Outer Banks Angling: The beat of a different drum

Fall weather is pumping up the red drum bite.

There has been a good red drum bite from both pier and surf, with Avon Pier producing numerous citations over the past week and the surf producing red drum of all sizes.

As I write this, the North Carolina Beach Buggy Association’s Red Drum Tournament is in its second day, and there have been at least nine citation fish caught at last count.

The current leader, Matt Burleigh, has a stud fish that goes a solid 50 inches.

With the current weather forecasts, I suspect that more citation fish will be caught by tournament anglers and the general fishing public.

Along the surf, the sea mullet fishing has been good and quite a few citation fish have been weighed in at area tackle shops.

Bluefish have been caught in big numbers all along Hatteras beaches and there has been some flounder and spot caught also.

While there has been some really good, spotty (no pun intended) spot fishing all along the Outer Banks this year, no one has really seen any fall, yellow-bellied spot.

I am not sure if this is due to weather patterns keeping them offshore or if they just haven’t pushed out of the Chesapeake Bay yet.

There is still time for a run of the much larger fish to come down the islands. I hope they do, as they are great for the fryer and usually draw a crowd of weekend warrior fishermen for area businesses.

Ocracoke Island surf fishermen and its area inshore charter boats have been doing real well with citation drum.

Plenty of large fish have been captured and released.

There has also been bluefish, sea mullet, and puppy drum from the surf along Ocracoke.

When the weather has allowed, the Hatteras offshore fleets have done very well with catches of wahoo and scattered bailer dolphin.

Inshore boats around Hatteras caught scattered speckled trout and puppy drum.

Fleets running out of Oregon Inlet have had some good runs of blackfin tuna and fair catches of yellowfin tuna. Both are crowd pleasers and are a favorite for sport fishermen.

There are still plenty of speckled trout, flounder, and even some puppy drum in Oregon Inlet.

Wade, kayak, and boat fishermen have done real well catching fish of all sizes.

I made it out into Oregon Inlet in my kayak this past week and had a good day with the specks and flounder, but saw no puppy drum.

The puppy drum have been scarce in this area most of the year, and I am glad to hear of some being caught regularly by the charter boats.

I hope to find a few for myself this week.

The air temps will average around 70 degrees by day and much cooler by night, but the winds will be light and fair for the coming days–sounds good for fall fishing.

Time to load your gear and start your vehicle–you can’t catch fish from your couch.

Go fishing.

(Rob Alderman is the owner of the Hatteras Island Fishing Militia website and is a kayak fishing guide. Rob has 10 years of fishing experience on the Outer Banks, and is host of the “Outer Banks Angler” television show. You can follow more of his extreme adventures or contact him at www.FishMilitia.com)