At Home on the Oyster Rocks

We humans often look at natural obstacles as something to remove. We cut down forests, blast roads up the sides of mountains and somehow think we can bend nature to our will.

I even had a neighbor who thought that if he kept cutting the marsh grass and cattails that they would go away. The marsh grasses are still waving in the wind and he is long gone. The cattails continue to spread in the wind every chance that they get.

Certainly I cannot lay claim to being a purist when it comes to the environment. We cut down our only pine tree a few years ago before it got too big to handle. I justified downing the pine with the statement that pine trees always fall down and it is only a matter of time.

When we had our farm in Tay Creek, New Brunswick. I was in a continual battle with spruce trees. While the cattle would eat any invading hardwoods that managed to grow in the pastures, our Angus had more sense than to eat spruce trees. When we lived in Roanoke, Virginia, I saw pine trees take over a meadow in five or six years. Paradise trees were a weed that could not be defeated.

Still I have mellowed over time. When we first moved to the Crystal Coast in the summer of 2006, the oyster rocks in the White Oak River seemed to be a challenge to navigating the river.

When we got our skiff in 2007, avoiding the oyster rocks became a priority. While I learned to tolerate the rocks after a year or two, it has taken me longer to appreciate how wonderful the oyster rocks really are. They actually are part of the reason we have such a clean river that has plenty of bait and enough fish escaping the nets to keep most of us fishing.

All sorts of creatures find the oyster rocks useful. I have seen oyster catchers nesting on them. Crabs, shrimp and lots of small fish use them as shelter. In the winter, the rocks are full of birds at low tide.

From late spring through late fall, you will also find fishermen working the oyster rocks. The cuts through the rocks channel the bait into the range of waiting predators like red drum and flounder. Fishing the oyster rocks has become my favorite way of catching fish. Over the years I have brought home flounder, trout, and red drum from the oyster rocks that are only ten to fifteen minutes of paddling from our backyard.

Most years I catch a few nice drum off the rocks. I am sure there are folks who would like to get rid of the White Oak’s oyster rocks but I am not one of them.

Fishing the oyster rocks is not without its challenges. The White Oak is nearly two miles wide where I fish it. Wind can be a challenge and there are days when paddling out to my favorite oyster rocks seems like a long trip. Then there are days like May 28, 2014 when the wind, waves, current, and tides cooperate. The 1.25 mile paddle took me about fifteen minutes.

It was a pleasant trip out on the river. The current and tide were close to offsetting each other and there were only some mild swells on the river. There were no other boats or kayaks in sight, so the river was mine. It did not take too long for the river to get me under its spell.

When the current is just right you can slide along the oyster rocks looking for a wandering drum. On that day I had only one thing on my mind and it was getting back to where I caught my first drum of the season just a few weeks earlier. The ride was pleasant and I only made two or three casts to test my gear before I arrived in my favorite spot which is a cut between two oyster rocks or probably more correctly oyster bars.

The current was just right to hold me lightly on the side of the oyster bar with my target fishing area within easy casting range. I made one cast with a white swimming mullet gulp and something got the tail. I switched to a Tsunami plastic with a similar but tougher tail. I made one cast just up river of the cut in the rocks. The next cast was in the middle of the cut. I got an immediate hit and I knew that I had a drum on my line.

He made one run down river and then miraculously turned and came back through the cut and was on the same side of the oyster bar as I was. Then it was just a matter of time, letting him take runs until he tired enough that I could slip the net under him. When I saw the drum I knew that he was at least 21 inches and was carrying a lot of weight.

I had forgotten my stringer but I just made a stringer out of my paddle safety line and headed home. I was back at the dock just an hour and ten minutes after leaving. My wife brought the cooler with some ice down to the dock and I handed her the stringer with the drum. As soon as we got the kayak in the yard, we took some pictures and I got my cleaning gear. The drum was a snug fit in the cooler.

By 1:15 PM, I had cleaned the drum, showered and was getting the grill ready for a lunch sized serving of drum. I just cut up the thinner part of the tail and saved the thicker fillets for another couple of meals. We will get three meals of out of the one drum. The year 2014 was a good fishing year but not as good as 2013 when I caught this beautiful drum one August evening There were several other keepers that came back to the dock that year. Fishing was great all the way into November.

I feel lucky to have oyster rocks which continue to get in our way. I have learned to love them and work with them not against them. I love the way the water can be blue when the sun hits it one way and a beautiful amber when it hits it from another angle. We are fortunate to live in such a wonderful place.

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