Fame of Surf Fishing At Oregon Inlet Floats North

Fame of Surf Fishing At Oregon Inlet Floats North

Unknown

WWP16860

1937 March 6

This article tells about the fishing conditions present at Oregon Inlet, NC.

Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia

English

So far has the fame of surf fishing along the Virginia and Carolina coast extended that the New York fishing experts have taken the matter up, according to Ray Trullinger, of the New York World Telegram.

In an article headed “April Bad Time for Carolina Surf Fishing,” he writes:

“A number of local surf and rod benders recently have requested information about the proper time to fish Oregon Inlet, N. C., and, if their letters can be taken as an indication, it would seem that considerable misinformation is going the rounds.

“Contrary to some recently published dope, April most emphatically is not the month to go surf fishing at Oregon Inlet, although channel bass are taken between there and Hatteras during that month. At Oregon the big bass don’t arrive in force until the first of May.

“The first of May to the tenth of June comprises the cream of the spring angling season along the North Carolina coast. It is during this time that most of the big bass are taken, and when migrating bluefish are numerous. After that date there still is plenty of good fishing, but the bass are of “puppy” size—eight and ten-pounders—and the blues little more than snappers. A pound and a half at the most.

“The best bluefishing at Oregon Inlet—if migrating fish strike in there, which they sometimes don’t—is between May 7 and 15. This period, understand, is when the blue devils are likely to be feeding in the surf and has nothing to do with the offshore game, which is something else again. Two seasons ago the peak of the run occurred on the evenings of May 12 and 13.

“Last year bluefishing was good between May 8 and 12, but at no time were fish as numerous along the beach as they had been the previous season. There were, however, millions of them offshore.

“Barring bad weather and muddy water—the latter condition prevailing last year because of spring floods—local surfers can journey down any time after the first week in May and be assured of superb bass fishing, with excellent chances of connecting with vast schools of northbound blues. Anglers should remember, however, that the best bluefishing along the beach generally is over by May 15.

“Boat fishing for blues begins earlier and lasts longer than the comparatively short beach fishing interlude, because the latter game is dependent on the return of spawned-out herring to the sea from Pamlico Sound. Herring attract bluefish to shoal waters around the inlet, but as soon as they’re eaten or escape the blues head back to deeper waters.“While this bluefish run is at its height along the beach it is almost impossible to hook a channel bass. Baits or lures are struck the instant they hit the water. The slower bass hasn’t much chance against this lightning-fast competition.

“The only trouble with this fishing, as the writer sees it, is that Oregon Inlet ruins the average angler for near-to-home sport. It’s the kind of fishing to which we’d all like to become accustomed”

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