Ever Catch a Fish Without Bait?

You can catch fish with nothing but a gold hook. We were pier fishing at Atlantic Beach, NC on the Oceana Pier in the Fall of '84. Mid 70's and a sunny. Wind was blowing in from the S.W. Several small schools of blues came by. We used gotcha plugs and had caught about a dozen or so. Well, the fishing had slowed down for about an hour, but there were still a lot of bait fish in the water.

It appeared something was feeding on them, something kind of small. We were baiting our lines with shrimp, but the bait fish were stripping the bait off the hook

Being the experimental guy that I am, I tried flies, jigs, etc. Nothing was hitting them. In desperation, we put on a gold hook. Dropped it straight down off the side of the pier. Next thing we know we are pulling up Croakers (6" to 7") and Spots. We all put on the hooks and started filling the cooler, sometimes catching two at a time.

During the rest of the fall, I pondered if it was just a fluke. The following April, we tried the "Golden Hook" philosophy again and caught several. Next time you are fishing on a pier, on a sunny day, throw a gold Eagle Claw hook and see if you can catch the big one!