Outer Banks ’Yakking

Rob Alderman shows off the kind of fish — a bull red — that’s available for kayak-bound anglers in the Atlantic Ocean outside of Outer Banks inlets.

Soundside or in the ocean, paddling will get you within casting range of a lot of fish.

Matt Landrum get to work and play at the same time. Standing in a parking area at the base of the Mann’s Harbor Bridge, surrounded by vehicles carrying colorful kayaks, Landrum prepared to join a small armada of paddlers heading out on a beautiful morning. “That’s one of the things I love about this sport,” said Landrum, whose Manteo-based The Outdoors Outfitters specializes in kayak-fishing tours. “I can get up every morning, and where some people may go for a jog or a walk, I’ll paddle for a couple of hours and get to fish while I’m doing it.”

Kayaking, and especially fishing from kayaks, is taking the country by storm. Whether you prefer the slower, softer side of fishing on the marsh side or the exhilarating “Nantucket Sleigh rides” available on the ocean side, many anglers, families and vacationers are discovering the thrill of ’yakking the Outer Banks.

Having grown up in Rodanthe and worked as a charter captain for 15 years, Landrum finds his kayak-fishing is greatly served by his past experiences with other types of fishing. In 2001, he and his new wife, Pam, a dedicated kayaker in her own rights, decided to combine their expertise and open The Outdoors Outfitters, which rents kayaks and offers guided kayak-fishing trips, scuba diving, sailing and most anything water sports related.

“Most people don’t care what species of fish they’re after on a kayak trip,” Landrum said. “Anytime during the summer, there are places where kayakers can catch trout, stripers, flounder, blues, croaker and red drum back in the marshes of the sound.

“The bridges that cross (the Croatan Sound) to and from Manteo are great places to kayak fish. Anywhere there is any type of structure is a great place to fish,” he said. “Since you’re limited to a 1- to 2-mile area in a kayak, you can’t cover nearly as much ground as you could from a motor boat. You have to work an area thoroughly rather than run-and-gun. The Mann’s Harbor Bridge is a great example; you have hundreds of pilings that will hold fish from top to bottom. All the water that comes out of Currituck and Albemarle Sound passes under that bridge, and it brings a lot of fish with it. Fishing that one bridge could take an entire day.”

The sounds inland of the Outer Banks — the Currituck, Roanoke, Albemarle and Croatan — include a number of islands, creeks, bayous, and waterways that hold skinny water and may not be accessible by any other means. Landrum patterns much of this area by finding deeper channels that offer access to the shallow water.

“There is great fishing all along the backside of Bodie Island, Duck Island, Hog Island and all of Roanoke Island,” he said. “The biggest determining factor when considering where to fish is the wind. Even in the sound, the wind can make it tough to fish out of a kayak. Our predominant wind during the summer is out of the southwest, so it’s best to take advantage of any land mass and fish on the lee side. The wind is also usually lightest at daylight and blows harder as the day progresses. That’s why most of our charters will start early, before the wind gets up.”

The space available on a kayak is a fraction of what most anglers are accustomed to when fishing from a larger vessel. It’s important to be versatile in selecting rods and baits, capitalizing on gear that will appeal to a number of species of varying sizes. Some innovative ways exist to transport multiple rods in a kayak; however, space is still at a premium. Try to pare down your election to only the lures you’ll actually be using. Leave the “what-if” baits at home.

“Typically, I only carry two rods when I’m fishing in the sound,” Landrum said. “I carry one medium-action spinning rod for casting artificials and one medium-action baitcasting rod for bottom-fishing. I usually have these rigged before I launch, because it’s a lot harder to re-tie on the water. Break-offs will happen; I like to have baits pre-rigged with leaders so all I have to do is retie the leader to the main line and keep fishing. I may use braided line if I know I’m going to fish oyster beds, but most of my line is 12-pound monofilament.”

Landrum claims it’s hard to beat a leadhead jig for most any inshore species. He carries a small box of quarter-ounce jigs that he usually pairs with some type of Berkley Gulp! soft-plastic bait. He also puts a package of shrimp, bloodworms, or squid in a small cooler to use for bottom-fishing.

“An anchor is a big benefit if you’re going to bottom-fish. Find some deep water and use a 1- or 2-hook rig with a rolling sinker — one that won’t grab. Even if you’re anchored, you’re still going to have wind and tide to contend with.”

Rod Alderman, a kayak-fishing guide based in Buxton, has a strong background in “cross-fishing.” The host of the locally aired “Outer Banks Angler” TV show, he has learned to apply a little bit of his surf-, boat-, and pier-fishing experiences to kayaks, and he has some citation catches to show for it.

“It’s one of the best experiences you’ll have on the ocean.” Alderman said. “When you get out there in a kayak, you’re a mere inches from some of the most fantastic wildlife — huge schools of baitfish, pods of dolphin, whales and on occasion, a shark that’s as big as the boat you’re in.

“To a fish on the ocean, a kayak is another piece of floating structure, something that deserves to be checked out. It’s not unusual to be fishing along with the current and look down and see that I’ve got a 40- or 50-pound cobia hanging with me right under the boat.”

While Alderman is big on the “extreme” nature of kayak-fishing in the ocean, he’s quick to point out that he’s taken the most novice of kayakers into the ocean and watched them have the time of their lives in a reasonably safe fashion. Like Landrum, he takes the wind and the weather into consideration and even uses it to his advantage when he can.

“One of the best trips off the beach is to put in four or five miles below the area we want to fish and drop another vehicle somewhere up the beach. The bulk of the best fishing for king mackerel, tarpon, cobia, jack crevalle and big red drum takes place just on the other side of the big bars off the beaches and inlets. We can paddle out and let the wind and current push along those fishing area. At the end of the trip, most of my clients are amazed at how little paddling they had to do to cover a 5-mile long area,” he said.

Faced with the same constraints of minimal space to store gear, Alderman also goes with the “spinning rod for artificials, baitcaster for live baits” philosophy. In reality, his tackle isn’t appreciably different from what Landrum uses in the sounds.

“I’ll use heavy tackle while bait-fishing simply because of the possibility of hooking a big shark or some other tackle-busting fish,” he said. “For everything else, I use the kayak to help wear the fish down.”

Old-time whalers called the long rides they took behind harpooned whales “Nantucket Sleigh Rides,” and Alderman relishes hooking into a big drum, cobia, or other hard-pulling fish.

“I once had a 30-inch albacore tow me for a half-mile before I wore him down,” he said. “Unlike a motor boat, which is too heavy to pull — and thus puts more pressure on the tackle — I’ll lock the drag down in the kayak and let the fish tow me. That’s how I get by with lighter tackle, plus, it’s 100 times more fun than conventional
fishing.”

About Phillip Gentry 815 Articles
Phillip Gentry of Waterloo, S.C., is an avid outdoorsman and said if it swims, flies, hops or crawls, he's usually not too far behind.