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So the short version: I fished 4 times down in Avon last week, 3x (2 soundside and 1 ocean) from my kayak, and 1x (ocean) from my brother's boat. I ended up catching 9 species of fish including my main target, Sheepshead. Each day wasn't a banner day by any means, but sticking it out and having a "plan b" in the end made the days successful, and usually most of that success came in the last 2-3 hours of the trip. Overall, it was a great first time bringing my kayak down there, and finally putting in some hours exploring an area I've been visiting every year for the past 31 years.
Now for some details...
Trip 1: I knew Magothyman was coming down, and he was planning on fishing farther north than where we were staying. We both headed up to the kayak launch at OI on Sunday 8/4/19, the day after I arrived in the outer banks. I had heard that the creeks in that area were loaded with specks and the occasional red, but a kayaker on a PA who was loading up when I arrived had told me that the action was pretty slow, so I adjusted my plan accordingly. I fished the creeks for about 2 hours with popping corks, paddletails, gulp, and small plugs but never got anything to stay on the line, just tiny hits from what were most likely pinfish. I then traveled back out of the creeks into the main flats area, and traveled around quite a bit until I found some good contours that I knew, from my limited flounder fishing experiences, could be productive. I used the "John Skinner" rig, I'm not even sure if that's really what it's called, it's just a bucktail on the bottom with a bare hook on a loop or dropper knot about 6-8" above it, both tipped with gulp. I used white, but I'm sure other colors would work. I was casting to sandy patches just outside weedy areas, and also to deeper spots, and jigging it slowly back to the boat. I kept myself in about 5-8ft of water, and began casting to deeper spots at about 10-15ft, and between that and those shallower sandy spots I was working, I found some fish. I ended up catching 5 flounder from 12-17" (kept the 17"), 3 small lizardfish, and a whiting (also kept). This was the start of what would be the theme for the trip, and that was to always have a plan b, and to fall back on it if plan a wasn't working out. I think my fishing buddy ended up catching a nice 16" speck, he wasn't out for very long so I think that may have been all.
Trip 2: Magothyman had headed home by now, so I planned out a solo ocean trip. I found a nice surf launch with decent parking, and a short-ish walk across the sand to the water, easy enough for the sand tires on my cart. It was storming early in the morning, so I had to wait to launch until around 830-9am, which I didn't mind too much. The winds were low and coming from the West, which was ideal, however the surf conditions weren't that ideal. I wouldn't call them dangerous, just tricky, the waves were much larger than I would've liked, but the wave period was enough so I could make a seemingly safe trip out and back. I headed out offshore and trolled small daisy chains, and some of my favorite z-man soft plastics. I kept getting hits, sometimes huge hits, and they'd stay on for a few seconds, then nothing. I think I needed to speed up, maybe change direction, or something, but anyway I didn't land any fish while trolling for around 3ish hours. Got a bunch of hits but again, nothing stayed on the line, but all I lost was the tail off a z-man, so not too bad I guess. I then decided to fall back again to my plan b, which was fish a close(ish) wreck, hopefully for sheepshead. I used some bottom sweeper 1 oz jigs and some frozen sandfleas (well thawed by now in my cooler bag), and dropped them right against the wreck. It was like looking down into an aquarium, absolutely full of life. Huge triggerfish, hundreds of small-medium spades, and I thought I saw some sheepshead too. Boom, first cast, first hookup, a 16" sheepshead, I was so happy. This was my main target during this trip, as I had a vendetta against them after having 2 big ones break me off in 2 different occasions. I proceeded to fish this wreck for another couple of hours until I ran out of sandfleas, and broke off 2 of my bottom sweepers. I found that I had to cast within a very narrow spot on the wreck to get to the sheepshead, which was very snaggy. Otherwise, the bait would be off the hook within a few seconds, it was like watching a tornado of fish follow it down to the bottom. I caught a few small BSB, a couple of really big toadfish, and 3 more sheepshead between 14-18" for a total of 4 sheepshead. I tried using smaller hooks with pieces of squid for the triggerfish, but couldn't get them to stay on the hook. It was a successful day, but like the first trip, sticking it out for the last few hours made all the difference. I began the long process of re-securing all my gear, leashing items and stowing others, and paddled in. I have done probably 7 or 8 surf trips now, so I'm not a complete amateur, but I did manage to screw up this time. I paddled in too quickly, and began to be pulled forward by the wave I was following in, and began to crest it as it broke, not good. Ended up surfing it for a few seconds until it buried me into the sand, flipping the kayak and me right off it. I wasn't hurt, just scared and shaken up, most of my stuff was leashed so it was recovered. I ended up breaking my hawg trough, the extension piece on my scotty rod holder, and lost my leader wheels and my backup tackle box I had stored under the seat. Unfortunately the tackle box contained most of my pricier lures, so that was the biggest lost. Everything else was fine though, kayak, fishfinder, rods and reels, and most importantly me. I was just super embarrassed as I collected all my stuff along the beach, and thinking back, I probably should've waded in the surf looking for my lost items, but I wasn't thinking too clearly. My cooler bag was leashed so I saved everything that was inside there including the fish. I packed up everything in the truck, then carted the kayak back, loaded up, and headed home, nearly dry at that point. Since this happened I have replaced 2 of 3 leader wheels (great deals to be found for berkley pro-spec), my x rap mag 20 (another great 1/2 off deal), and a few glass minnows since I lost many of the locally made OBX ones I had.
Trip 3: Took a couple of days off to just rinse and re-evaluate my equipment, and plan out a soundside trip. I found a soundside wreck/reef that was a few miles from shore, and launched out of a marina after hearing some positive news from a guy there. Like I figured, the wreck/reef should hold big sheepshead, according to that guy anyway. I pedaled out a couple miles to reach it, and caught a nice blue while trolling out there, so the day was already a successful one. I then used some of my last remaining bottom sweepers, my 1/2 oz ones since I lost almost all of my bigger ones, and some more frozen sand fleas. I caught more BSB and some pinfish and pigfish, but no sheep. I think I saw one cruising the grass flats nearby, so I tried there, but to no avail. I didn't get any of the textbook light almost undetectable sheepshead bites, or the big hits they'll sometimes do either, just a lot of the bait picking bites from those species I just mentioned. So, after a few hours fishing the reef, I headed back to shore, trolling on my way back. I ended up pedaling into a few schools of medium sized blues from 14-22", and they provided an hour of enjoyment. I even brought in 2 at once on the SP minnow (one of my few remaining plugs I had stored in a different location from my surf launch). I think the SP minnow might be one of the best "plug" lures I troll, I've yet to catch anything on the 3D crystal minnow, which is now lost. I caught a few blues on the z-mans I was trolling as well, and ended up landing 5 more blues for a total of 6, and losing probably 2 or 3 more near the boat or due to short strikes. The wind had really picked up and made the sound very choppy at this point, so I'm glad I came in when I did. I also pedaled right along with some dolphins (maybe porpoises, tough to tell) during my outing, they started coming right at me, then stayed alongside for a while, really cool. Came back to the marina and checked in with that guy again, and my gf. Side note, make sure to leave a float plan with someone while you're out including where you're launching from, where you're going to (ish), and when you'll be back on shore. It helps to keep in contact periodically too, I use a waterproof sleeve for my phone and bluetooth it to a floating waterproof speaker ($20-worth it), and I can receive calls and stream music through it if I really want to.
Trip 4: My last trip of the week was on my brother's 19' runabout with my brother and my father. It was great to be out on the water with them, we don't get too many trips like that, and I make sure to appreciate every one. My brother gets seasick quite easily, despite many medications, and he is usually done after a couple hours, and this time was no exception. We trolled the same daisy chains I used off the kayak, and landed 2 spanish on the white one this time. Those would be the only fish we ended up catching, my brother got frustrated by slow fishing, and growing sickness, so we headed in. I had a couple backup plans but I couldn't bring any to fruition because he wanted to go in, and it's his boat anyway. I think we fished from probably 9:30-1, just trolled both parallel and perpendicular to shore, covering various depths in the hatteras bight area.
Overall the trip was a successful one, I never got skunked, and learned a lot, including how to quickly react to a flipped kayak in the surf zone without getting hurt. It wasn't the ideal learning experience haha but an experience none the less. This trip I couldn't find the specks and reds on my first outing after a few hours, so from then on, for whatever reason, I decided not to target them again. I guess it was because I found other targets. If I would've made one more trip, it would've been specks, reds, and flounder focused. Apparently the speck action was red hot in Avon when I was there, but again, I had other main targets. IMO if someone says there are bluefish somewhere, I'll choose to fish for them almost every time over other fish, apart from something crazy like tuna or cobia, or even spanish mackerel.
Down in this area, local knowledge is your friend, though I'll admit most of the areas that I ended up catching fish were due to my own research and mostly luck. I think I visited 4 or 5 tackle shops, and bought 10-30$ worth of tackle/bait at each, I love supporting local businesses. If you can bring your kayak down I recommend it, it really opens up a lot of fishing spots, especially soundside, and even oceanside if you're brave enough. I would stress that you should always have a backup plan/target, and stay out at long as safely possible given weather and tidal conditions, as those last few hours can really turn the day around.
Good luck to those who are heading down that way, and thank you again for everyone who gave me advice.
Now for some details...
Trip 1: I knew Magothyman was coming down, and he was planning on fishing farther north than where we were staying. We both headed up to the kayak launch at OI on Sunday 8/4/19, the day after I arrived in the outer banks. I had heard that the creeks in that area were loaded with specks and the occasional red, but a kayaker on a PA who was loading up when I arrived had told me that the action was pretty slow, so I adjusted my plan accordingly. I fished the creeks for about 2 hours with popping corks, paddletails, gulp, and small plugs but never got anything to stay on the line, just tiny hits from what were most likely pinfish. I then traveled back out of the creeks into the main flats area, and traveled around quite a bit until I found some good contours that I knew, from my limited flounder fishing experiences, could be productive. I used the "John Skinner" rig, I'm not even sure if that's really what it's called, it's just a bucktail on the bottom with a bare hook on a loop or dropper knot about 6-8" above it, both tipped with gulp. I used white, but I'm sure other colors would work. I was casting to sandy patches just outside weedy areas, and also to deeper spots, and jigging it slowly back to the boat. I kept myself in about 5-8ft of water, and began casting to deeper spots at about 10-15ft, and between that and those shallower sandy spots I was working, I found some fish. I ended up catching 5 flounder from 12-17" (kept the 17"), 3 small lizardfish, and a whiting (also kept). This was the start of what would be the theme for the trip, and that was to always have a plan b, and to fall back on it if plan a wasn't working out. I think my fishing buddy ended up catching a nice 16" speck, he wasn't out for very long so I think that may have been all.
Trip 2: Magothyman had headed home by now, so I planned out a solo ocean trip. I found a nice surf launch with decent parking, and a short-ish walk across the sand to the water, easy enough for the sand tires on my cart. It was storming early in the morning, so I had to wait to launch until around 830-9am, which I didn't mind too much. The winds were low and coming from the West, which was ideal, however the surf conditions weren't that ideal. I wouldn't call them dangerous, just tricky, the waves were much larger than I would've liked, but the wave period was enough so I could make a seemingly safe trip out and back. I headed out offshore and trolled small daisy chains, and some of my favorite z-man soft plastics. I kept getting hits, sometimes huge hits, and they'd stay on for a few seconds, then nothing. I think I needed to speed up, maybe change direction, or something, but anyway I didn't land any fish while trolling for around 3ish hours. Got a bunch of hits but again, nothing stayed on the line, but all I lost was the tail off a z-man, so not too bad I guess. I then decided to fall back again to my plan b, which was fish a close(ish) wreck, hopefully for sheepshead. I used some bottom sweeper 1 oz jigs and some frozen sandfleas (well thawed by now in my cooler bag), and dropped them right against the wreck. It was like looking down into an aquarium, absolutely full of life. Huge triggerfish, hundreds of small-medium spades, and I thought I saw some sheepshead too. Boom, first cast, first hookup, a 16" sheepshead, I was so happy. This was my main target during this trip, as I had a vendetta against them after having 2 big ones break me off in 2 different occasions. I proceeded to fish this wreck for another couple of hours until I ran out of sandfleas, and broke off 2 of my bottom sweepers. I found that I had to cast within a very narrow spot on the wreck to get to the sheepshead, which was very snaggy. Otherwise, the bait would be off the hook within a few seconds, it was like watching a tornado of fish follow it down to the bottom. I caught a few small BSB, a couple of really big toadfish, and 3 more sheepshead between 14-18" for a total of 4 sheepshead. I tried using smaller hooks with pieces of squid for the triggerfish, but couldn't get them to stay on the hook. It was a successful day, but like the first trip, sticking it out for the last few hours made all the difference. I began the long process of re-securing all my gear, leashing items and stowing others, and paddled in. I have done probably 7 or 8 surf trips now, so I'm not a complete amateur, but I did manage to screw up this time. I paddled in too quickly, and began to be pulled forward by the wave I was following in, and began to crest it as it broke, not good. Ended up surfing it for a few seconds until it buried me into the sand, flipping the kayak and me right off it. I wasn't hurt, just scared and shaken up, most of my stuff was leashed so it was recovered. I ended up breaking my hawg trough, the extension piece on my scotty rod holder, and lost my leader wheels and my backup tackle box I had stored under the seat. Unfortunately the tackle box contained most of my pricier lures, so that was the biggest lost. Everything else was fine though, kayak, fishfinder, rods and reels, and most importantly me. I was just super embarrassed as I collected all my stuff along the beach, and thinking back, I probably should've waded in the surf looking for my lost items, but I wasn't thinking too clearly. My cooler bag was leashed so I saved everything that was inside there including the fish. I packed up everything in the truck, then carted the kayak back, loaded up, and headed home, nearly dry at that point. Since this happened I have replaced 2 of 3 leader wheels (great deals to be found for berkley pro-spec), my x rap mag 20 (another great 1/2 off deal), and a few glass minnows since I lost many of the locally made OBX ones I had.
Trip 3: Took a couple of days off to just rinse and re-evaluate my equipment, and plan out a soundside trip. I found a soundside wreck/reef that was a few miles from shore, and launched out of a marina after hearing some positive news from a guy there. Like I figured, the wreck/reef should hold big sheepshead, according to that guy anyway. I pedaled out a couple miles to reach it, and caught a nice blue while trolling out there, so the day was already a successful one. I then used some of my last remaining bottom sweepers, my 1/2 oz ones since I lost almost all of my bigger ones, and some more frozen sand fleas. I caught more BSB and some pinfish and pigfish, but no sheep. I think I saw one cruising the grass flats nearby, so I tried there, but to no avail. I didn't get any of the textbook light almost undetectable sheepshead bites, or the big hits they'll sometimes do either, just a lot of the bait picking bites from those species I just mentioned. So, after a few hours fishing the reef, I headed back to shore, trolling on my way back. I ended up pedaling into a few schools of medium sized blues from 14-22", and they provided an hour of enjoyment. I even brought in 2 at once on the SP minnow (one of my few remaining plugs I had stored in a different location from my surf launch). I think the SP minnow might be one of the best "plug" lures I troll, I've yet to catch anything on the 3D crystal minnow, which is now lost. I caught a few blues on the z-mans I was trolling as well, and ended up landing 5 more blues for a total of 6, and losing probably 2 or 3 more near the boat or due to short strikes. The wind had really picked up and made the sound very choppy at this point, so I'm glad I came in when I did. I also pedaled right along with some dolphins (maybe porpoises, tough to tell) during my outing, they started coming right at me, then stayed alongside for a while, really cool. Came back to the marina and checked in with that guy again, and my gf. Side note, make sure to leave a float plan with someone while you're out including where you're launching from, where you're going to (ish), and when you'll be back on shore. It helps to keep in contact periodically too, I use a waterproof sleeve for my phone and bluetooth it to a floating waterproof speaker ($20-worth it), and I can receive calls and stream music through it if I really want to.
Trip 4: My last trip of the week was on my brother's 19' runabout with my brother and my father. It was great to be out on the water with them, we don't get too many trips like that, and I make sure to appreciate every one. My brother gets seasick quite easily, despite many medications, and he is usually done after a couple hours, and this time was no exception. We trolled the same daisy chains I used off the kayak, and landed 2 spanish on the white one this time. Those would be the only fish we ended up catching, my brother got frustrated by slow fishing, and growing sickness, so we headed in. I had a couple backup plans but I couldn't bring any to fruition because he wanted to go in, and it's his boat anyway. I think we fished from probably 9:30-1, just trolled both parallel and perpendicular to shore, covering various depths in the hatteras bight area.
Overall the trip was a successful one, I never got skunked, and learned a lot, including how to quickly react to a flipped kayak in the surf zone without getting hurt. It wasn't the ideal learning experience haha but an experience none the less. This trip I couldn't find the specks and reds on my first outing after a few hours, so from then on, for whatever reason, I decided not to target them again. I guess it was because I found other targets. If I would've made one more trip, it would've been specks, reds, and flounder focused. Apparently the speck action was red hot in Avon when I was there, but again, I had other main targets. IMO if someone says there are bluefish somewhere, I'll choose to fish for them almost every time over other fish, apart from something crazy like tuna or cobia, or even spanish mackerel.
Down in this area, local knowledge is your friend, though I'll admit most of the areas that I ended up catching fish were due to my own research and mostly luck. I think I visited 4 or 5 tackle shops, and bought 10-30$ worth of tackle/bait at each, I love supporting local businesses. If you can bring your kayak down I recommend it, it really opens up a lot of fishing spots, especially soundside, and even oceanside if you're brave enough. I would stress that you should always have a backup plan/target, and stay out at long as safely possible given weather and tidal conditions, as those last few hours can really turn the day around.
Good luck to those who are heading down that way, and thank you again for everyone who gave me advice.
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