Fishing

May 28, 2009

Outer Banks Angling: Social networking

By ROB ALDERMAN

My Space, Facebook, and Twitter can be heard or seen just about everywhere nowadays. Your favorite TV show or news program is twittering. Famous movie stars, rockers, bands, teenagers, grandparents, and every demographic imaginable are telling the world what they are up to. Shoot! Even The Island Free Press and The Outer Banks Angler have recently jumped on board Facebook. In the 21st century, social networking is almost a must for everyone, and I am left wondering what we did before this cyber boom for keeping up with people.

But before I go into that, let me recap the Memorial Day weekend fishing report.

The Outer Banks saw some nice weather this past weekend on the south beaches. There was a mixture of sun, clouds, and the occasional five-minute rain shower. The northern beaches saw considerably more rain than we southerners did. But the air was warm and the wind was light for everyone.

Water temps were a different story. North of Buxton, the ocean had a so-so bite to it, averaging from the low 60s or even below that the farther north you headed. South of Buxton, the water was around and just below the 70-degree mark. After a minor four-day northeaster, the ocean water temps were struggling to recover with the light southeast winds.

Sea mullet, fair-sized bluefish, and the occasional citation pompano was the main talk of the inshore fishermen on Hatteras Island. Although scattered, nice-sized Spanish mackerel were caught by the lucky. The diehards continued to walk out beyond the closures at Cape Point and continued to catch citation red drum during most of the late evenings during the weekend. Some friends found some nice schools of drum in their boat, both at Hatteras and Ocracoke inlets.

Beautiful gaffer dolphin got blistered out of most all the area marinas, with many a boat limiting out. The occasional tuna was also taken while trolling. Wreck fishing continues to provide great catches, when the weather and currents allow. Cobia fishing was slow going for all the inshore boat, pier, and surf fishermen. The boats managed to pick off a few, while the piers struck out and the surfishermen landed two that I heard of. Some free-dive, spear-fishing buddies saw more than 100 cobia and shot 20 or so over the weekend, while hitting towers and wrecks over a four- day period, with those fish being found five miles or more offshore.

Overall, I can say it was a pleasurable weekend for the beach-goers and fishermen and, hey, even the businesses did well. Summer is almost here and I know everyone is ready for that.

Now back to social networking.

In the 21st century, social networking is almost a must for everyone, and I am left wondering what we did prior to this cyber boom for keeping up with people. I know what kind of social networking I was doing--face to face.

From the time I was an infant on, I spent most summer weekends on a boat. Family and friends would tear off into the Chesapeake Bay fishing around other boaters, parked in the cove off I-64 or down on the beach in front of Capt. George's in Pungo. Every weekend we saw the same faces, no matter where we ended up. These were people who became our social friends. We didn't call, write, or generally stay in touch with these folks outside of the weekend meeting spot. Every weekend the parents caught up with one another, while the kids hung out with their weekend pals and played endlessly in the water. This was a special time in my life because of the quality -- all fun time I spent with my family.

As I got older and some of my friends’ families began to build homes at Lake Gaston, my social networking moved into a different direction. Once again there were people you only saw and talked to on the weekends, but now, as young adults, my friends and I were recapping with everyone our day-to-day lives. The easier “show up and play" role had been outgrown. However, the fun never stopped during this time. We wakeboarded, rode personal watercraft, tubed, fished, and kneeboarded during the day. By night we sat around fires playing horseshoes until the wee hours or sometimes until we saw the sun shine again.

This went on every warm weekend until my mid-20s, when friends started getting married and having kids. The weekend love affair took second place to new families, and our ritual became more of a holiday weekend get together. I truly miss those days, and my life-long friends. We stay in touch, and everyone is doing well, but those young adolescent days can never be replaced for me.

While my friends were settling down, I decided to move to Hatteras Island, and my social networking took on a whole new meaning.

Shortly after moving to Hatteras Island, I took a job at the Rodanthe Pier and what was the Hatteras Island Resort. The resort had a motel, cottages, restaurant, and the pier in its own mini-paradise. My social networking went from 25 years of weekends to a 24/7, eight months out of the year deal. As a very social person, I had found paradise and social networking on a national scale -- no computer required. I rapidly came to know hundreds upon hundreds of people and their lives. Most everyone I saw annually, if not more weekends a year. Some would spend months on the island. Now I am keeping up with tons of people, their lives, families and their fishing (insert smile here).

In time I started to spend more and more time fishing on the beach and found even more people and friends with whom to enjoy face-to-face company. For four years, life was great for this social guy. I had met so many people it became hard to keep up with names, but I never forgot the individual or the stories of their lives.

In 2003, Hurricane Isabel destroyed all of the Hatteras Island resort, except the Rodanthe Pier. It wasn't too long thereafter that the new owners of the resort decided not to rebuild the mini-paradise, but to replace all of it with mini-mansions. The entire atmosphere of this place I called home had been erased in 12 hours by Mother Nature. So, at the end of the year, I moved on to other recreational fishing jobs and spent more time surf fishing. I capitalized on my existing beach relationships, and new relationships continued to grow by the week for the next four years.

I know having that very private piece of beach for some surf anglers makes the entire trip, but for me, I wanted to be in a high-traffic human area. I liked talking to everyone and being parked two deep for as far as the eye could see. Not only were we networking, but we got to share our fishing accomplishments together. And it was nice to have great people with whom to spend six or seven hours of fishing. At times, our groups would be cooking meals on the beach that were hard to beat at some area eateries. The occupants of about one in five vehicles were cooking, and it was like going to Golden Coral's buffet. We would build fires and hang into the wee hours. Sometimes the wives and kids just hung out, while the husbands disappeared into the dark searching for a fish. Once again, life was great, and we were all having a blast -- locals, weekend warriors, natives, annual visitors and so on – with a truly free beach life.

Yes. It was too good to be true. In April of 2008, a consent decree handed down by a federal judge ended the fun and social networking. Now we have more rules and beach closures than even the National Park Service could keep up with. This sent a shock wave through the social network, but somehow, while it had its effect in the people I saw, it hadn't really quite sunk in with a lot of us just yet, because a lot of people did persevere and continue to come to the beach.

Fast forward to Memorial Day weekend of 2009, and the story has definitely changed. Historic downturns in the national economy and unbelievable unemployment rates crushed the number of people who come and visit Hatteras Island. And those who can financially afford to still come have been hesitant to come often, if at all, because of all the new rules, closures, and what seems at times to be a dictatorship that makes rules and laws as it goes.

This past Memorial Day weekend, I was devastated by all of the people I know and love who didn't make an appearance because of a lost job in the household, tight finances, or especially because of the beach closures. While I had an absolute blast with my friends who made it down, I found myself from time to time thinking of all the people who were not partaking in the fun on this holiday weekend. For the first time in 34 years, a holiday weekend didn't feel all that “holidayish” for me. Yes, the boys and I had a good time kayaking and fishing together, but we all felt the loss of our friends.

Now I am curious to see if my social networking is taking another new turn--to the real cyber networking, as opposed to the face-to-face networking I have known my entire life. I am hesitant to put any true thought into this, for fear of the answer.

Now, I am on Facebook under Rob Alderman, so I can keep up with all those I have not seen in sometime. I guess I should be happy the cyber world allows me to keep in touch with these people and how their lives are going, but I am not. The cyber world is just fulfilling a craving that can never be matched by the face-to-face network. When you go to one of these sites for the first time, you'll find that they describe themselves as an online place for friends, family, and the world to keep up with the question of "What are you doing?"

In this current day, I am semi glad to have this, but do I really need to know someone is using a cell phone to tell me in real time that the lunch they just ate gave them diarrhea. I think not.

I'll try and stay hopeful that the good ol’ face-to-face networking will return on Hatteras Island – although who knows at this point?

(Rob Alderman is the host and producer of the” The Outer Banks Angler” fishing program and the owner of The Outer Banks Angler store located in Buxton. You can find out more on his adventures at www.OuterBanksAngler.com.)