Inshore charter trips are available throughout the summer from most ports, with Spanish mackerel, flounder, bluefish and various species of bottom fish making up the majority of the catch in the Oregon Inlet area. Boats out of Hatteras also do battle with Spanish and blues, but they also tend to run into better numbers of speckled trout, gray trout, puppy drum and flounder in the Pamlico Sound behind Hatteras Inlet and Ocracoke as the summer progresses.

Flounder, puppy drum and trout, in particular, seem to take to the myriad network of sloughs and channels behind Hatteras and Ocracoke, where deep holes and ditches have been carved out over the years by various hurricanes and northeasters.

Flounder fishing involves drifting across the channels with either live bait or strip baits; most strikes will come right along the depth changes. Gray trout prefer the deeper waters of sloughs and holes; specks hang out around shallow reefs and bars, especially those dotted with patches of spartina grass, and puppy drum can be caught in plenty of those same areas, but especially cruising the edges of shallow flats.

Live shrimp is a killer bait when available; mud minnows or other live baits are very productive, but many fish are caught on soft-plastic grubs and jerkbaits.

A handful of piers are still operating in the Nags Head/Kitty Hawk area, and ocean piers are still open in the villages of Rodanthe, Avon and Frisco. Pier-fishermen can expect to catch panfish such as croaker, spot and sea mullet, along with small bluefish and an occasional Spanish mackerel, if water conditions are perfect. The ends of most piers are inhabited by fishermen using specialized tackle for the occasional king mackerel that strays too close to the beach.

Fishing in the surf is the most basic of all exploits. During the summer, the tasty pompano move into the surf, just beyond the breakers, where they nibble on the tiny sand fleas (mole crabs). A standard two-hook bottom rig with small hooks baited with a sand flea is a great way to catch pompano, and the process of collecting sand fleas can be a family adventure that kids will love.

Simply send them to the edge of the wash, where the remnants of the waves crawl up the beach before receding. Digging with their hands or with plastic toy shovels, kids can unearth dozens of sand fleas burrowing just behind the surface. They have to be used soon after they're caught, but keeping a good fresh supply for the hour or two you're fishing on either side of a tide change can keep kids busy.

UWHARRIE NATIONAL FOREST
The smallest in area of North Carolina's four national forests, the Uwharrie covers slightly more than 50,000 acres in three Piedmont counties: Montgomery, Randolph and Davidson.

Fishing opportunities center on two bodies of water: Badin Lake and the Uwharrie River.

The Uwharrie is a smallish stream, but it is navigable by canoe or johnboat for much of its length, from its headwaters in the Birkhead Wilderness Area of Randolph County to where it meets the Yadkin River in the upper reaches of Lake Tillery to form the Pee Dee River.

It is the easternmost stream in North Carolina that contains smallmouth bass, and it can provide a series of pleasant half-day paddling/ fishing excursions, with a popular one being downstream from the Coggins Mine Road bridge near the village of Eldorado in Montgomery County to the Route 109 bridge north of the city of Troy.

Badin Lake stripers are particularly active during the summer months, after they have finished their spring spawning run to the tailrace below Tuckertown Dam. They return to the main lake shortly after Memorial Day, gang up in sizable schools, and cruise the depths of the clear, deep lake, keying on baitfish.