State

By GIIAIIY JEFF Fit YS II was a ono-sbol bonanza, but down* enslors pnjo.xMl il ns 1опц' as it l«ist«k<l. The Case Anglcn line up lo* Mmf ipKtoculor Irthing on bald banVi of quoiry pit. Of the Trapped Mullet Throughout the years such waters as Trent River, the Ncusc, and Brice’s Creek have achieved a legendary sta¬ tus for their fine bass, bream and robin fishing. This year, however, few of Craven County’s fishermen have displayed much interest in these cypress-stained favorites. The reason is very simple: They discovered a new fishing spot — and a new kind of fishing! Since early spring, literally hundreds of folks from New Bern and the sur¬ rounding area — from toddlers to men and women in their eighties — have been wetting lines regularly in the Nello L. Tecr marl pits, located next to Brice's Creek just three miles south of New Bern on the New Bern-Pol- locksvillc Road. They have been catching fish, too — filling stringers, buckets, tubs, con¬ tainers of all si/es — every day of the week. The fish being caught isn't listed in any "Who’s Who” of fishing, for frankly, he's just a lowly sucker, but a mighty succulent one. Most people call him a Jumping Mullet. Quentin Korncgay. operator of a grocery store located right beside the quarry pit. explained the situation to me one hot day in June. According to Korncgay. a channel once connected the quarry pit to Brice’s Creek. The mullet, on their upstream spawning journey bst Fall. THE STATE. AUCIUST IB. 1962 found its deep, placid waters to be an ideal spot to lay their eggs. The water, clear and fresh from underground streams, was filled with various forms of food, and there were few predatory fish to cat the newly-laid eggs. So. the mullets stayed— by the thou¬ sands. Last February, the Nello Tecr Company decided to resume opera¬ tions in the pit. using a barge equipped with a rotary shovel to reach down and bring up sand and gravel from the pit bottom. This type of operation, of course, muddies the water in the pit. To prevent the muddy water from escaping into the creek, they scaled up the inter-connecting channel, not Two Inhcrmen, will, stringer oliecd* loaded ‘bail up' lor the waiting mullet. realizing that they had trapped thou¬ sands of mullets. In early spring, Leslie Korncgay, 17, discovered their presence — and their appetite for red wigglers. He was pass¬ ing the pit one day on his way back from an unsuccessful fishing trip to the creek. On impulse, he dropped a worm-laden hook into the water. Im¬ mediately. he latched on to a threc- and - one - half - pounder. Within two hours, he had taken sixty-eight, ranging in si/c from three to six pounds. His total for the year presently exceeds four hundred, all taken on red wigglers. Indeed, red wigglers seem to be ir¬ resistible to the fish. Just about every” one taken thus far has been a victim of his appetite for the juicy worms. Word of the landlocked mullets spread like wildfire in the area fol¬ lowing young Kornegay’s amazing catch. Guy M. Anhur. whose house sits directly beside the entrance to the quarry area, describes the traffic to and from the pit as "unbelievable.” Mr. Arthur estimates that approxi¬ mately five hundred people per week have fished in the hole. Apparently most of them are successful. Naturally, this influx of anglers poses problems for the Nello Tecr folks. So far. though, they have dis¬ played enduring patience in regard to ( Continued on page 12)