Rogers rules big trout bite at Jennette’s Pier

Before sunrise Sunday, Oct. 23, Rick Rogers caught more speckled trout than most people catch all year long.

Inside a dome of light under Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head, he reeled them in two at a time.

Every cast Rogers nailed the trout. He was truly in his element, noted pier-house keeper Michelle Revels who watched from the pier.

It was reminiscent of the scene from the movie “A River Runs Through It,” when Brad Pitt was fly fishing to catch river trout – pure poetry in motion.

As he whipped the surf rod each cast, Rogers’ double lead-head rig would fly into the dark and then land in the small, white-water breakers. His rod action sounded like a whip.

The bite was on, and he was in the groove.

By the time his fishing partner arrived at 5:30 a.m., all Rogers yelled up from the beach to the pier deck was, “Twenty-three!”

And a second later, “Make it twenty-four,” as another shinny shape was flapping at his feet.

Although he liked the angle better from the beach, once the pier opened at 6 a.m., Rogers continued his quest from the pier deck.

“Another doubleheader!” he said. “Yes, sir!”

For another hour or so, he kept on bringing them in for a total of 66 speckled trout — two of them monsters.

Several other anglers got into the action, but none came close to the luck Rogers had.

But as a long orange sliver of light over the horizon announced the coming sunrise, the bite was over and Rogers went to work.