PRIME TIME
It’s a cold and blustery October morning at Harkers Island Fishing Center as a group of anglers shuffles down a narrow, weather-beaten dock. A dozen or so center consoles tug at their dock lines. Each angler carries a bundle of fly rods against his shoulder like a soldier with a bayonet-tipped rifle marching off to battle.
One after the other, the fishing boats speed out into the sound toward Barden Inlet. Just beyond, a storm of seabirds targets a pack of false albacore that is pummeling a ball of bait. Sheets of baitfish fly in a last-ditch attempt to survive. Anglers cast flies into the melee, and a chorus of fly reels erupts into song. Rods bend deep into the water, and huge grins pop out from behind foul-weather gear.
This is a common scene on the waters around Cape Lookout, North Carolina, each fall. From early September through late November, schools of baitfish wash out of North Carolina’s vast sounds and into the Atlantic.
