ANGLING FROM PIERS: 



y Ann Green 



Scott Belcher of West Virginia gets ready to put live bait on his line. 

 At left: By sunrise, the Hatteras Island Fishing Pier at Rodanthe starts fdling up. 



is the sun begins to cast a metallic 

 glaze over the deep blue water around Nags 

 Head Fishing Pier, Jessica Massie dangles 

 her rod over the wooden railing into more 

 than 16 feet of water. 



Standing elbow-to-elbow next to a 

 row of men a head taller than she is, 

 Jessica, 12, reels in the line. Then she 

 throws her line back into the water so fast 

 that it looks like it is dancing. 



After many tries, she feels a jerking 

 motion on the end of the line. Jessica's 

 friend Sam Phillips helps her pull in the 

 first fish she ever caught. 



"This is exciting," says Jessica of 

 Waynesboro, Va., while holding up a shiny 

 bluefish. "I have been fishing a lot and 

 never caught anything before." 



After Jessica pulls in her prized 12- 

 inch bluefish, almost a dozen anglers throw 

 in their lines near the end of the pier. 

 Within a few minutes, several bluefish are 

 fluttering on the pier's wooden floor. 



"It's either feast or famine at a fishing 

 pier," says Billy Sizemore of Stephenson, 

 W.Va. "When you see someone hook a 

 fish," you might see 15 lines go into the 

 water. 



For Sizemore and others, pier fishing 

 has become a summertime ritual. Fall is 

 prime fishing season for red drum and 

 other fish. 



"I come here every day," says Al 

 Mintor of West Virginia, who spends the 

 summers at Kill Devil Hills. "I like this 

 pier. It is where I have the best luck. I 

 caught four or five bluefish today. It is 

 relaxing because there are no wives or 

 telephones." 



Mary Nelson, a clerk at Nags Head 

 Fishing Pier, says anglers become attached 

 to one pier and do all their fishing from 

 there. 



"I know from being at different piers 

 that they pick one pier, and you can't pry 

 them off of it," says Nelson. 



Ocean pier fishing attracts anglers for 

 a number of reasons. "It is entry-level 

 fishing and economical," says Andy 

 McCann, owner of Nags Head Pier. "It is 

 easy, and you don't have to have a cast. 

 You can just let a line drop straight down." 



In North Carolina. 25 public fishing 

 piers dot the coastline — from Avon to 

 Sunset Beach — according to the N.C. 

 Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF). 



This is a decrease from 34 piers 

 documented in 1962 in Robert J. 

 Goldstein's Coastal Fishing in the 

 Carolinas From Surf, Pier and Jetty. Many 

 have been destroyed by hurricanes and not 

 rebuilt. 



"The number of piers has declined 

 because it is costly to rebuild them," says 

 McCann. 



With booming development along the 

 coast. Mike Robertson, owner of Kure 

 Beach Pier, says that some communities do 

 not support public piers. 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 7 



