[piano intro] (man #1) That looks nice, Mark.

(man #2) You know, it's funny how, you know, your fish, they pull really good.

Our trout in the wintertime-- pull 'er great.

Our trout in the summertime, when that water is superhot, don't pull worth a darn.

That's a nice fish.

(man #1) Ye ah, quality.

(man #2) This guy's a little more cooperative-- nice, prettier fish.

(man #1) Nothing wrong with that.

Yeah, that's a nice fish-- very cool.

- [male announcer]: The production of Carolina Outdoor Journal is made possible in part by: - [female announcer]: The North Carolina Wildlife Rescources Commission.

A fishing license goes a long way towards wildlife conservation in North Carolina.

Over 38,000 miles of managed streams and rivers, and 250,000 acres of lakes and reservoirs.

- [male announcer]: And by EZ Bait and Tackle, family owned and operated.

We fish from fresh to saltwater.

We provide fishing supplies and ad vice to every type of angler.

For all your fishing needs, EZ Bait and Tackle.

And by contributions from PBS NC vi ewers like you.

[light instrumental music] ♪ Welcome to the Carolina Outdoor Journal .

Well, today's program is about speckled trout.

We're gonna head down to Oriental.

We're gonna be fishin' with Captain Gary Dubiel, targeting speckled trout on a morning that really, really was not very pretty.

In fact, we talked the afternoon before and knew we had a real small window of opportunity to do this.

We had Mark Nichols from Florida, who owns D.O.A.

baits, who is quite an accomplished speckled trout fisherman in his own right, and he was game.

He said, "Let's try it," and so, you'll see.

We had weather coming in.

We knew we had about four hours.

You'll see at the start what we had to face initially, which set us back actually an hour into the morning.

But we ended up catchin' fish, and they'll talk about-- this is in November when the water starts cooling down, and some of the tips from the show today about downsizing baits as the water cools is pretty interesting, so stick with us.

The "Geartime" today will be one people will want to take some notes on.

Well, they'll go over the lures that they use, the soft baits they used today for the trout and--and, uh-- and, uh, emphasize, you know, um, the need to really downsize the size of your baits, uh.

It's pretty interesting information as you move into the colder months when the fish get a little picky, and I think it'll help your fishing for speckled trout.

Donna's recipe is one I could do.

It's fish sandwich today.

Pretty cut-and-dry from her today, but it goes right along with the show.

We're in the field for one of the tastiest fish we have in our waters, the speckled trout.

(John) All right, let's head on down to Oriental on the Carolina Outdoor Journal .

(man) Mark, 'preciate you comin' up and fishin' with us.

Always good to be here on this wonderful, balmy weather that you have here.

Very balmy, very foggy this mornin', uh.

Sets a good mood.

Yeah, yeah-- hopefully, it won't interfere with what we're fishin' for today.

We'll try to take all these wonderful baits you have and see if we can't catch somethin'.

See how many trout we can catch with how many different lures.

Absolutely.

I've got a couple of new prototypes and new baits we've just come out with I'd like to play with.

Sounds great; let's see what we can do.

Maybe we'll find a trout or redfish or a striper-- If it pulls back, I'm gonna be happy.

Excellent, that's fine!

I'm your kinda customer, right?

(Gary) Absolutely--ha, ha!

(Mark) As a captain, a bent rod is a good thing.

You know, you gave me a call before I left and said, "I gotta have this color."

You were talkin' about gold; we didn't have it.

'Cause I love gold in the wintertime too, but I feel like a lotta times, you know, we get stuck on a color.

I brought a bunch of different colors.

Be interesting to see how many different colors we can catch the fish on.

Yeah, really, a lotta anglers get stuck on-- Right here.

It's in your head.

The fish, they don't really know.

[chuckling] No they don't!

But I also say, if you've got faith in it, you're gonna throw it with more faith.

Therefore, you're gonna catch more fish.

Doesn't matter what color.

It's, right, again, in the head.

Confidence, it's a wonderful thing.

Can we catch fish now?

Yes, we can.

Thank you-- ha, ha, ha!

I wanna bend a rod.

See what we can pull off of this point this morning.

(Mark) Yes, sir.

[sighing] uhhh I'm throwin' one of these-- one of our new, uh, 1/4-ounce jig heads that, uh, you helped us work on gettin' the hook together for this thing-- catchin' those big drum that you guys are catchin'.

Well, it certainly has made a big difference in a high percentage of landing.

Yeah, yeah.

Big, sharp hook.

I tell you what-- that gap, you know, really big gap, you know, just makes such a difference in hookup.

Absolutely.

(Mark) That's it.

Now you're making me jealous.

One fish, I was OK, but now, you've caught a fish that's... a little bit larger.

(Gary) Not a giant, but bigger than the last one.

(Mark) Yeah, it is.

It's a nice fish.

(Gary) I probably shoulda had the net ready, but since I'm a professional at this-- (Mark) There's nothing to it.

You hook 'em perfectly every time.

Nice release, you conservationist, you.

Thank you so much.

You belong to PETA or somethin'?

[chuckling] Yeah!

Get that fish a little closer next time, would ya?

I'm not convinced.

Are you sure that was a fish?

I think I'll get the net ready for us.

Yeah.

(Gary) You know, I know this guy who makes lures, and one of his favorite colors is "stark naked."

(Mark) Yeah, I like that color.

(Gary) Yeah, me too!

(Mark) You want to hear a story about that color?

(Gary) Yes, sir.

(Mark) They--the company that makes the powder for that particular color is out of business.

(Mark) And they say they won't have that color again for a couple of years.

Interesting, huh?

So, you're gonna order a whole bunch, right?

Heh, heh!

(Gary) Well--pull the old bait out of the lips here.

Pretty yellow mouth on this fish--this female.

(Mark) Yeah, that's a nice fish.

(Gary) Not, uh--really healthy this time of the year here.

Very, very fat.

(Mark) Yeah, yeah.

Put her back in the water for another day.

Off you go, girl.

Well, I've got the man diggin' through his lure bag now.

(Mark) That's right-- ha, ha...ha!

Problem is, like, my life was simple when I only had a couple different lures.

And then you start gettin' a whole bunch of 'em, and then you get real confused as to what you gotta have.

What do I need to use?

(Gary) So many lures, so many colors, so little time.

That's exact-- exactly right.

Get back up there and catch fish.

I'll just sit down here and go through lures and-- And Mark, I know you've been makin' these plastic baits for a long time, but how-- how'd this all start?

What--what inspired you to do all this craziness?

Uhhh, fishing all my life.

My dad owned a shrimp boat, so, you know, we had every live bait that ever swam, and, uh, I started fishing plastic, actually, when I moved to Austin, Texas, where a buddy of mine worked at a freshwater shop.

And my dad had moved down to Corpus Christi in Texas, and so I started taking those worms and stuff down there to the coast and started catchin' fish, and I did some wood-- [aggravated] Ohhh!

I did some wood carvin' and stuff-- he tried to eat-- and, uh, so I started carvin' some of my own lures out of wood, and then, uh, I started messin' with some plastics.

I stole my, uh, sister's little Creepy Crawlers that you heated up in the oven, and I started makin'-- oh, darn it-- started makin' my own, uh, worms.

And then I started makin', uh, some different kind of critters and started doing pretty well with 'em and started taking 'em down to the coast and catchin' a lot of redfish and trout with 'em.

And so I kinda got excited about making lures, and I moved to, uh, Durango, Colorado, and I really learned a lot about true finesse.

You know, crawl on your belly up to a stream to get to that fish.

And that taught me a lot from fishin', you know, uh, a--a mud hole of Galveston Bay to startin' to fish some crystal-clear water, and it taught me a lot about finesse, and so it's just been an ongoing thing.

And when I learned how those trout are always lookin' into that stream, you know, when I came out with my shrimp, I moved to Stuart, Florida.

All those snook were lookin' into that tide, same way, so I could cast that shrimp and let it sweep to 'em like trout in a stream, and I'll be darned if they didn't start eatin' it.

So people started buyin' 'em, and next thing you know, I've been doing it for 25 years.

That's great.

It's pretty cool.

(Gary) Gl ad to see you ca tch one of my fish.

You know what I did?

I picked up one of the curl-tails I brought for you.

Actually, I brought one of the colors that I was gonna force you to use, which is that-- which is that "glow/gold."

I just tend to love that color.

(Gary) Great color.

Look at this.

(Mark) It looks a lot like a flounder, doesn't it?

All right, I stole one of your curl-tails I brought for you.

(Gary) Beautiful.

(Mark) Work it nice and slow off the bottom-- have a lot of action with very little speed.

Really nice flounder, actually.

(Gary) Yeah, it is.

(Mark) I don't know; what size do y'all--?

(Gary) Fifteen inches, so that's a legal fish.

Yeah.

(Gary) Plenty legal, very, very fat.

Yeah, it's a real healthy fish.

(Gary) Beautiful.

They're a cool fish.

(Gary) And proof that your lures catch lots of things.

Yeah, yeah, really.

A potpourri... cool.

You're lucky you're not at my house.

You might be dinner tonight.

(Gary) Heh, heh...heh!

(Mark) Hey, don't do that.

(Gary) I think you got the fin.

Yeah, yep.

Trout--they seem to have the best talent of gettin' my glasses wet.

They--I don't know what it is about 'em, but every time I let 'em go, they splash my glasses.

In this case, the flounder splashed my glasses.

(Gary) Well, good!

Very nice.

(Mark) Thank you for putting me on that fish.

(Gary, sarcastically) Well, I knew exactly where he was.

(Mark) I saw you kinda cast that way, so you forced me to cast that way to the fish.

It was really subtle.

That was nice of you.

[mellow acoustic guitar leads soft rock arrangement] ♪ ♪ ♪ (Gary) That looks nice, Mark.

(Mark) You know, it's funny how, you know, your fish, they pull really good.

Our trout in the wintertime pull 'er great.

Our trout in the summertime, when that water is superhot, don't pull worth a darn.

That's a nice fish.

(Gary) Yeah, quality.

(Mark) This guy's a little more cooperative.

Nice, prettier fish.

(Gary) Yeah, nothing wrong with that fish at all.

Yeah, that's a nice fish-- very cool.

(Gary) Nice and fat--beautiful.

Very happy-- look at that torn tail.

(Gary) Yeah--huh.

Brushin' bottom.

Thank you very much.

(Gary) Beautiful fish.

(Mark) Zoomp.

(Gary) Off he goes; nicely done, sir.

Thank you.

(Gary) We'll save your pants for another day.

heh, heh...heh Yeah, I'm by myself; it gets sort of smelly in the room there after a couple of days.

(Gary) Ha, ha...ha!

Mark, I think something that a lot of folks in my area don't fully understand, like usin'-- usin' soft plastic baits-- you know, we've got a quality fish on a fairly small bait.

And a lotta times in the winter and in clear water, scalin' down and slowing down makes a big difference, so goin' to that curl-tail style bait...

Right.

Look at you.

...lettin' it kinda swim slow-- Right.

water's cool-- catch a fish.

(Mark) Just like that, you dog.

(Gary) Hah, hah...hah!

(Mark) You'd think you were doin' a TV show.

(Gary) Yeah, I'm tellin' ya.

Not as big as the last one but still, not a bad fish.

(Mark) A great fish.

It just shows that there's good quality fish here, you know, good numbers.

That's the best.

Right, nice mix.

You got a good year-class mix.

(Mark) mm-hm Aye.

Still plenty legal if you were so inclined.

All right.

Good job, sir.

Thank you.

OK, it's my turn, by the way.

Yeah, I'll slow down-- ha, ha...ha!

Please take a nap.

You know, have some coffee.

Ha, ha...ha!

I feel that wind switchin' direction now, isn't it?

Yeah.

Yeah, in between a couple of fronts here, so we have a fairly limited opportunity to get you out and on some fish, but, you know, enough cooperation this morning that I'd at least feel good about that part.

It's workin'.

Yes, sir.

That kinda looks a little bit more like what we've been chasin'.

(Mark) It does.

Yes, that's a nice fish, sir.

(Gary) Thank you.

(Mark) Am I jealous?

Yeah!

(Gary) OK, let me get in your way, then, while I'm at it.

(Mark) That is a nicer fish.

I could've grabbed that net for you.

I'd accidentally knock him off.

(Gary) Well, I might do that myself.

(Mark) Th at's a nice fish, Gary.

(Gary) Th ank you, sir; I appreciate that.

(Mark) Yo u dog!

[both laughing] (Gary) We ll, you know, I'm usin' some guy's baits that really work here.

(Mark) Somebody's gotta do it.

(Gary) That's a lot of shoulders right there.

(Mark) Yeah, nice North Carolina trout there.

(Gary) That's what you hope for this time of year.

I mean, we'll get bigger fish than that, but that's really gettin' good quality for us.

(Mark) Sure.

So, nice and fat winter fish.

Yeah.

Get her back in the water.

(Mark) Look at me, another little guy.

(Gary) Well, they seem to be rather plentiful today.

(Mark) It's nice to see these fish are here.

This is very cool.

Even though they need to grow up a little bit, they're eatin'.

Yes, they are.

And we are workin' our bait slooow this mornin'.

Yep, ab solutely.

It's funny how sometimes, you know, you can really rip it, and they're all over it, and at other times... they just kinda wanna mouth it.

Have a rag, sir.

Thank you very much.

I'm a professional guide.

If I'm gonna stay out here, if we happen to get to fish two days, I'd hate to, like, get all my pants dirty right off the bat.

Yeah, I understand.

(Mark) Hey, you're makin' me jealous now.

That one's a little bit bigger.

(Gary) Yeah, not quite the minnows we've been catchin'.

Not a giant fish.

(Mark) Hey, he pulled back, right?

(Gary) That's right, and for those of us who would be... fryin' today-- (Mark) Yep, really.

Curl-tail, copper crush, that color-- I love that color.

It's so reflective.

(Gary) It is.

You know, in this dark water sometimes-- it's clear, but it's got that tannic stain and things kind of "gold" up, and that's just a additive to it.

(Mark) I agree.

(Gary) Drop him back in.

Joe, weather was a factor.

As you could see, we had to start with fog, which set us back an hour of the four we had 'cause it was that thick.

We waited for it to burn off, got out to some places Gary had been catchin' some fish.

And the fact I had two really good fishermen worked in my favor to get the show because we had weather coming.

We could look on the radar and see it.

We had a good morning.

All right, let's find out more.

Let's go to "Geartime."

[mellow acoustic guitar leads soft rock arrangement] ♪ Mark, I appreciate you comin' up and fishin' with us.

Awesome time; 'preciate you havin' me.

You know, we had to squeeze the morning in.

We had fog.

Now, we got wind and we got rain, and tomorrow, we got freezin' cold--heh!

(Mark) I don't know if you've noticed, but you come to Stuart when I should be comin' up here, and I come up here [chuckling] when you should be comin' down to Stuart!

How does that work?

I don't know; we gotta fix that.

We can.

But we caught some fish anyway.

Yeah, we had a nice time.

You know, tr out mostly-- you got one ni ce flounder.

You know, th is time of year, we find a lot of mixed bag, which we didn't find today, but decent enough between the weather.

(Mark) Well, that's the whole thing.

You gotta go with conditions, and to go and bend a rod on a day like today is pretty wonderful.

You know, we probably caught, what, 15 or 20 trout easily?

You know, and bent rod, it's a good thing.

Absolutely.

Speaking of rods, you know, we're both using pretty light tackle, light braid, very sensitive rods, and that's very, very important.

The water's cold.

We're in the low 50s.

The bites sometimes are good, sometimes are not.

Sometimes they're very subtle, so, uh, quality equipment-- subtle bites make a big difference.

Right, workin' a bait slow.

You instantly tied on the, uh, curl-tails, which, uh, for a slow presentation, it's got a tremendous amount of flash with very slow movement, which is ideal.

It gets their attention, but they have plenty of time to go eat the bait.

Absolutely, and we went mostly on the eighth earlier.

Wind came up; I snuck in that 1/4-ounce and picked up more fish.

Real nice to let me know after you caught a few.

Heh, heh...heh!

That's OK; I'm not hurt.

You make a lotta different baits in a lotta different colors.

You know, I catch fish on all your baits, but you know, certainly the curl-tail, the wintertime; your shad tails all year-round.

(Mark) Well, we were talkin' earlier when we were fishin'--size.

This time of year when it starts gettin' cold, you tend to downsize a good bit.

These fish are lethargic, and they're really foraging.

Anything they can find, they pick up and eat, and somethin' small and flashy.

And the marine biologists always say that, like, a trout will tend to eat a lot of finfish when it's warm out when they're comfortable, at their most comfortable stage.

But when it's super cold, they have trouble digesting a big finfish, so they tend to go for smaller baits.

You know, we got the colder water, so we got smaller baits.

Right, and it worked out today.

You make some bigger baits, um, which I've done really well on all the time, but as of late as well.

We didn't have the opportunity to use them today, but the Airhead is a fabulous bait.

Right, this here, and I know that you cut that tail on it, where you can get that tail to have a lot of action, and that's a very simple process.

The reason why I like to cut a hole in the center of the bait is strictly that when I cut the slot to that hole, it won't continue to tear.

So I can cast it in a heavy wind, and when it flaps, it won't continue to tear.

So it's very important to cut a real straight line, which is not true at all.

Right.

I will bite it with my teeth.

I can... do somethin' like that, and it ain't the prettiest cut, but it still opens up and allows that bait to really flap.

And I learned that from the bass guys, and it really works well in saltwater.

Yes, it does.

You've done well on a redear too.

[chuckling] Yes, I have!

Well again, I appreciate you comin' up, and, you know, always great to fish with you, and I'm lookin' forward to getting' back to Stuart in some warmer weather.

It's beautiful country up here.

It's nice to look at from inside the window.

You can look out and go, "Boy, it looks cold out there."

Yes, it does-- ha, ha, ha-- it does!

Thanks, buddy.

Always good.

Thank you so much.

It's fun.

Gary and Mark, thank you for that valuable information.

If you want speckled trout, give 'em a call.

The number's on your screen.

Give Gary a call; he can put you on some fish.

Donna, she's in the kitchen.

She's got a recipe; it sounds simple.

We'll see.

She's got a recipe today for a fish sandwich.

♪ ♪ ♪ Hi, today in the kitchen we're makin' a grilled fish sandwich, and you can grill this, or you can sear it, which what I'm doing right now, um.

We're gonna use a great striped bass.

It is beautiful, um.

We're gonna put our skin side down, and then I'm going to season the top.

So we have our canola oil in our cast-iron skillet.

We're gonna take the striped bass, and we're just gonna place it straight down and give it a nice sear.

So it's not gonna take too long to do this, so we're going to do some cracked black pepper on this.

We're gonna do a little red ground pepper to give that a little spice.

You can leave that off if you don't want it to be that spicy, and then some salt.

So we're just gonna let this sear, and while it's searing, we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna make our slaw that's gonna go on this.

And we're gonna use, um, savoy cabbage, which is a little bit milder cabbage than your regular green cabbage that you find in the stores, um.

We're gonna add some caraway seeds to this.

I also have some great red and yellow and orange bell peppers, some red onion, and some celery.

I added a little bell pepper 'cause I thought it needed some color, and you don't have to use that.

If you don't like peppers, you can leave it out.

So we're just gonna give that a toss.

We're gonna add some red wine vinegar to this and some mayonnaise.

[clacking] So we're just gonna give this a stir until it's all mixed together.

And you can make this ahead of time if you want to make sure that all of the flavors kinda mix.

You can add some salt and pepper to it if you want as well.

So, let's see-- we're just gonna give that a toss.

We're gonna flip our, um-- our fish here... [scraping] [sizzling] and sear our other side.

So this should take about, you know, five, ten minutes just to do your fish.

Like I said, you can grill it if you want as well.

Um, so, now that we have our slaw all ready to go, then, I have my fish that's already been seared.

It's on a piece of some great bread.

You can use some old country bread or a little bit--like, a sourdough would be great.

You can grill your bread.

If you're grilling your fish, you can grill your bread.

Then, we're just gonna top it with some slaw, and you're ready to go.

So, this could be a quick dinner on the weekends or a quick weekday meal as well.

So I hope you enjoy the grilled fish sandwich, and I look forward to seein' you next time here on "Simple Cooking."

Thanks, Donna, for another recipe.

Joe, bad weather, but the experience in the anglers paid off.

Well, I think so, especially that time we had to fish, and the conditions were changing while we were out, but I thank Mark for coming from Florida, fishing with us.

He had a short window to fish with us and yeah, he developed that whole line of D.O.A.

baits that we use here on the show and for most of our saltwater fishing and, uh, started, uh, as he said, earlier-- at an early age in Texas, and they really do catch-- catch fish, a good variety of fish, particularly speckled trout.

He really likes, like I do, speckled trout fishing.

We hope he'll come back again.

It was an exciting day.

For Joe Albea, I'm John Moore.

Thank you for joining us on the Carolina Outdoor Journal .

- [male announcer]: And make sure to visit our website for more information.

- [male announcer]: The production of Carolina Outdoor Journal is made possible in part by: - [female announcer]: The North Carolina Wildlife Rescources Commission.

A fishing license goes a long way towards wildlife conservation in North Carolina.

Over 38,000 miles of managed streams and rivers, and 250,000 acres of lakes and reservoirs.

- [male announcer]: And by EZ Bait and Tackle, family owned and operated.

We fish from fresh to saltwater.

We provide fishing supplies and ad vice to every type of angler.

For all your fishing needs, EZ Bait and Tackle.

And by contributions from PBS NC vi ewers like you.

[light instrumental music] ♪