nags head

pm Bughawk!

The charter boats go out of Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. There is a web site down there with good info called Outerbanks Fly Fishing. Good group of people on that site. There was just a post last week where the Coast Guard was talling about closing the Oregon Inlet due to unsafe conditions because of needed dredging and no money to do it.

i like doing the inland fishing for flounder and speckle trout.  but i did have alot of fun fishing from the pier with a gotcha plug. 

Lawn chair, sand spike, artificial blood worm substitute or frozen squid, surf rod, 4 oz. sinker, a couple six packs and some mirrored sunglasses for watchin' bikinis. Sit back and enjoy. Don't forget to buy your license. You really never know what you're gonna catch...

I agree about the heavy leader for the toothy critters.  Also, you have a shock leader for surf casting.  

If you consider the Gulf Stream charter (expensive but almost always on big fish), Cape Hatteras is a good drive from Nags Head but saves a ton of boating time. I think it is about an hour less run from CH to the fish, than from Oregon Inlet, which gives you an extra 2 hours of fishing time. Although, CH is about an hour drive from Nags Head, which isn't fun when you need to be at the boat by 5AM or whatever time they want you there. From Avon, it's a no brainer where to charter from IMO. Unless you are talking inshore, but never did that, so don't have an opinion. A Gulf Stream charter, IMO is a must do at least once, if you ever have considered a charter boat fishing trip. They get you into fish that many think are only possible in far off tropical "fishing" destinations, possibly the best fishing destination for variety of big fish on the Eastern half of the USA. Cover up and take sunscreen! Beer is usually a pretty good idea, especially if worried about sea sickness, drain a 6 pack as soon as you get on board!

If you stick to the land, don't forget to spend a few hours at the Oregon Inlet itself. Not sure if you will be in the mix for speckled trout, but there are times when they are all over the inlet. Probably a bit early for the spanish makerel, but might have a few of them and blues in the inlet then too. Your average "bass" combo (medium weight spinning or 6wt+ fly outfit would work). It's usually pretty windy just about anywhere on the OBX, so fly fishing is pretty tough. There are some spots on the sound side that have some wind cover though.

I personally like the surf myself, especially if there are baitfish around and able to get fish on lures. Most of these fish strike with the force that most freshwater fish don't, and usually fight that way too. Although, that isn't the case with sand sharks or skates on huge surf rods, but still fun. Tides make a huge difference, usually high tide = fishing (first few hours before and after high tide), low tide = swimming. Like most Summer fishing, morning and evening are usually the best. Wind direction plays a huge difference too, especially south of there and a little later in the year, where the more sub tropical fish show up in more numbers. Get a nice hot stretch before you go, and the wind keeps the water clear, you could be in luck as well. When fishing high tide, you usually don't have to cast all that far, some times fish are litterally within feet of the last break (eating sand fleas and smaller fish that hug the first trough). Some species do require that you cast as far as possible and retrieve like a madman, do a search on spanish makerel, not sure if your location and timing of vacation would warrent targetting them, but might be. It is never a bad idea to have a big rod with a whole small bunker or spot, or head or chunk of one of these or other fish. Getting a stray cobia or drum or even shark from the surf will make your vacation just as much as a cooler full of smaller fish.

#1 best tip for surf fishing, go out at low tide and walk the beach. Note where the dips and other structures are along the beach. At high tide, these are "the holes". I usually find a few of these and mark each edge further up the beach where the water isn't going to wash and where people usually don't walk much (close to the dunes usually works). Line in the sand on each edge or a piece of drift wood works great. Another good technique is getting in the water at low tide and find the breaks in the sand bars. You find one of these and mark, you found the "highway". Check out stripers online and search for "reading the surf", this will help you find some of these without going in the water.

A cheapo surf combo can be bought for under $50. More required for tossing the wieght as mentioned. You can get away with smaller rods in the surf, if you are targetting mullet & spot or pompano, but they stay a bit further south until the water temps get warmer (although I caught one in NJ last year in October).

I strongly disagree with going to Wally World, especially being new to the salt. Those local shops charge maybe 10% more, but are worth 100% more for the knowledge (also carry fresh bait). Most of those guys are only making enough to keep their doors open and mouths fed. Even knowing a good bit about salt water fishing, I would still rather support Frank and Fran's (or others) through their "retirement" or other, over a pretty shady international corporation in a heartbeat. Not saying that I'd plan on buying $500 worth of gear from them (that's what FishUSA is for ), but when it comes to terminal tackle, bait and maybe $20-30 of supplies, then there is no question in my mind. Also, many of those shops carry the cheapo combos, many times at a lower price than Wally World, almost always at a comperable price.

Do a search of the closer bait shops. Most have fishing forums or reports pages. Take a look of the past few years of what has happened during the relative time frame you were there.

Bughawk I tried to send u a pm but was unable 2
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FC

Ill be down in nags head June 4th-11th ill be at the pier everyday.

Beerman -

When are you heading down? We'll be heading down to Avon in mid August.

At that time of the year, there should be some spanish mackeral and bluefish to be had on lures (depending on water clarity). If fishing from the beach, use Stingsilvers or Castmasters. The rod you have sounds like it would work, but definitely take a few rods and reels. I think what you have is more of a surf rod to fish bait with, which will definitely work, but get tiring casting lures after a little while. For them, something to whip them as far out as you can (your Okuma will definitely do that). The fish will rarely be over 20", so no real need for heavy line, and distance is the most important thing. You'll need 18"-24" of a 30-50lb mono leader. If you are getting all bluefish or snapping you off (likely bluefish), change to steel. If you have two spools on your new outfit, spool one with 8-10lb line for this. Spool the other with something in the 20lb range, I like the Cabela's saltwater copoly. 20lb is about the diameter of most 14lb lines. If you have a 9' rod in a medium wt. with a shorter but section, I think that is what most that target them use. If you have a stiffer noodle rod, it might be worth packing, just make sure the lures you are whipping aren't too heavy. When retreiving, fast is the key. Also, if the water is stained, you're likely not going to be getting into them. The mackerel will pretty much only be around when it is clear.

Take your "bass" gear and hit up the Oregon Inlet (6'-7' med wt. with 8-10lb line). I'm not sure when the trout (weakfish) make their way through, but a real treat if you hit it right. Twister tail jigs, tied in tandem seem to work great. The first one is 1/2 oz. or so with a 4"-5" twister and one following about 18"-24" behind on a 1/4 oz. with 2-3" twister tail - use your 30-50lb line, incase bluefish or spanish mackeral are around. Bright colors seem to work great. Pink, chartruese, ect. Also use super flukes, they can be tied the same way. This set up works well on the piers as well. It's also worth a try in the surf too. High tide in the early morning, the fish should be right in the first trough. Cast almost paralel to the beach in that trough, and could surpise yourself. Besides flounder, almost all fish in the ocean will school, so get that fish you caught asap and cast where you caught him! If you hit the piers, get yourself some Gottcha plugs. These are basically the substitute for the Stingsilvers, when you are on a pier. They will work just about anywhere there is deep water (some spots at Oregon Inlet). They aren't the best from the beach, since they dive down so fast. You'll likely be dragging bottom for the last 20-30 yards. From the pier, I'd use the bass gear too. Take your surf rod in case you see some cobia swimming around. Have a nice 1 or 2 oz. bucktail ready to tie onto your heavier line and hold on for dear life it you catch it. Hopefully someone near you will have a pier net. If the water is muddy, I like using a jig head or smaller bucktail with a squid strip or minnow and slowly retrieve on the bottom. Flounder and croaker, if around will usually take these.

Get yourself some surf spikes (rod holder tubes) as well. If you want to save some money, get a 6' piece of PVC and cut in half with a 45 degree angle. They really aren't expensive, but will charge you around $10 at the beach for one. They are a bit nicer than just PVC, with a pin that your rod butt rests against, instead of your reel holding, easily make this with a stainless bolt. The larger ones are better too. They get you above the breakers a bit more. I like having two (have one for however many rods you take on the beach). One for a bait rod, and one for a lure rod when I am not using. #1 rule of surf fishing (maybe #1), don't put your reel down in the sand. Once you get back to the beach house, rinse your gear after every outing too.

I'll be there the last week of June, CAN'T WAIT! It's been a couple of years since we've been down, hope the fishing is better than it was then. Seems like the piers keep the fish from just traveling up the coast and when the Nags Head pier washed out it hurt the fishing in that area. Doesn't really matter, as long as the bikini hatch is on

I've never fished off of a pier, just didn't look like fun to me. The guy that owns the place we stay told me once that when the piers were all there the fish would sort of swim back and forth between them, now they just keep going up coast. Wouldn't want to move there, I was there fishing in November a couple of times and it's miserable.

A couple of years ago I did my usual MO of baiting up and wailing the 4 oz. sinker as far as I could, walked back to my chair (and beer) placed the rod in the sand spike and sat down and the rod instantly went nutz and what ever hit it was stripping line like mad. I jumped up grabbed the rod and the fish never slowed down. I started to slowly tighten the drag and snap, it broke off. Would just like to know what it was, but assume it was a big ray... for all I know it coulda been a Russian sub... That's what I really like about fishing there, you literally never know what you might catch...

I was just in Hatteras last week. The dolphin fishing offshore was awesome. We trolled for 45 mins and got 14 dolphin before the rough seas made us go back to the inlet and fish for flounder.

I just got back from Nags head saturday fishing was very good early in the week from the pier with about 73 degree water. All the spanish you could catch. Pink gotcha plugs were hot along with yellow and a orange head. Not as many bluefish as last year when I went. Spanish were biting till about 9am every day another big run would come in about 3 in the afternoon and then a hour before dark it was on again. Later in the week you couldnt keep the seatrout off your line once the water warmed down to about 60. Couldnt keep them yet until this thursday. I also saw a few triggerfish caught off the end of the pier in the beginnging of the week along with a lot of croaker. I went offshore last tuesday fishing was not to good. Only 6 dolphin a white marlin and a sailfish.

Anybody fish Jennette's Pier at Nags Head?

The water was crystal clear once the water cooled down you could see the bottom pretty well. When the wind was blowing Northeast the water was about 74ish. The water was not to bad you could see but it was not as clear as it was at the end of the week When the wind blowed southwest. Fish were caught everday except for 1 the only thing they could buy a bite from was a skate.