Damon Outdoors: Bear Island 2017

October 15-18th, it was that time again. Time to load up and head to the North C coast for some primitive island camping and fishing from little plastic boats.

As usual, I left Georgia and headed up to Kerr Lake to my buddy's house. It is a shorter drive from his house to the state park. Also, it is nice to hang out and catch up a day or two before the trip.
By Saturday night everyone that was going had shown up so Sunday morning we set out for the coast with canoes and kayaks in tow. This year we had one canoe, with trolling motor, to haul most of the stuff. The rest of it (for the most part) went on a NuCanoe with a trolling motor. I had my Old Town Predator 13 and the other three guys had various other pleasure kayaks. This made for a total of six for this year's adventure.
The paddle, from the dock at the park to the Island, is 3 miles across the intercoastal waterway and through the grass flats. The final stretch through a narrow passage opening up into a lagoon behind the Island. If you need to hit the bathhouse, it is 3/4 miles from the campsite (7). No fires, no alcohol.

We left the docks at Hammocks Beach State Park about midday on Sunday and paddled the three-mile route to Bear Island. As usual, I was in the back most of the way. The pleasure kayaks do not carry much gear and given their long narrow hulls gain more speed than the average fishing sit-on-top. I had a good bit of gear stowed in the bait tank and hatch of my Predator making a slow kayak even slower. It was like a tank. Every year I say it is my last or I will get a trolling motor... I never do. I did manage to keep up for the most part and even got a short tow to help me along.

I did catch the first fish on the way in just before pulling up on shore at the island. It was a huge pinfish, well huge compared to what I was used to catching. Maybe not?

Once camp was set up, we did our regular routine of catching bait and hanging out the first night with some fishing from shore on the lagoon side of the Island. We spent much less time this year catching bait and more time with artificials. The bait we did catch came in handy while surf fishing. Steve and I mostly fished the lagoon out of his canoe, while the rest of the guys hit the surf. I took a couple surf rods but did not use them. I showed one of the younger guys how to cast my bait caster and left him to it. He caught on very fast and landed some nice reds from the surf. As a matter of fact, all of the large reds came from the surf this year.

Steve and I managed a few puppy drums and Flounder to help with the evening fish fry. Steve's son and his buddy went out and got crabs and they were an awesome starter! There is nothing like fresh seafood right out of the ocean!

The weather progressively got worse and we even got a bit of wind and rain, so we decided to end the trip a day early. Even short a day, I feel it was a banner year for fishing and hanging out with the guys.

I did manage to get quite a few pictures and a little bit of video......