THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 3, 1994 TAG: 9406300217
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 50 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Tight Lines
SOURCE: Ford Reid
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
A fishing pier is the three-ring circus of angling.
That is to say, that there is usually a lot going on at the same time and one thing or another ought to please almost anyone.
If the fish aren't biting on your side, take a little stroll to the other side.
If what is going on around you bores you, turn your eyes to the left or to the right and you might find something intriguing.
Out at the end of the pier, closest to the deep water beyond the last sand bar, you will generally find some very serious, and very specialized, anglers.
These fellows will often be live-lining for big fish. They will have rigged a large bait, often a spot or a small bluefish, in hopes that a cruising cobia or king mackerel will find it.
Their methods are sophisticated. Many of them use two rods. One, with only a heavy sinker cast as far as possible, acts as an anchor. The line from the other rod is attached to the line of the first, allowing the bait to swim fairly freely but keeping it from coming too far toward shore or even swimming under the pier.
That kind of fishing is not for everyone. It takes knowledge, skill and experience.
But the rest of us can watch, if we are careful not to get in the way, and anything can happen. A few years ago, a pier fisherman caught a small marlin.
Unless you go out on a charter boat, a pier is the best place on the Outer Banks to at least see a really big fish caught.
Less skilled pier fishermen can fish farther in. Bluefish, trout, flounder, spot, croaker and sea mullet are routinely caught from piers and now and then someone ties into a puppy drum or a false albacore.
Anything that you can catch from the beach, you can catch from a pier. And you can keep your feet dry while you're doing it.
The advantage of a pier, besides dry feet, is that you don't have to cast like a pro to get your bait into productive water. This is especially important when a wind from the eastern quadrant pushes the surf up nearly to the dunes and makes casting impossible.
Some light lures that catch fish but are tough to cast - Mirolures and Jerky Jigs, for instance - are particularly good from piers. All you have to do is drop it over the side and jig it a bit, then hope for the best.
If you were in a cooler filling contest, the person fishing from the pier would probably beat the person fishing from the beach every time out. The advantage of being able to move farther out far outweighs the advantage of moving up and down the beach.
In addition to that, the structure itself - with the barnacles and other growths on the pilings - attracts fish.
But it is not just the fish that draw people to the pier, it is the fishermen, too.
You will often find some very lively conversations going on as relaxed anglers drop a line and chew the fat.
Besides, where else can you fish all day or all night and only be a few steps from a concession stand? by CNB