THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 12, 1996 TAG: 9611120367
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Story and Photos by BOB HUTCHINSON, OUTDOORS EDITOR
DATELINE: BUXTON, N.C. LENGTH: 93 lines
The first time Bob Eakes visited Hatteras Island, and drove to the spit of sand that is Cape Hatteras, his life changed.
About 5,000 snow geese were sitting on a pond near ``The Point,'' as the cape is popularly known. A hundred or so anglers stood shoulder-to-shoulder along the breakers, casting for and catching big bluefish.
Eakes was hooked.
That was 1969. Eakes was a sophomore at Catawba College. By 1974, the Greensboro native was living and working on Hatteras.
``I knew that first day I was going to come here,'' said Eakes, who since 1976 has operated the Red Drum tackle shop in the morning shadow of famous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. ``There's something magical about this island, something that's not easy to explain.''
Perhaps the island's overall charisma is hard to describe. But it's easy to see what attracts so many fall and winter surf anglers to this boomerang-shaped, 60-mile-long sand reef that is the heart of the fabled Outer Banks.
The fishing can be wondrous. Possibilities range from big striped bass and red drum to lowly spot and pompano, and include a range of warm- and cold-water species.
And even when the fishing isn't good, there are miles of pristine, undeveloped ocean beach open to travel by beach buggy.
In 1955, most of Hatteras Island officially became the centerpiece of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, the nation's first oceanfront park. The park also includes the south end of Nags Head to the north and most of Ocracoke Island to the south. Development has been allowed only in seven enclaves within the park.
The National Park Service has made it easy for surf fishermen by creating a series of beach-buggy access ramps at key spots, including three at popular Cape Point.
On any given day, it's not unusual to see 200 to 300 sport-utility vehicles massed on the wide, desert-like area around the Point. Hundreds of others can be spread along beaches north and south.
``This is a surf fisherman's heaven,'' says Tony Augustino of New Jersey, who says he fishes Hatteras at least three times a year, sometimes eight or 10. ``There's no place like it. Great fishing and miles and miles of open, accessible beach.''
Hatteras Island was partly shaped by two great ocean forces, the cold, southbound Labrador Current and the warm, northbound Gulf Stream.
Cape Point is where these forces collide to form Diamond Shoals, a sandy, shallow finger stuck 12 miles into the belly of the Atlantic Ocean. Years ago the Point was dubbed ``Gamefish Junction'' by Aycock Brown, the late North Carolina publicist. The name could not be more apt.
There are times when the surf at Cape Point has been said to ``run red with red drum'' as vast schools of the big, coppery fish mass on and around the inshore edge of Diamond Shoals.
Just a few miles north, near the village of Avon, is where the late Dave Deuel of Northern Virginia beached his world-record 94-pound, 2-ounce red drum on Nov. 7, 1984.
Hatteras Island offers the best surf-fishing on the coast, said Gerald Trayer, moments after landing a 35-inch striped bass during the recent 600-person Cape Hatteras Invitational surf fishing tournament, which ended Saturday.
``I just wish I lived a little closer,'' the Morehead City resident said.
Surf fishing isn't all Hatteras has for anglers. With the Gulf Stream closer to the coast than at any spot north of South Florida, ocean waters offer a tremendous variety, including some of the country's greatest blue marlin fishing.
With giant bluefin tuna discovered overwintering off Hatteras the past few years, a void in fishing seasons was filled, providing a midwinter shot of adrenalin for the island's economy.
Last winter, marina slips sometimes were hard to find, with anglers coming from all over the country as well as from overseas. Many East Coast fishing centers struggled through the cold months, but not Hatteras.
``We're really fortunate,'' Eakes says about businesses that support anglers.
``We have red drum and striped bass through December, then the tuna season gets going in January and keeps going until April. By then we're starting to get into our spring fishing. So it's just about a year-round thing.
``Living on Hatteras Island is even better than I thought it would be when I came for the first time. Heck, if I had known it was going to be this great, I might not have finished college.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
Breakers crash around a line of morning anglers at Cape Point, known
as ``Gamefish Junction,'' where the surf has been said to ``run red
with red drum.''
Gerald Trayer of Morehead City, N.C., shows off the 35-inch striped
bass he reeled in near Avon during the recent Cape Hatteras
Invitational tournament. Trayer released the fish.
VP Map by CNB