I think they picked this name carefully because anyone with oceanfront property is going to have a ton of sand on their porches.  We were down in Nags Head for a couples beach weekend and had to board up the house and head back to Washington a day early.  Probably was a good decision, as I think the cottage is getting covered with sand and foam right now.  In regards to the fishing, the storm has had us grounded for a few days.  On Friday after running my last trip for the week (and we caught a beautiful limit of specs with about 40 fish total), I took the boat off the lift down in Swan Quarter and put it up on the trailer on some higher (note that high ground is a relative term in Swan Quarter) ground in a new friend’s yard.  I have to say that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed spending time and fishing out of Swan Quarter the last few weeks.  Not only is the fishing world class, but the people are some of the best folks I’ve ever met and the town has that old-fashioned and trusting sense of community that many towns have lost a long time ago.  It reminds me alot of Hatteras Village.

I am enjoying the break but am already starting to get cabin fever as I sit in my easy chair and watch it blow and rain outside. We might be waiting out the west wind until late in the week.  Unless the storm really really scatters the fish, expect the bite to be pretty good late in the week.  I can’t wait to get back out there and give them a try once things settle out a little.  Sounds like Ocracoke and the villages on the southern end of Hatteras Island are getting some terrible soundside flooding combined with ocean overwash……….some are saying the worst soundside flooding ever.  Long periods of sustained north, northwest, and west winds will flood the villages south of the Cape really fast. I remember when I was living down there during Tropical Storm Gustav, which was similar to this storm.  It blew all day about 40-50 knots out of the Northwest.  I went down to Oden’s dock to check on the Chaser boat and the bottom of the boat was almost even with the dock with the dock just barely exposed enough to keep your shoes dry.  I then left and went home to take a shower.  By the time I got out of the shower, water was knee deep in the yard and my truck was flooded.  Crazy stuff.  Let’s pray that they can get things up and running again on those islands.  Hatteras island is a tough place to own and operate a business, but those wonderful folks are very resilient and that’s just part of life on the Outer Banks.  The frequency of these storms sometimes make me glad to live a little further inland.