# Rodanthe Pier



## aln (May 29, 2006)

What's the deal with fishing the Rodanthe Pier ? I asked someone and they said when the pier closes you have to leave .. is that right ? I aint fished the planks in decades but as I get older my distance 
casting has suffered off the hill and I would like to do some pier fishing for drum off that pier while I'm down .. and I'm partial to drum and mullet fishing off the end at night .. especially considering
the tides while I'm down. So what's the real deal ?


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## Drumdum (Jan 6, 2003)

Those folks running that pier are pretty standup guys... IF there is catching,they will leave it open... Avon closes at 10 and will blink the lights on the pier until you leave,even if you have a fish hooked up at the time....


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## js1172 (Jun 5, 2012)

its now 12:00 Kenny, least it was a couple weeks ago
js


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## DaBig2na (Aug 7, 2011)

I was talking to Mark last week and I think he is going to leave the gate open after Labor Day and close at ten.
Right now it closes at 12:00. He wasnt sure if he was going to do it or not.

He lost two of his part timers last week. One went back to Ohio and will be back next year when school lets out and another went back to WVa to start his Jr. Year at WVU. Both of those guys are fun to be around when we're fishin'.
I'm figuring they might be a bit short handed right now.


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## aln (May 29, 2006)

Now that's what I'm talking about ... hope it happens !


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## Drumdum (Jan 6, 2003)

js1172 said:


> its now 12:00 Kenny, least it was a couple weeks ago
> js


 They have the SAME deal as Rodanthe is thinking about,change to 10 in the fall.. Hope Rodanthe sticks to it's old way.. The folks that fish the end of Avon have pledged to pay the employee if he has to stay and we are catching,therefore pier is out no $,but they won't do that either.... In fairness,if a call is given to the manager,SOMETIMES he will remain open if there is a blitz..


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## DaBig2na (Aug 7, 2011)

I thought about floating this idea out to Mark next time I see him.

Allow all Season Pass Members a Key to the Gate. If he chooses not to go with leaving it open. When the pier is open they "check in" before they head out. I'm sure details can be worked out as it goes.


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## aln (May 29, 2006)

Might be better for business if it was left open. I would be much more likely to pay to fish at 5 or 6 in the evening if I knew I could fish all night as opposed to being asked to leave when the pier closed. I worked at and fished the old Center Pier at Carolina Beach for years and they left the gate open anytime the pier was closed and I never heard of a problem arising because of it .


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## Drumdum (Jan 6, 2003)

aln,years ago Rodanthe almost had that pier burn down one night.. That is why gates are not left open on many piers on Hatteras now.. Avon used to leave gates open as well.. I'd love for them to do that,but do not see it happening with piers wanting to close at 10..


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## Garboman (Jul 22, 2010)

Drumdum said:


> aln,years ago Rodanthe almost had that pier burn down one night.. That is why gates are not left open on many piers on Hatteras now.. Avon used to leave gates open as well.. I'd love for them to do that,but do not see it happening with piers wanting to close at 10..


Last year in August some pier monkeys hopped over the gate, left beer cans all over the deck and then threw a bunch of pier benches into the ocean, luckily the benches washed up on the beach. Scott was non too pleased, neither was Terry. It was during the work week so Mark was not a suspect

Problem with more visitors to the OBX is a the proportionate increased share of unruly miscreants.....

Long time ago most the OBX piers were left with the gates unlocked, too many instances of bad pier monkey behaviors since........if pier monkeys actually did some jail time in Manteo it might be a help.....

The really monster Drum I have taken off of OBX piers were all caught between 1:00 AM and 6:00 AM. 51" , 52" , 53", 54" all in the middle of the night with no one else around but Garbo.

I also single-handedly shot three boxes of 12 gauge 3" shells off of Rodanthe Pier late December 1992 at 2:00 AM but that is another story that will need to be elaborated on some time in the future....I was an employee of Dickie Ferrell at the time so it was all legal.. Dickie Ferrell was the last owner to keep the gate unlocked after hours at Rodanthe...


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## js1172 (Jun 5, 2012)

Garboman said:


> I also single-handedly shot three boxes of 12 gauge 3" shells off of Rodanthe Pier late December 1992 at 2:00 AM but that is another story that will need to be elaborated on some time in the future....I was an employee of Dickie Ferrell at the time so it was all legal.. Dickie Ferrell was the last owner to keep the gate unlocked after hours at Rodanthe...


can't wait to hear this one!
js


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## Digger54 (Sep 11, 2012)

Garboman said:


> I also single-handedly shot three boxes of 12 gauge 3" shells off of Rodanthe Pier late December 1992 at 2:00 AM but that is another story that will need to be elaborated on some time in the future....I was an employee of Dickie Ferrell at the time so it was all legal.. Dickie Ferrell was the last owner to keep the gate unlocked after hours at Rodanthe...


That's a lot of ammo, apparently there is no bag limit on pier monkeys.


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## DaBig2na (Aug 7, 2011)

I'll bring my skeet thrower next time Garbo. 
Now we just need to get someone to hold the light.

*PULL*!


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## don brinson (Apr 8, 2011)

Is it that there are more people on the beach now ,so you odds of getting a$$holes tearing things up and throwing things off the pier just because its left open greater?
I grew up with a pretty rowdy group of guys, my brother included.the only things we wreaked was our minds and bodys.never saw a need to any of the other crap you see now


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## Garboman (Jul 22, 2010)

DaBig2na said:


> I'll bring my skeet thrower next time Garbo.
> Now we just need to get someone to hold the light.
> 
> *PULL*!


For some reason I was over on DD's site looking for a particular photo of me and a drum from the old days when I came across this post I made back in June 2009 about June in the 1980's

"Twenty years ago there would be only one place where I could be found this week
and that would have been at the end of Kitty Hawk, Nags Head or Rodanthe piers.
Once in a while I would make it down to Frisco, but being also inclined to the nightlife
of Nags Head, that was a long trip and only in the beginning of the season. Every once
and while to Avalon, but I was not in the "regular crowd" at Avalon and one was apt
to get his line cut and his king rig placed to the side in those days, if it was June and
you were in the "hot corner". It was a lot more aggressive in those days, with Kings
whole at $2.00 a pound at the restaurant side door.

There were perhaps thirty fishermen who I spent my summers with who were in the game to be considered the "main man" the best, the most talented, a fishing legend. One of those
guys is still pretty hard at it and I will never catch up off a NC pier anyway. 

Some of these people are still fishing, a few have retired, three that I know are dead
and in their graves. A few like myself just fish for Drum now. I see them in the Fall
off a Drum pier and while I admit the competition is still there in me, age has 
taken its toll.

In the late eighties there were a great deal of King Mackerel to be caught and when the wind was right NE on the Northern Piers, S by SW light on Rodanthe, second week of June
if you had a live bait off the hot corner of the pier swimming at dawn, odds are it was going to get smoked........

In mid June 1985 off of Nags Head Pier there were 47 Kings taken on a Tuesday, Larry Haack termed it "Super Tuesday" There were perhaps 100 king strikes, through out the entire day, with many large fish broken off. I slide a bait into the water at dawn just before the sun came over the horizon and it was immediately cut in half by a King.... I broke off a 45+ pound King around 7:00 AM and I was able to land three Kings and a 52 pound cobia that I friend had hooked up to and then because he was looking for some King Steaks traded me the cobia who was making his first run, for the opportunity to fish my bait which was second in line on the north corner. That my bait a live fatback got smoked by a King a few moments later was testament to how certain my friend felt the odds were that a king would be ready to eat. I think people are waiting all summer now for that experience. That June day off Nags Head a monster king I estimated to be over seven feet long came in at the center of the pier looked a few baits over and went off back on out. That fish was as close to a world record, as I have ever been.

In June-July 1996 at Rodanthe there were perhaps thirty Kings taken that were over forty, with ten or so over fifty and one a monster of 65 that my good friend Rick Belton caught. A NC fisheries biologist wrote an article with the premise that the King Fishery was collapsing and the evidence that the smaller snake kings and the Twenty pounders which previously made up the majority of the catch were non existent. I would bet that the total amount of kings put on the deck on all of the piers of NC from 1997-2009 would not surpass one summer's worth in the 70's and 80's. I gave up king fishing July 1996 and left the beach....never to return as a resident of Hatteras....

When I see the pictures of all the dead 90 plus pound Cobia taken by sight casters I cannot help but think that the end is sight for the Cobras as well.....


At the time I did not agree since I ate many a big Drum when a I was hungry and poor
but the protection of the large Drum, saved them from the plight of the Kings..... "

Anyway that's how it was......back in the day


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## kbueno1 (Jun 3, 2015)

Garboman said:


> For some reason I was over on DD's site looking for a particular photo of me and a drum from the old days when I came across this post I made back in June 2009 about June in the 1980's
> 
> "Twenty years ago there would be only one place where I could be found this week
> and that


Excellent post - thank you for re-sharing!


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## KB Spot Chaser (Nov 19, 2009)

Garboman said:


> For some reason I was over on DD's site looking for a particular photo of me and a drum from the old days when I came across this post I made back in June 2009 about June in the 1980's
> 
> "Twenty years ago there would be only one place where I could be found this week
> and that would have been at the end of Kitty Hawk, Nags Head or Rodanthe piers.
> ...


Bingo well said Garbo.


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