# Holden Beach 8/20 - 8/27



## nissan11 (Jan 24, 2010)

I just got to holden for a family vacation. I grabbed some bait from Doug's and we are currently killing time at Mermaid's until the house is ready. I have never fished holden but hope to snag a few blues and pompano this week. I will report throughout the week.


----------



## John Smith_inFL (Nov 22, 2009)

That's a nice cooler carrier on your truck. How many receivers does it have ?


----------



## nissan11 (Jan 24, 2010)

John Smith_inFL said:


> That's a nice cooler carrier on your truck. How many receivers does it have ?


 Thanks. It has two receivers.


----------



## poppop1 (Feb 16, 2004)

nissan11 said:


> I just got to holden for a family vacation. I grabbed some bait from Doug's and we are currently killing time at Mermaid's until the house is ready. I have never fished holden but hope to snag a few blues and pompano this week. I will report throughout the week.


Looking forward to it...,pop.


----------



## nissan11 (Jan 24, 2010)

We fished outgoing and dead low tide last night and stayed out until about 10:30pm. Only small croaker doubles on clam fish bites and fresh shrimp, and one small shark (4-5ft'er) run that cut the 100lb mono leader as I was about to yank him from the water. Its dead low tide right now. I probably wont throw some lines until a few hrs before high.


----------



## retired (Oct 20, 2016)

nissan11 said:


> We fished outgoing and dead low tide last night and stayed out until about 10:30pm. Only small croaker doubles on clam fish bites and fresh shrimp, and one small shark (4-5ft'er) run that cut the 100lb mono leader as I was about to yank him from the water. Its dead low tide right now. I probably wont throw some lines until a few hrs before high.


We still have friends at OKI. Going down for few days. I debated on whether to take any fishing equipment.......but l did. Your report sounds about what I was expecting honestly........Glad I did not load much up.


----------



## nissan11 (Jan 24, 2010)

A nice blue fish moving through saved the day. With that encouraging addition to the cooler we saved some small-medium sized whiting and croaker taken on fresh shrimp with river rigs. Fish bites seem to oy be attracting pin fish. 
The bluefish was taken on a drum rig with a live 5" mullet caught in the surf. No takers on fireball rigs yet.
The mullet are schooling thick right against the beach in cast net range from low to mid tide. None to be seen near high tide. We have witnessed medium black tips (4-6ft) and large unknown species (8-9ft) sharks cruising in 3ft of water cutting up the mullet schools. Cool to see.
I just finished cleaning these. Ill report back tomorrow.


----------



## nissan11 (Jan 24, 2010)

.


----------



## retired (Oct 20, 2016)

Well ya gave me a little hope.............let ya know how it goes. We rolling in later today. Thanks for the great post and pics!


----------



## nissan11 (Jan 24, 2010)

Today a few more pompano showed up on fresh shrimp. One nice whiting and more croaker were in the mix. No visible schools of mullet and the surf was more rough. Sharp tooth took about 5 rigs at high tide cutting the shock leader above the main leader.


----------



## nissan11 (Jan 24, 2010)

.


----------



## nissan11 (Jan 24, 2010)

Today was decent. About 3 hrs before high we had a fun blitz of spot, croaker and whiting. Nothing bit that was too small to clean and no pin fish. All of it was on shrimp. Here are the spoils since Saturday. Tomorrow will be a fry. There are 8 adults here so I hope we catch more tomorrow or Ill be supplementing chicken.


----------



## abass105 (Jun 13, 2006)

Very nice. Nothing like a fresh fish fry. 😀


----------



## nissan11 (Jan 24, 2010)

Today was decent. Two blues, a 17" trout and some others on shrimp. Nothing but rays on cut mullet.


----------



## retired (Oct 20, 2016)

Without doubt you had far more success than me at OKI.. Other than some small croakers and whiting it was a total bust. I want to attribute it to the beach program that happened all along OKI. There were a few sand fleas that have returned which did not result in any bites to speak of. Fresh shrimp and fresh finger mullet did not result in anything either. I gave a old guy some shrimp and bloodworms and told him of my lack of luck....basically in a nice way he told I had no idea what I was doing. We went out later that evening and my curiosity got the best of me so I dropped by...........It wasn't me. My wife got a kick out of it though...So my opinion of OKI is the same as its been for the last 10 years. The old fellow said before the 4th he slayed them.....I would have to see it to have believed it. FWIW I tried a variety of rigs in many configurations. Many variations of fish gum and fishbites as well. With nearly 50 years experience of surf fishing maybe I need get some lessons......


----------



## pcbtightlines (Aug 9, 2020)

My experience was identical to yours when I was there 1st week of July. Although, I did not see a single sand flea.


----------



## nissan11 (Jan 24, 2010)

Today was more of the same but a little slower with a few pompano and a few whiting. As soon as it got dark the switch was flipped and small croaker were the only thing we caught. Tomorrow is the last day.


----------



## nissan11 (Jan 24, 2010)

.


----------



## jahtez (Aug 29, 2021)

In that pic of the two rods in their holders with the rigs reeled in, is that small reel an old Mitchell 300 or a Penn Spinfisher?


----------



## nissan11 (Jan 24, 2010)

Good eye, its a mitchell 306 and it has caught the majority of my fish this trip.


----------



## jahtez (Aug 29, 2021)

Yeah, it wasn't hard to recognize that profile. I love to see old reels still in use















I kept thinking that I'd wait for those reels to die then treat myself to new ones, only they don't die. So I had to find another excuse for getting new gear


----------



## Fishbreath (Nov 11, 2004)

Hey Nissan, great pics and thanks for posting. We used to take the kids to Holden every year, great family beach. Fishing was mostly small stuff like spot, croaker, whiting and the occasional bluefish. I went to the east end and occasionally got into some puppy drum. 

Nice rig on your truck! Definitely like the tequila shots! 👍 😜


----------



## nissan11 (Jan 24, 2010)

Today was a slow. Only a couple spot and croaker. We head home in the morning so Ill leave everyone with this pic


----------



## poppop1 (Feb 16, 2004)

jahtez said:


> In that pic of the two rods in their holders with the rigs reeled in, is that small reel an old Mitchell 300 or a Penn Spinfisher?


Mitchell 300 was the reel back in the day, used one for many years, the bail spring was a problem many times but we managed, good times.


----------



## jahtez (Aug 29, 2021)

A lot of those reels didn't allow you to manually close the bail, you has to crank the handle to get it back. I think that put a lot of stress on those older bail systems as the components had more work to do.


----------



## Von (Apr 26, 2021)

jahtez said:


> A lot of those reels didn't allow you to manually close the bail, you has to crank the handle to get it back. I think that put a lot of stress on those older bail systems as the components had more work to do.


I have several vintage rigs but the only one in my regular rotation is my Mitchell 302 Salt Water on a fairly heavy vintage fiberglass rod. You have to crank the handle to close the bail but it just keeps on keeping on fishing!


----------



## Von (Apr 26, 2021)

nissan11 said:


> Today was a slow. Only a couple spot and croaker. We head home in the morning so Ill leave everyone with this pic


Hi,

It looks like you had a decent trip! I’m sure the kids had a blast and the fishing didn’t appear to be horrible. I’m surprised you could take your dog on the beach this time of the year because of dogs pooping and folks not cleaning it up. If Holden is cool with dogs I may have to go there? My wife and I mostly go to the Morehead City area because dogs are allowed on the beach year round and Patches is family. I like the vintage stuff too so it’s good to hear about a old Mitchell catching fish.

Von


----------



## jahtez (Aug 29, 2021)

Von said:


> I have several vintage rigs but the only one in my regular rotation is my Mitchell 302 Salt Water on a fairly heavy vintage fiberglass rod. You have to crank the handle to close the bail but it just keeps on keeping on fishing!


That Mitchell 396 in the pic is on an old fiberglass rod that I "caught" in the surf while pulling in a bottom rig. It had a Daiwa reel on it and didn't look like it had been in the water for long. I hosed it all down, and set it next to the dune steps of the cottage we were renting so whoever owned it might see it from the beach if they came by, but by the end of the trip it was still there. I figured whoever lost it had either given up or left before we got there, so I kept it and have had the rod ever since.


----------



## nissan11 (Jan 24, 2010)

Von said:


> Hi,
> 
> It looks like you had a decent trip! I’m sure the kids had a blast and the fishing didn’t appear to be horrible. I’m surprised you could take your dog on the beach this time of the year because of dogs pooping and folks not cleaning it up. If Holden is cool with dogs I may have to go there? My wife and I mostly go to the Morehead City area because dogs are allowed on the beach year round and Patches is family. I like the vintage stuff too so it’s good to hear about a old Mitchell catching fish.
> 
> Von


Dogs are allowed on the beach this time of year between 5pm and 9am.


----------



## retired (Oct 20, 2016)

nissan11 said:


> Dogs are allowed on the beach this time of year between 5pm and 9am.


That is the reason we go to OKI..........all day if on a leash..........we have weims.........they like to fish too.


----------



## Von (Apr 26, 2021)

jahtez said:


> That Mitchell 396 in the pic is on an old fiberglass rod that I "caught" in the surf while pulling in a bottom rig.
> 
> That’a cool!! To bad the fish wasn’t still on it!
> 
> Von


----------

