DATE: Sunday, April 20, 1997                TAG: 9704180406

SECTION: CAROLINA COAST          PAGE: 02   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:   40 lines

IN THE COAST

Gulf Stream waters off the Outer Banks have helped this area earn the reputation as being the billfish capital of the world. Offshore charter boat captains carry thousands of anglers into the Atlantic to fight marlin, king mackerel and tuna. And hordes of other fishermen flock to the piers and seashore to drop their lines into droves of red drum, groups of grouper and thick schools of big bluefish that blitz the beaches.

Every year, dozens of anglers relocate to North Carolina's barrier islands just for the fantastic saltwater fishing. But when my husband, Dan, and I moved here five years ago from Charlottesville, Va., he hung up his rods and reels and stored his beaten up tackle box in the attic. ``I'm a freshwater fisherman - and there's none of that around here,'' he said sadly.

Last week, Dan realized how wrong he'd been. He hooked up with Capt. V.P. Brinson of Manns Harbor who took him into the blackwater underbrush of Alligator River - about a half-hour trip from the Outer Banks. Capt. Brinson showed Dan some of the best bass fishing waters in North Carolina - proving that freshwater fishing abounds on the western sides of the sounds.

Back on the beach, the barrier islands became one step closer to cyberspace this spring when two surfer dudes at The Pit opened the Outer Banks' first Internet-accessed cafe. The food-fun-and-funk theme at the renovated log cabin in Kill Devil Hills includes lunch and dinner fare, pool tables, a film screening room complete with shelves of surf videos, a bandstand where live musical groups will perform most weekends and continual Internet access on computers where people can come to surf the Net after working out in the waves. John Harper visited the happening haunt and previews upcoming acts in his column, ``After Dark.''

Scores of people retire on the Outer Banks each year. But few remain as active as Armand Burgun. The Kitty Hawk architect has spent a lifetime designing health care facilities around the world. Now, his home base is more than an hour away from the nearest hospital. Read about his quest to continue a global consulting business in ``Beach People.''

Lane DeGregory

Editor, The Coast

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