Another fine weekend on the sandbar we call the Outer Banks of N.C. Today will be sunny, winds are SE 10-15, expected high is 81 degrees and a 0% chance of rain. Sunset is 6:41 pm and sunrise tomorrow is 7:01 am.
First tide is low at 2:26 am and high is 8:38 am
Second tide is low at 3:04 pm and high is 8:54 pm

Surprising to me is that it’s such a bluebird day out there and the piers are still catching big drum. Water conditions are clear and calm, water temp is still 70 degrees and surf is small or nonexistent.  In addition to the big drum, reports include small stuff like spot , croaker, pompano, bluefish and sea mullet.

Been hearing of lots of bait around.  I did hear early in the week that large, yellowbelly spot were being caught in Va Beach.  Maybe the next northeaster will help their stubby little fins get down here to us.

Since the sound striper season opened, there have been a lot of boats trolling the Coinjock ditch with moderate success.

Latest word from down south in the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, the park LEOs are not restricting pedestrian access to the beaches – read that as they are short-staffed and not able to handle the small stuff.

Enjoy the weather and bring us a fish story.  Take a kid fishing,   Coolbreeze out

The federal shutdown is having a significant impact on many OBX commercial operations, especially on Hatteras Island.  Cape Hatteras National Seashore is closed to the public.  Oregon Inlet Fishing Center is a park service concession and even though privately operated is forced to close.  OIFC charter captains have relocated their vessels to other venues to meet their charter obligations.  Beach accesses from Coquina Beach to Ocracoke have been chained off or blocked by the park service.  I’m saying it, you need to be made of tough stuff to live on Hatteras Island.  We tend to think what happens in D.C. doesn’t effect us much but I work for a business a couple hundred yards from the Wright Brothers Monument.  The park is most definitely closed and I know people who work there.  Not jumping on the soapbox but this political standoff is affecting too many citizens at a time when our economy is beginning to turn around for the good and now it’s starting to get in the way of my fishing.  Trust me, this is not a good thing.  Let me go back to my cave and chew on this awhile.

Later,   Coolbreeze out

It’s Monday, the last day of Sept 2013 under cloudy skies with a slight chance of rain; winds are N 10-15, expected high of 75 degrees with sunset at 6:49pm and sunrise tomorrow is 6:57am.
First tide is high at 4:26am, low at 10:32 am
Second tide is high at 4:40pm and low is 11:12pm

Calling around to the piers, it’s a rough sea, the water is murky and 70 degrees.  Channel bass, aka “old drum” are the main topic on the planks.  Anglers with their heavers are slinging ” 8 and bait ” ( 8 ounces of lead with a candy bar sized chunk of fresh fish ) off the end of one of the local piers then waiting for the pick-up.  A reel starts to sing, the rod owner hardens up the drag, sets the hook and the dance begins.  It could be a shark or a ray, but they’re hoping for a big drum.  If it doesn’t break them off, the fish is worked into a waiting pier net and raised onto the pier deck.  Photos are taken for posterity and the fish is unceremoniously thrown back in the drink, hopefully to do it again another time.  This is a drum day, windy, rough, murky, generally snotty, those fish like these conditions.  If you have a decent spot you can fish the surf today, maybe you can hang some nice sea mullet or a puppy drum.  Sand fleas and fresh mullet would be my baits of choice.

Winds are going to start laying down today, come in and pick out some fresh finger mullet and Take a Kid Fishing.
Coolbreeze out