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Larry Lusk has enough respect for his sons' fishing knowledge to come running when the pair tells him to.
A call last week had him on the road south to the northern Outer Banks to team up with his boys for some red drum action.
But when he saw that they were taking him drumming on kayaks, he was a little apprehensive.
"My kayak experience is pretty limited," said the 55-year-old Rudee Inlet resident. "Only one other time basically. It's amazing how much that side of fishing has grown. When I moved to the inlet 12 years ago there wasn't but a few people doing it. The last couple of years there have been more than ever.
"It's pretty exciting and I'd do it again."
It didn't hurt his confidence that his sons - Matt and David - had put him in the middle of a school of very cooperative big red rum.
Fishing about a half-mile off the beach, the trio caught and released nearly 10 in a short time frame.
"It was pretty easy pickings to tell you the truth," Lusk said. "When they are balled up and working bait they make it easy on you."
The guys were throwing bucktails with no plastics that resulted in jarring strikes and the experience of being towed through the water by fish that averaged "about 35 to 40 pounds."
"They'd tow us around about 35, 40... maybe 50 yards," Lusk said. "It's definitely a thrill when you get hooked up."
David Lusk is a good reason the trip turned out so well. He's an inshore and light-tackle guide on the Outer Banks - saltminded.com- and in the fall he drives the beach looking for birds working over a school of bait. When he finds a flock, he parks the truck several hundred yards south of the action, employs the kayak and works his way to the fish.
"He usually can stay with them for a while," Dad said. "But if they move too far away from the anglers, he paddles back to the beach, puts the kayaks back in the truck and drives after them.
"It's a pretty neat way to stay with the school."
Matt Lusk, a professional photographer - mattluskphotography.com - usually is on hand to document the action.
"Yeah, I caught some nice drum, but they deserve all the credit," Dad said. "I just drove down and jumped on a kayak and made a few casts.
"The boys made it really easy for me."
Things definitely are easier for Lusk these days. After nearly 38 years as general manager of J. Henry Holland, a Virginia Beach company that makes crane cables and wire rope assemblies, he has struck a deal to work part time so he can return to fishing endeavors that once dominated his life.
"I'm gonna go get my captain's license and start doing a few seasonal charters out of Rudee," he said. "And I want to get back into the (largemouth) bass tournament scene.
I'm really looking forward to that."
That and another phone call from his boys about the next big bite.
Lee Tolliver, 757-222-5844, lee.tolliver@pilotonline.com
Twitter @LeeTolliver
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