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Just got back from a short trip to OBX and figured I should leave a report. Not having posted for a few weeks, I'm feeling a little long-winded so apologies in advance.
After a great run of October fishing at Solleys, my luck had started to run out by the end of the month. The rock and perch seemed to have moved on and my last trip in early November was limited to a single pickerel. I still had a ton of use-or-lose vacation time to take and I wasn't ready to be done fishing yet, so I looked for a small good-weather window down in OBX and planned a quick jaunt.
I usually go down to Rodanthe for a friends/family trip every other August and had managed to find a few fish here and there. My initial outing 6 years ago to the shallows north of Oregon Inlet brought almost a dozen speckled trout in a few hours and I've been chasing that kind of luck ever since. Without old reports from the board available, I reached out to John Veil and he forwarded me Dan Marino's contact info (Dan spends a lot of time in the OBX). Many thanks to Dan for all the advice.
I left Tuesday afternoon and made it to my hotel in Kill Devil Hills about 6 hours later. Unfortunately, I could tell that I was coming down with son's cold, so I already started to lower my expectations [at least I knew it wasn't COVID since my son's school tests every week]. This also kept me from hitting any local restaurants or even TW's Bait and Tackle - figured I should avoid as much human interaction as possible and it doesn't get much more "socially distanced" than kayak fishing. That night, I read as many recent fishing reports as possible and looked up others from the same period during prior years.
Wednesday morning, I launched by the Little Bridge around 7 am. Good reports of specks plus rock and reds [more on those reports later]. The south side of the bridge - where pedestrian fishing is permitted - was already pretty packed, so I found a small gap between dropped lines and paddled under the bridge to the north side. I caught one nice speck from casting a 4" chartreuse gulp pretty quickly then, given all the fishing pressure, decided to troll around Pond Island to the bigger Washington Baum bridge. There were a few boats but no kayaks fishing the pilings and it seemed like no one could buy a bite. After a couple of hours, I headed to the launch and did manage one more speck on the troll back. By 11:30, the little bridge was even more jammed. I didn't see any evidence of real catching though, and no one that I saw while loading up had any fish on their stringers or talked about having a great day or anything.
Wednesday after lunch, I headed down to Oregon Inlet to fish the shallow water up near Bodie Lighthouse. When I put in, the wind was really light and the tide wasn't moving much yet. I spent a couple hours without a single bite before the wind really started kicking up and the tide began to run harder. The cold medicine had me feeling pretty worn out, and I wasn't up to fighting the elements, so just headed in. I ran in to a couple of fellow kayak fishermen in town from VA that caught a two reds and a flounder - all on popping corks with a zman - over several hours.
Thursday morning - I drove down to Pea Island, where I've also had a small bit of success in the past, and had one of the best paddling trips ever. The fishing, however, was nonexistent. The wind was perfectly still, the tide was dead low, and the water was clear and maybe a foot or two deep in most spots. I saw a bunch of beautiful birds, two puffer fish, and at one point, a school of 30-40 small rays swam underneath my yak for a minute or two. I loaded up by 11:00 am and headed back to the hotel and took a robitussin-induced nap.
Thursday afternoon - I woke up refreshed around 3:45 and drove back to the the little bridge to fish from 4:15 till dark. Caught a couple more specks while trolling north of the bridge. Only complaint was a couple of drunk d-bags illegally fishing from the closed side of the bridge kept trying to hit me with their casts - laughing and yelling at me. I was far enough out that they didn't get close but still put a small damper on the final outing.
The weather report for Friday was rain and wind, so I packed up when I got back to the hotel and then woke up early to drive back Friday morning.
I keep getting an error message [maybe post is too long] so I'll put my takeaways in a separate post.
After a great run of October fishing at Solleys, my luck had started to run out by the end of the month. The rock and perch seemed to have moved on and my last trip in early November was limited to a single pickerel. I still had a ton of use-or-lose vacation time to take and I wasn't ready to be done fishing yet, so I looked for a small good-weather window down in OBX and planned a quick jaunt.
I usually go down to Rodanthe for a friends/family trip every other August and had managed to find a few fish here and there. My initial outing 6 years ago to the shallows north of Oregon Inlet brought almost a dozen speckled trout in a few hours and I've been chasing that kind of luck ever since. Without old reports from the board available, I reached out to John Veil and he forwarded me Dan Marino's contact info (Dan spends a lot of time in the OBX). Many thanks to Dan for all the advice.
I left Tuesday afternoon and made it to my hotel in Kill Devil Hills about 6 hours later. Unfortunately, I could tell that I was coming down with son's cold, so I already started to lower my expectations [at least I knew it wasn't COVID since my son's school tests every week]. This also kept me from hitting any local restaurants or even TW's Bait and Tackle - figured I should avoid as much human interaction as possible and it doesn't get much more "socially distanced" than kayak fishing. That night, I read as many recent fishing reports as possible and looked up others from the same period during prior years.
Wednesday morning, I launched by the Little Bridge around 7 am. Good reports of specks plus rock and reds [more on those reports later]. The south side of the bridge - where pedestrian fishing is permitted - was already pretty packed, so I found a small gap between dropped lines and paddled under the bridge to the north side. I caught one nice speck from casting a 4" chartreuse gulp pretty quickly then, given all the fishing pressure, decided to troll around Pond Island to the bigger Washington Baum bridge. There were a few boats but no kayaks fishing the pilings and it seemed like no one could buy a bite. After a couple of hours, I headed to the launch and did manage one more speck on the troll back. By 11:30, the little bridge was even more jammed. I didn't see any evidence of real catching though, and no one that I saw while loading up had any fish on their stringers or talked about having a great day or anything.
Wednesday after lunch, I headed down to Oregon Inlet to fish the shallow water up near Bodie Lighthouse. When I put in, the wind was really light and the tide wasn't moving much yet. I spent a couple hours without a single bite before the wind really started kicking up and the tide began to run harder. The cold medicine had me feeling pretty worn out, and I wasn't up to fighting the elements, so just headed in. I ran in to a couple of fellow kayak fishermen in town from VA that caught a two reds and a flounder - all on popping corks with a zman - over several hours.
Thursday morning - I drove down to Pea Island, where I've also had a small bit of success in the past, and had one of the best paddling trips ever. The fishing, however, was nonexistent. The wind was perfectly still, the tide was dead low, and the water was clear and maybe a foot or two deep in most spots. I saw a bunch of beautiful birds, two puffer fish, and at one point, a school of 30-40 small rays swam underneath my yak for a minute or two. I loaded up by 11:00 am and headed back to the hotel and took a robitussin-induced nap.
Thursday afternoon - I woke up refreshed around 3:45 and drove back to the the little bridge to fish from 4:15 till dark. Caught a couple more specks while trolling north of the bridge. Only complaint was a couple of drunk d-bags illegally fishing from the closed side of the bridge kept trying to hit me with their casts - laughing and yelling at me. I was far enough out that they didn't get close but still put a small damper on the final outing.
The weather report for Friday was rain and wind, so I packed up when I got back to the hotel and then woke up early to drive back Friday morning.
I keep getting an error message [maybe post is too long] so I'll put my takeaways in a separate post.
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