So I'm in a situation where I have two full vacation days that I have to burn by the end of March or I'll lose them.  And I have made the command decision that I'm going to head out to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, camp for four days and do some surf fishing out there somewhere.

So I was hoping some of you would have some advice for this time of year.  Specifically:

1:  Best places to fish off the shore
2:  Chances of hitting a run of puppy or red drum?
3:  Bait ideas, and rig setups?

I'll be in my Cherokee, so beach access in most places should not be an issue.  I used to go pull out to the point at Oregon Inlet and fish there, but maybe there are better places, like down on the corner of Hatteras.

It's been a number of years since I last went surf fishing.  I used to go out to Hatteras three to four times a year to camp and fish and just relax away from everything and everyone... I want to get back to doing things like that.

But since it's been so long, I thought I'd check here and see what you kids are doing these days for surf fishing.

The Cape Point surf guys have been getting good catches of red fish and black drum.

If you have FB go like the Surf Fishing North Carolina page.

Good luck!

Also the annual beach permit runs for 365 days from date of purchase instead of Jan 1 - Dec 31.

Heh, I was out on Cape Point with a mix of fresh shrimp and cut mullet and the only thing I was able to catch was a tan

I was a bit north of the actual point though, because the point was pretty crowded and a couple assholes had mostly blocked the beach off the way they had parked (I could have gotten around them but doing so would have practically put me into the dunes).  I guess I could have tried going south and coming around from that side, but eh... I got to sit on the beach and cast a line and just enjoy the breeze and the sound of the waves crashing, it was still worth it either way.  

I know drum was running off the point the day before (during storms) so it's also possible that the day after storms may not have been the best day for actually catching anything.  And I missed high tide, came in about three hours late.

It was nice down there.  I used to go several times a year and drive out on the point at Oregon Inlet to fish, that was the first time I've gone out on Hatteras.  It was really nice down there, so I'll have to head back to do that again sometime soon.

Thanks for the pointer to the FB group.  I run a pretty much dead now YahooGroup for NC Saltwater Fishing, used to be a great group with reports for beach and pier as well as in and off shore boats, and general chit chat, but slowly people migrated away to other sites.  I keep saying I'm going to just shut it down, but I keep it open mainly out of nostalgia... heh.