Mike D's Hatteras Island Vacation

[Mike D]

I've been staying on Hatteras Island for vacation with wife and kids for 10 years. We had a great week and lots of fun in the surf with my wife and boys 7 yrs. and 10 yrs. old.

I'm no Steve Andrews when it comes to writing these but after 5 days of catching 5 or 6 snapper blues a day each in the surf all week here's a good last day of vacation story.


It's about 6:00 Friday night (last night) on the Avon beach and we're supposed to be checking out Sat morning at 10:00 a.m. (today) Tons of baitfish have been in the surf all day and only "little" 10 inch blues chasing them all day Friday. We caught a few but are kind of tired with it by now...

About 6:30 pm my family and my buddies family head up to clean up the house,get washed, pack and make dinner. Our wives say, "come up soon to pack the cars". We sit there on the beach having our last few vacation beers and feeling sorry for ourselves Saying, that magical hour is approaching, something got to happen. Some big blitz has got to happen with all of these baitfish. It did. At about 7:15 spanish mackeral are storming the beach. Thrashing and cutting all over the surface. Dozens jumping 2 feet out of the water in the suds they are so frantic!

We got about 10 spanish a piece between 14 and 22 inches. All caught on 7 foot light action spinning gear with white and silver sting silvers which made the fight very sporty! We lost several more each. I kept a few to eat and here they are. It made my week, see , and was whole lot easier to leave for home today. What a blast!



[ 09-03-2005, 09:15 PM: Message edited by: Mike D ]

[derf]

a couple of nice spanish can make it worthwile ....
derf
can't wait till the first week in oct for our trip .....

[Mike D]

Derf

You told me the spanish were hitting two weeks back. It took all week but you were right.

A buddy if mine went out on a half day charter out of Hatteras Fri afternoon and they were nailing false albacore between 3 and 10 lbs and big spanish a mile offshore! Over 100 fish between 3 guys.

[derf]

the spanish can come & go . we've seen them hit the 'point' like clockwork about 5 pm for a week straight
i'm hoping to see a couple of false albies from the beach or spanish ......if not i'd settle for a jack cravalle , or a couple of drum or ...............whatever ........ya just never know .....
but that's what makes it interesting
derf

[Ratsince66]

MIKE D, You must have been north of me, I was in One on the beach at the end of Avon. The S'W blow Wens seemed to push the Spanish and Albies "around the corner". I was on the deck Fri. afternoon getting ready to head down to the inlet when I spotted a pod of dolphin, I got the glasses out for my wife and while focusing, saw the spanish heading up the beach. They remained till Sunday morning when I left, also managed a couple of Alberts along with the Spanish, one of which was just short of a Citation. Had the beach to myself which was quite a change from the point. Did manage a few Spanish at the point earlier in the week, mostly at false light and got 3 Puppies at the inlet during the evening hours (Wens., Thurs.,& Fri. 9pm to 1am) All in all, typical of the dog days... can't wait till late Oct. & Nov.

[Mike D]

Ratsince 66

I was in Ocean Isle Estates. Middle of Avon right up from Nino's pizza. No albies but I heard that they were around. I could see some commotion a few hundred yards out from the beach so may it was albert busting some bait.

I'll be back down again in late Oct as well. My neighbor just built a place in rodanthe 2 years ago and we started a boys week tradition in NC 2 years ago. 6 guys down there for 5 days. Nothing but beer, wine, cigars, eating and fishing. We go offshore one day and fish the surf otherwise. I'll let you know what week we're down. Maybe we can hook up for a few beers and some surf fishing

[steve andrews]

Mike you sure did a lot better than I did, nice bunch of Spanish.
The wife and I invited a couple down for the Labor Day weekend so fishing was going to be limited anyway. I really shoot myself in the foot by forgetting all of my bait casting reels . We did introduce our friends to kayaking and they loved it.
After our friends left Sunday morning I did some work around the house and headed out to The Point around 4:30 pm. Ran into a buddy from Maryland who told me to give his new ABU reel as try, on the second cast I hooked into a False Albacore and that was the highlight of my weekend. Sunday evening the winds came and pretty much shut everything down. Still beat a day at the office.


hatterasrentalcottage.com

[Mike D]

Steve I'd trade those spanish for one of those albies in a heart beat. Never caught one before. Looks like a real nice one you have there as well. A little crowded there at the point in your pic

[steve andrews]

Thanks Mike, Albies are fun to catch, they are a powerful fish and can strip a reel in a blink of an eye.
Actually the point wasn't that crowded, myself and a couple other fishermen had commented on that very subject. We were wondering if it was because of the gas prices or people are just feed-up with having the beach closed because of two birds.

hatterasrentalcottage.com

[John M]

spanish and egss for breakfast.....

thats not crowded on the point.....try a drum bite when its 3 or 4 deep.......I know diesel prices kept me home labor day weekend....no need to spend the money when the fishing isnt all that good.

[Ratsince66]

there were less than 3 dozen overnighters at the point Saturday morn. when the sun came up, not crowded for labor day weekend. As the morning went on it filled up pretty fast. I don't know if you eat the fish but I'll take spanish over albies any day. You can make some money up here when the Albies show, the uninitiated will approach you with eyes wide open and when you tell them its a tuna (lil tuny) they offer $10.00 for a fish. Good Luck with the Plank.