I was really surprised this morning when I walked out to get the newspaper. Our front yard had frost.

This is at least two weeks earlier than last year. Even then our backyard which is close to the water survived without frost until December.

I guess weather is always strange, but this year has especially been weird. The heat came very early in June and held on longer than usual into September.

We had tropical storm Hannah drop by, but Hannah only brought us wind and very little rain.

We have had a couple of recent nameless storms that have brought us higher water than Hannah.

Fall has been spectacular until this recent cold snap which I just wrote about on the Crystal Coast Living Blog.

We have a really nice week of weather lined up for next week, and my tomatoes did not survive the winds of Hannah, but frost is such a harbinger of cold weather that I would rather do without it.

I have much more fishing planned for this fall, and temperatures in the forties are not what I like to feel when I am out on the water.

Of course I will have to admit that my best ever day of fishing occurred in the rain with the temperatures in the mid-forties. If I could catch that many fish again, I would once again endure the cold.

Still we cannot complain very much with the early frost, the weather on the Southern Outer Banks sure beats the snow that fell from Pennsylvania up through Canada.

Tags: Weather,Fishing,Crystal Coast

There are times when life is so much fun that it is hard to believe.

There are not many of us who are fond of school, but what fisherman would not be excited about learning how to catch more fish?

Last night I managed to go to a seminar at the Emerald Isle Parks and Recreation Center. The seminar was given by the area’s most famous surf fisherman, Dr. Bogus.

Dr. Bogus spends all of his time fishing, and last night he was sharing his secrets with a group of us. I noticed that I was not the only person taking notes

I come from a long history of freshwater fishing with some saltwater fishing thrown in for good measure. In 2005 and 2006 I managed to sneak in a couple of guided fishing trips in the Beaufort area.

One trip turned out to be one of those once in a lifetime mornings of fishing. I got an inshore grand slam with keeper size Flounder, Speckled Trout, and Red Drum. In fact I caught so many puppy Drum that my arms hurt. You can read the full story and see some pictures at this post on my View from the Mountain blog.

Since we moved down here, I have mostly been on my own. We keep catching fish of all types but most of us will admit that this summer has not been the best fishing season.

Given less than stellar luck this summer, I am placing a lot of bets on fall. I really want to have some fun with Speckled Trout and Red Drum so I decided a free seminar was a good place to start.

That turned out to be a wise decision. Dr. Bogus’ seminar was wide ranging covering everything from the type of water fish like to the great and techniques that you need to catch them.

I was impressed especially with the discussion of how different fish bite. I also saw artificial baits that were new to me.

In fact the seminar got me really fired up to go fishing again. Unfortunately, today was already pretty well booked. I had to mow the yard, do a mailing, have lunch with a friend who has been stationed in Iraq, and do desk duty at the office this afternoon.

I managed to get all that done and get my 5:20 pm. It took me about ten minutes to rig up one of Dr. Bogus dual artificial float rigs and get my kayak in the water. I headed out in the White Oak to an oyster reef which has a cut through it. Unfortunately the tide was so high, that I wasn’t exactly sure if I was in the right spot.

By then it was after 6 pm and the amount of light was beginning to shrink. I fished a while without any luck. Then I decided to take some pictures of the fantastic sunset.

Once I started watching the sunset, it was pretty hard to fish. It had to be one of the most spectacular sunsets that I have seen on the river. By the sun was behind the trees, I headed back to Bluewater Cove since I was well half away across the river by then.

I managed to fish a little on the way in, but I really just didn’t have the time to do serious fishing since I knew my wife would be starting to worry as darkness closed in on the river.

I will be back out there the next chance that I get.

Tags: fishing