# kitty Hawk Beach Netting



## surffshr (Dec 8, 2003)

The week of May 6th a dorey ran a net from the beach out maybe two to three hundred yards. Hard to know for sure. Left it out a most of the day then pulled it in with their truck. I talked some to the family that ran it out nice people. With sons, father, friend, and wife all helping. They were after what they called Butterfly fish. A skinny silver fish that looked somewhat like a pompano. They caught a whole lot of them. Never seen one caught on hook and line from the beach.
It was amazing to me the types of fish they caught once you got out a ways past the outer bar. I never would have thought so many fish were within 500 yards of the beach. They caught speckled trout, amber jack, black drum, sheepshead, Flounder, Cow nose rays, southern stingrays, sea mullet,bluefish. And maybe a some I missed.
Some of the trout must have gone 5lbs or more.
Now none of the twenty or so stripers were allowed to be kept and the family did not feel good about having to throw the 20 or so stripers back dead.
Also the undersize trout had to go back dead, As did the amberjack. I guess any undersize fish is required by law not to be kept.
I really did not have as much compassion for the thirty or forty rays that got shoveled back in by the wife. She was working hard to get them back into the water as quick as possible.
I could tell the family was aware that the 20 or so people watching them may have feelings about their netting. 
IT was intresting to watch them work. It was great the family did this together. I just have wonder what impact such beach fishing has on the resource.
Ideally it would be very small. But I truly don't know for sure.


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## Guest (Jun 1, 2019)

Were the butterfly fish dead? The only thing I can think that they would be collecting butterfly fish for is to sell in the pet trade.


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## 1BadF350 (Jul 19, 2006)

You mean Butter Fish


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## surffshr (Dec 8, 2003)

I could have misunderstood. Butter fish makes more sense. They were going to sell them in Wanchese. Supposed to be a tasty fish.


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## poppop1 (Feb 16, 2004)

1BadF350 said:


> You mean Butter Fish


That reminds me, know what a ''butterface'' is?...she has a great body, but her face ???


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## surffshr (Dec 8, 2003)

1BadF350 said:


> You mean Butter Fish


yes they were butter fish


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## herb (Jun 15, 2015)

surffshr said:


> The week of May 6th a dorey ran a net from the beach out maybe two to three hundred yards. Hard to know for sure. Left it out a most of the day then pulled it in with their truck. I talked some to the family that ran it out nice people. With sons, father, friend, and wife all helping. They were after what they called Butterfly fish. A skinny silver fish that looked somewhat like a pompano. They caught a whole lot of them. Never seen one caught on hook and line from the beach.
> It was amazing to me the types of fish they caught once you got out a ways past the outer bar. I never would have thought so many fish were within 500 yards of the beach. They caught speckled trout, amber jack, black drum, sheepshead, Flounder, Cow nose rays, southern stingrays, sea mullet,bluefish. And maybe a some I missed.
> Some of the trout must have gone 5lbs or more.
> Now none of the twenty or so stripers were allowed to be kept and the family did not feel good about having to throw the 20 or so stripers back dead.
> ...




Gill netting and relentless gigging has virtually destroyed NC fishing , it's atrocious and should be permanently banned , they should be called kill nets , the number of sea turtles, birds and fish species of every kind are killed by these people. The people that allow this to go on should be imprisoned thats how devastating the damage is that they cause and continue to cause.

National Fishery publications say N.C fishing is dead and not even worth going anymore , complete devastation . It's time to do whatever it takes to force these criminals out and get somebody with brains to take over.


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## Garboman (Jul 22, 2010)

herb said:


> Gill netting and relentless gigging has virtually destroyed NC fishing , it's atrocious and should be permanently banned , they should be called kill nets , the number of sea turtles, birds and fish species of every kind are killed by these people. The people that allow this to go on should be imprisoned thats how devastating the damage is that they cause and continue to cause.
> 
> National Fishery publications say N.C fishing is dead and not even worth going anymore , complete devastation . It's time to do whatever it takes to force these criminals out and get somebody with brains to take over.


I took over last week. Scored higher on the MENSA test than all the previous applicants.


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## sanjuanworm (Dec 20, 2012)

herb said:


> surffshr said:
> 
> 
> > The week of May 6th a dorey ran a net from the beach out maybe two to three hundred yards. Hard to know for sure. Left it out a most of the day then pulled it in with their truck. I talked some to the family that ran it out nice people. With sons, father, friend, and wife all helping. They were after what they called Butterfly fish. A skinny silver fish that looked somewhat like a pompano. They caught a whole lot of them. Never seen one caught on hook and line from the beach.
> ...


I don't really think you know what you are talking about. 
Nc fishing is dead?
Cool.
Stay in SC.


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## retired (Oct 20, 2016)

sanjuanworm said:


> I don't really think you know what you are talking about.
> Nc fishing is dead?
> Cool.
> Stay in SC.


Maybe not with Reds, but other species? I been hitting it since the 60's......yes, there is a lot of merit to someone saying its dead overall to what it used to be. I think you got to admit that. Rules brought back the reds, now its time to do that for other species of fish. Until then we are never going to get the game fish back to anything near what we saw 50 years ago.

I have read of reports and observations from the 1800's. We will never have the fish that was so abundant 150-200 years ago. Lack of game laws and greed made the Buffalo nearly extinct along with deer,Moose,Elk etc etc. New laws and common sense brought them back but again will never be what they once were. Fish are no different. Until something is done its going to get no better.

No offense meant, its just the way I see it.


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## Garboman (Jul 22, 2010)

retired said:


> Maybe not with Reds, but other species? I been hitting it since the 60's......yes, there is a lot of merit to someone saying its dead overall to what it used to be. I think you got to admit that. Rules brought back the reds, now its time to do that for other species of fish. Until then we are never going to get the game fish back to anything near what we saw 50 years ago.
> 
> I have read of reports and observations from the 1800's. We will never have the fish that was so abundant 150-200 years ago. Lack of game laws and greed made the Buffalo nearly extinct along with deer,Moose,Elk etc etc. New laws and common sense brought them back but again will never be what they once were. Fish are no different. Until something is done its going to get no better.
> 
> No offense meant, its just the way I see it.


I see it the same way as Retired. It may never again be what it once was.

I only take offense when Recs call to end commercial fishing in NC Big Drum were outlawed from commercial netting a long time before the rec ban was put in place. Right before the rec ban in the mid 1990's it was not uncommon to see 100+ Citation size Drum laid underneath trucks or their tails sticking out of coolers.

Can not comprehend how many Thousand coolers full of Spot I have seen in the last 50 years on the OBX leaving the beach to head inland some where.

In the 1960's a young boy would excitedly get up at dawn to walk the beach every morning during the entire month of August, the young boy was mostly intent on watching a haul seine crew that worked the beach between Kitty Hawk Pier and Avalon. The beach would be littered with the nights treasures, all manner of Sharks and King Mackerel and large Spanish as well as untold Spot and Croakers...........the ocean seemed full of life and promise in those days. The beach was mostly empty until the sun came up hard enough to dry last nights dew and by then the old Model T Ford that the haul-seiners used was off to Nunemakers fish house to sell their catch. I admired those men who set out to sea in their Dory and I cried for them when a NEaster took their net one night ripping it from its beach anchor and the fishermen drove empty handed back and forth for days.......never to find their net 800 yards of hand hung of cotton twine ten feet deep.

That young boy was me and I feel for those on both sides of the story, so if Trout-Flounder-Mackerel all get shut down for 5 years, off limits to both Comm's and Rec's so be it.


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## Harrymanz (May 28, 2018)

Yeah i remember coolers full of spot


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## herb (Jun 15, 2015)

sanjuanworm said:


> I don't really think you know what you are talking about.
> Nc fishing is dead?
> Cool.
> Stay in SC.





I know EXACTLY what i'm talking about , i am on the water every single day and have seen what it was a mere 20 years ago to what it is now . N.C Marine fisheries has a long standing and very well deserved reputation as being the most incompetently mismanaged State in the country .

National fishery publications routinely criticize N.C for allowing such mismanagement to go on. About 12 years ago it was determined by two fishery biologists that the Southern Flounder population was in big trouble and that measures should be taken at that time to prevent further degradation .

Those two gentlemen ended up walking out of the meeting claiming it was truly hopeless because the commercial side adamantly refused to make any changes claiming they reject the findings , this is the main excuse they use and have used for decades .

Ten years later we're now at a point where they have to completely shut it down due to one sides idiocy and refusal to do anything about it a long time ago .

There used to be fisherman on every dock along the intracoastal waterway , NOBODY is out there any more , most i talk to said they don't even bother fishing anymore it's that bad . I have fished many other states, lived in many other states and mostly fish WITHOUT a boat and the fishing is vastly superior in every way .


The flounder fishing in other coastal states is exceptional and i routinely catch my limit in under two hours and the limit was 8 fish and they have to be over 17 inches in length , an article was posted a while back in a S.C fishing journal where the author was talking about how the two states compare .

There used to be flounder making mullet schools jump out of the water along every shoreline , the only thing making those mullet schools jump these days are Lizard Fish . Blues chase them around inlet but the flounder are virtually non existent . I fished with two professional guides multiple times over the the last few years at local inlets . They all say the same thing , great habitat but the fish are nowhere to be found , the fishing is beyond atrocious. 

He said if i catch 7 flounder in S.C i will be very very lucky to catch two in N.C that's how bad the fisheries management continues to be . Another article came out in the national publication " The fisherman" and the author of that article said 25 or so years ago you could go just about anywhere in N.C and catch a limit of sizable flounder but the extremely lax management & regulations of the inshore netting has made only " Snows Cut" still a reliable place to catch big flounder and the ONLY reason Snows Cut is still good is because the bottom has way too many snags so netters don't bother .

That really says it all , what has been allowed in this state is criminal .


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## Garboman (Jul 22, 2010)

There used to be flounder making mullet schools jump out of the water along every shoreline , the only thing making those mullet schools jump these days are Lizard Fish . Blues chase them around inlet but the flounder are virtually non existent . I fished with two professional guides multiple times over the the last few years at local inlets . They all say the same thing , great habitat but the fish are nowhere to be found , the fishing is beyond atrocious. 

He said if i catch 7 flounder in S.C i will be very very lucky to catch two in N.C that's how bad the fisheries management continues to be . Another article came out in the national publication " The fisherman" and the author of that article said 25 or so years ago you could go just about anywhere in N.C and catch a limit of sizable flounder but the extremely lax management & regulations of the inshore netting has made only " Snows Cut" still a reliable place to catch big flounder and the ONLY reason Snows Cut is still good is because the bottom has way too many snags so netters don't bother .

That really says it all , what has been allowed in this state is criminal .[/QUOTE]

Why are you not targeting the Lizard Fish? 

Back in the day when I was young and pretty I could guarantee that I was going to hook up with a Hottie by nights end. 

Now days when I go to the OBX all my former Hot Spots have closed and younger Lounge Lizards are covering up the remaining Flats......I was forced to spend the evening with Two Professional Hotties.........that set me back over $500 just for two hours....

A


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## Gorge (Jun 13, 2017)

"N.C Marine fisheries has a long standing and very well deserved reputation as being the most incompetently mismanaged State in the country ."

I guess you don't fish in the Chesapeake Bay. Maryland and Virginia have destroyed the rockfish fishery. I guess you don't fish in Jersey either. They destroyed the weakfish fishery too.


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## surffshr (Dec 8, 2003)

Gorge said:


> "N.C Marine fisheries has a long standing and very well deserved reputation as being the most incompetently mismanaged State in the country ."
> 
> I guess you don't fish in the Chesapeake Bay. Maryland and Virginia have destroyed the rockfish fishery. I guess you don't fish in Jersey either. They destroyed the weakfish fishery too.



True
There not alone.
But don't take me wrong N.C. is a beautiful state. To me it's just the world has changed, and they are having a hard time adjusting to the increased demand on their fishery and limited resources. Commerical fishing in and of itself is an honorable way too make a living.


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## Benji (Nov 19, 2014)

Gorge said:


> "N.C Marine fisheries has a long standing and very well deserved reputation as being the most incompetently mismanaged State in the country ."
> 
> I guess you don't fish in the Chesapeake Bay. Maryland and Virginia have destroyed the rockfish fishery. I guess you don't fish in Jersey either. They destroyed the weakfish fishery too.


its no wonder they're building so many gold courses...


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## Mumbo_Pungo (Dec 8, 2014)

1 drum
4 specs (closed season till June when Winters are cold)
0 striper
Flounder about to be closed
1 grey trout
Spot aren't worth it anymore
Croaker aren't worth it anymore

Inshore fishing in NC is doing great......


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## herb (Jun 15, 2015)

Mumbo_Pungo said:


> 1 drum
> 4 specs (closed season till June when Winters are cold)
> 0 striper
> Flounder about to be closed
> ...




Saw another gill netter friday evening waiting till dark , they then rolled up on a creek and completely blocked it's opening with the net , it's outrageous that this continues to happen . All nets should be banned in inshore fish nursery area's .

If you see this stuff let them know loud and clear that it's illegal to completely block off creeks and to get the hell out of there .

I now record all these violations and make sure i get good images of the offenders and their boat .

It's time to ban gill nets permanently in these inshore waters no other state allows it for good reason .


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## retired (Oct 20, 2016)

Its going to take actual enforcement on the water to get a handle on what's been let go for years. I have little faith in NC to do the right thing..........


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## Benji (Nov 19, 2014)

If you see this stuff let them know loud and clear that it's illegal to completely block off creeks and to get the hell out of there .

I now record all these violations and make sure i get good images of the offenders and their boat .

It's time to ban gill nets permanently in these inshore waters no other state allows it for good reason .[/QUOTE] 


I'm not saying what your doing is wrong, I'm with you. You have a hell of a set of balls to confront someone like that... in the dark also? Just be safe about it. They know what their doing is illegal, you may find yourself in unfavorable circumstances. Personally my vehicle is too recognizable, and I like all my teeth...


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## Garboman (Jul 22, 2010)

herb said:


> Saw another gill netter friday evening waiting till dark , they then rolled up on a creek and completely blocked it's opening with the net , it's outrageous that this continues to happen . All nets should be banned in inshore fish nursery area's .
> 
> If you see this stuff let them know loud and clear that it's illegal to completely block off creeks and to get the hell out of there .
> 
> ...


Why don't you post your recordings?

Why exhort others to put themselves in jeopardy, why not call the Game Warden or Marine Fisheries LEO's?


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## Mumbo_Pungo (Dec 8, 2014)

Garboman said:


> herb said:
> 
> 
> > Saw another gill netter friday evening waiting till dark , they then rolled up on a creek and completely blocked it's opening with the net , it's outrageous that this continues to happen . All nets should be banned in inshore fish nursery area's .
> ...


I remember my dad reporting an offender multiple times over a course of years before they bothered to even check the person once. Lack of enforcement is a major issue in NC.


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## Garboman (Jul 22, 2010)

Mumbo_Pungo said:


> I remember my dad reporting an offender multiple times over a course of years before they bothered to even check the person once. Lack of enforcement is a major issue in NC.[/QUOTE
> 
> 
> Why is it that I have witnessed vigorous enforcement? Certain places like Hatteras are continuously monitored due to the proliferation of LEO's of various branches of Government. Most days counting the Park Rangers there are at least 10 Officers likely to be on Hatteras during fishing seasons.
> ...


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