Fishing the Outerbanks
Theentire length of the coast of North Carolina is protected by a series ofbarrier islands. Some are only a few miles offshore and others may be 30miles away. The inland waterway lies between the islands and the coast.
All of the islands are sand-based and havebeen stabilized with vegetation. They serve as an important barrier forthe North Carolina mainland, but they are exposed to the great Atlanticstorms and hurricanes. New inlets can form in an island during a storm,and roads can disappear. Many of the houses and businesses are built onstilts which allow for an overwash from the ocean to the sound.
Oneway to the islands is to take Route l58 from the north and cross the bridgefrom Point Harbor on the mainland to Southern Shores on Bodie Island. StateRoute l2 south leads to Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, and Nags Head. Anotherroute, Route 64, crosses from the mainland to Roanoke Island at Manteoand another bridge leads to Whalebone on Bodie Island and joins Route l2.A few miles south a very large, high bridge crosses over the Oregon Inletto Hatteras Island. About 50 miles south is Cape Hatteras, the easternmost point of the U. S. south of New England, and the site of the tallestlighthouse in eastern North America. (208 ft.). Route l2 continues to Hatterasvillage, crosses the Hatteras Inlet by a free ferry (45 minute ride) toOcracoke Island. It ends at the village of Ocracoke some l2 miles away.Portsmouth Island south of Ocracoke has no public access.
This year we chose to travel the backroadsfrom Raleigh by U. S. 64 and U.S. 264 to Swan Quarter, a distance of 790miles from Tiffin. We noticed many fields of tobacco, peanuts and cotton.A two and a half hour ferry ride (toll) ended at Ocracoke village wherewe had a week’s reservation at Blackbeard’s Lodge.
Many years we have caught all the fish we coulduse from the surf. Flounder, croaker, spot, trout, bass, and bluefish havefilled the skillet. Heavier poles with 20 pound test lines are used tocast out up to 200 feet away. Steel leaders are used since many of theocean fish have sharp teeth and 4 ounce weights are used to help in thecasting as well as in anchoring the line. The bait may be frozen shrimptails, pieces of mullet, pieces of squid, blood worms, or live sand crabscaught in the edge of the surf. Pompano like the crabs and the blood worms.Non-edible blow fish, sea robins, and garfish are caught occasionally.
Flounderare the prize fish for eating and bluefish for sport. We plan to get wetwhen blue fishing. Sometimes we wade into chest high water and jump upwhen the waves come. This year there were north-east winds, strong riptides, and high pounding waves that made for lousy surf-fishing. Blue crabswere very abundant, but we had no one with the patience to clean them.
Bob Sebrell, owner of the Tradewinds Bait andTackle Shop related that in l988, one week before Christmas, he went outto the south end of Ocracoke. As he arrived on site, he noticed many birdshovering over the beach. All kinds of fish had beached themselves. He gatheredup a cooler full of speckled trout and went home and picked up his fishingtackle for blues. An enormous group of bluefish had herded their victimsinto the shore and the prey chose to beach themselves rather than beingeaten. The blues were in a feeding frenzy and were striking at anythinghe threw at them. One hit his wading boots so hard that it stunned itselfand Bob picked up his first l7 pounder. Any catch of a blue over l6 poundsreceives a governor’s citation. There are other stories about bluefishblitzes on the Outer Banks.
On August 8th, we, Mark, Laurel, Tim, our son-in-law,Jamie our grandson, his friend Joe and I, got up at 4 AM., traveled tothe north end of Ocracoke, took the 5 AM ferry to Hatteras and arrivedat Teach’s Lair Marina at 6AM. There we met Captain Tom Harper, the ownerof the 42 foot fishing boat, Harper’s Folly. We left the dock and headeddue east. We had our first lines in the water by 8:30.
As we went out by Hatteras Point, the moonwas setting and the sun was coming up. The Ocean was smooth as silk, andwe were almost overcome with the beauty of the moment. Muted pinks, blues,greens and yellows were mirrored on the water, and the moon as it sankbelow the horizon appeared as the center in a semicircle of radiating lines.The morning sun brilliantly edged the billowing clouds.
Eight lines were on outriggers and two moreup high from the captain’s loft were baited with ballyhoo, a frozen baitfish from Florida. We were trolling at 7 miles an hour when the captainsaw two large fish going after the bait about l00 yards away. Tim grabbedone pole and I, the other. We were soon anchored in the main chairs inthe back. The fish hooked on my line was jumping out of the water. With80 pound test line, 120 test leader, and 200 pound test wire leader, therewas no danger of the fish breaking the line, so I set the brake on thelarge reel.
After that, for a half an hour I battled thefish. My shirt was completely wet with sweat. After jumping several timesand pulling out additional line the fish, a dolphin with an ugly flat face,was gaffed. The fish weighed 40 pounds, was 55 inches long and was eligiblefor a governor’s citation. Tim got in the other fish, a 20 pounder of thesame kind. Captain Harper soon located a school of these same fish. Tokeep the school near the back of the boat, pieces of cobia fish were throwninto the water, a technique called “chum- ming.” We used hand held linesat this point. We continued to troll for larger fish and were 35 milesoffshore when we turned around. We arrived back at the dock with 225 poundsof fish, all dolphin, at 4 PM.
It had been a wonderful way to end our vacation.We had over l00 pounds of filleted mahi-mahi, another name for the dolphinfish, to take home in our coolers. In addition, we had a feast of freshmahi-mahi for eleven people, serving some of it fried and some blackenedCajun style.
-- Percy