I started fishing at Cape Hatteras in 1979. I've loved the outer banks since I was a kid - back in 1960 - but my dad wasn't a fisherman, and I didn't have much opportunity to try it myself. Deb and I spent our honeymoon in Nags Head - Didn't see much of the beach then but that's another story. We'ed been making an annual week long August beach trip down to Hatteras Village since 1974. On our trip there in 1978, I was lying on the beach early one morning watching a guy using freshwater gear (6 1'2 ft. rod, light reel, line). He was casting just over the shore break. He'ed wait a couple of minutes, set the hook and then reel in a small silver and yellow fish. He'ed run up the beach to where his bucket and gear were, drop the fish into the bucket, rebait his hook and then run back down the beach and cast in again. I watched this a few times and finally decided to ask him, "Watcha' catchin'?" "Pompano." "Are they any good to eat?" "Well, have you ever had bluefish?" "Yeah," knowing bluefish to be a rather oily "fishy-tasting" fish. Have you ever had flounder?" "Yeah," recognizing flounder as a very tasty light fish. "Well, pompano are to flounder in flavor as flounder is to bluefish." THAT good???" "Yup!" That did it for me. I decided I had to try for them. Besides, it looked easy. My dad had kept an old boat rod in his garage from many, many years ago and so on our next trip down (1979) I stopped in Williamsburg and picked it up. It was a short (5'6") stubby with a plastic conventional reel on it with black dacron braided line. I took it to the beach, got some hooks and sinkers and made my first cast. It backlashed badly! But the first fish that I brought in was - sure enough - a nice sized pompano. And yes, it was excellent in the frying pan. Soon as I caught it, every fisherman on the beach had to come around and tell me what I was doing wrong. But I had caught my first pompano, and I was hooked. I immediately went down to the local tackle shop and invested some money into some *real* surf-fishing gear (an 8' rod, open-faced reel, tackle box, knife, etc.). And I started catching fish. I remember catching a mess of spot, and feeling mighty proud of myself. Even though I'd loved Hatteras since I was a kid, that trip changed me. I cried on the way home. I left a big part of me down there on that trip and I have to keep going back there to try to find it! I started seeing the beach in new and different ways. I started paying attention to the way nature changed the outer banks - every time down there it looked different - before then it had always just sorta' been there. I started learning to read the breaks in the sand bars, learned where the sloughs were, learned the areas where fish liked to feed, looked for signs. And then I caught my first drum. But that is a story for another time. Pompano fishing: Pompano range from Florida in the winter up to Nags Head in the summer. They like warm water above 75 degrees. They're a silver flat fish with yellow fins and blue eyes shaped like a sun fish or crappie. The larger ones (2#+) come in first. In the early summer they'll range the sand bar and come in on the high tide. They feed primarily on shrimp and sand fleas (mole crabs). They will come in to the shore break, flip over on their sides, snatch their food and then zip back out on the same wave. They say the best way to catch a pomp. is to set the hook just before it hits. They're a very quick fish requiring guile and quickness and they're a good-fighting on light tackle. For the mid-late summer pomps. (inside the bar) I'll use a 6'6" light action rod with a small open-faced reel spooled with 4-6# test line. Pomps. are spooky so you have to use the right terminal tackle. I'll use a #6 good short shank hook snelled to the running line and often a light egg sinker in between. It doesn't take much to cast to them. Look for areas where there are lots of sand fleas. Often where pomps. have been feeding, the tide-line will be littered with sand flea carcasses. There'll probably be a short drop right behind the surf break. That's where you want to put your bait. They hit fast and soft. Be ready and strike. For dinner, we'll make a beer batter and prepare what we call "pompano puffs." They're excellent.