in competition and for sheer pleasure, [00:24:56.000] but today I had waded back into my boyhood [00:24:59.280] when I'd cast the surf off Massachusetts. [00:25:02.120] I had to fight my way through the bluefish, the false albacore, [00:25:05.480] and the flounder and through a rough and angry sea. [00:25:09.480] But I had caught the sea striper [00:25:12.080] just as I had done as a boy. [00:25:15.120] It was the end of a perfect day. [00:25:18.057] [music]