Island Fishing: Late Summer Fishing and Liquid Sunshine!
It’s a glorious day in Frisco! Perspective is a funny thing, and most of you will disagree with what I’m about to say, but bear with me. Last week, as I was finishing up with my last trip of the day, the sky was darkening back to the west and the radar showed a pretty good dose of rain on the way. Early the next morning, I was awakened around 1 a.m. to the flashing of lightning and frequent crashing of thunder. Samson had retreated to one of his “safe places”, which happened to be between the toilet and the tub in my bathroom. I reawakened at 7 a.m. to the continued clatter of rain on my roof and an occasional thunder rumble. Throughout the early afternoon, the rain was still coming down, with much more on the way. Most of the folks that I have chatted with this summer have complained that it has been too wet and rainy where they live, but quite the contrary here. Up until recently, it has been a hot, dry summer here in Hatteras, so I was thankful for some liquid sunshine! Also, a day off was nice, after weeks of being super busy!
Since I last wrote, the offshore fishing has gone through its ups and downs, as far as productivity. There has been some excellent dolphin fishing, and the wahoo fishing has been pretty good at times. As we move closer to September, the wahoo fishing should improve even more. This has been an off year for marlin, and even though a few flags have been flying in the afternoons, it’s not been up to standard for Hatteras. Many boats have done their share of bottom fishing, and brought in nice catches of grouper, tilefish, triggerfish, vermillion snapper, and sea bass. Very tasty fare for the table. Daytime swordfishing is growing in popularity, and a few of the guys have been able to land a few of these deep water monsters.
The inshore fleet has had a great summer catching Spanish mackerel and bluefish in the inlet and near shore in the ocean. Speckled trout have shown up in great numbers this summer, and it looks like we’re in for a really good fall season for them. The drum fishing has been a bit of a disappointment this summer, but like everything else, it will cycle back around. Clamming has been great this summer, for those who enjoy getting their feet wet while collecting these tasty shellfish.
On the commercial side of things, the gill netters have had a good summer catching Spanish mackerel along the coast. Bottom fishing boats have been coming in with catches of grouper and tilefish to supply local restaurants and seafood markets. Longliners have been catching big eye and yellowfin tuna, as well as swordfish. The shrimping in the Pamlico Sound has been slower this year, but there have been some “bugs” coming in to the fish house lately.
Along the beach, surf fishermen have been catching a little bit of everything. The pompano fishing has been good, as well as sea mullet and blow toads. Spanish macks and blues have been fun for the folks that want to cast sting silvers. Always fun to present an artificial lure to a fish and get a bite!
School will be back in session for most kids pretty soon, but the fishing will only get better as we near the fall. Cooler weather and hotter fishing should be enough to entice you back, so pencil in some time to return to the island later this year. You won’t regret it!
