Preserving Ocracoke's Maritime Heritage
By Leah Chester-Davis
Web exclusive from The Furrow, a John Deere publication
Ocracoke's Silver Lake Harbor is bathed in golden light as the sun slides into the Pamlico Sound and the last commercial fishing boats return for the day. Bill Evans guides his vessel to the dock of the small fish house at harbor's edge, returning from nearly 14 hours on the Atlantic Ocean with fishing partner Logan Jenkins.
Due to the weather, it is the first day in several that the island's commercial fishers have been on the water. "You have to make the most of it when you can," says Jenkins. "When the fish stop moving is when we turn back."
The two are tired but pleased with the day's catch. Today it's mostly Spanish mackeral even though this is also the season for bluefish, speckled trout, southern flounder, sea mullet, sheepshead, black drum and red drum. What the fishermen are allowed to fish for depends on a slew of restrictions and regulations and whether their boats are in the ocean on one side of the island or in the Pamlico Sound on the other.
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