Local Authors: Surf and Saltwater Fishing in the Carolinas

Book review by Matt Young.

Cary, NC – File this one in the “short drive from Cary” category.

As Cary-dwellers, we are walking or driving distance from great places to fish in North Carolina.

The biggest pond nearby is well, the Atlantic Ocean. We are a little more than a 3 hour drive from the Outer Banks and just a couple of hours a way from Wilmington and the southern barrier islands. The fish species bounty is as vast as the ocean. And so are the “types” of fishing.

Surf? Pier? Canal? Deep sea? Marsh? Brackish? The choices are many. And every excursion presents new questions about type of bait, what is biting, type of tackle, when to fish and a hundred other questions.

Local author Jeffrey Weeks boils the  North Carolina saltwater fishing experience down to 175 pages.

How To Catch A [Blank]

Surf and Saltwater Fishing in the Carolinas is different from other fishing books I’ve read in that the chapters read like this: “How To Catch (Insert type of fish here)” .

So target a place, call a friend that lives there, or a local boat captain, or a pier, etc. ask them “what’s biting?” (as an aside – be prepared for a “salty” wise guy answer) and do 5 minutes’ research and you’re ready. Weeks even throws in a few recipes for aprés-fish.

Jeffrey told us, “I’ve always thought fishing was the greatest activity in the world. It is an interactive recreation where you can be close to nature, enjoying exciting sport or sublime solitude. If everyone in the world fished I think we’d all get along a bit better.”

The Author  

Jeffrey Weeks fished from small boats as a child in Southport, NC (near Bald Head) with his dad. They would often take the ride down to the Wilmington area to catch flounder, spot, croaker, and bluefish.

Jeffrey’s family bought a house in Ocean Isle, NC when he was very young. He grew up fishing on weekends and summers in the areas of Brunswick County, especially Ocean Isle and Sunset Beach.

Weeks went to college at UNC-Greensboro and later taught high school English, history, and journalism for 14 years, most of them spent at Union Pines High School and North Moore High School in Moore County.

From Schools of Students to Schools of Fish

Eventually he stopped teaching to fish…and write. 

I, for one, am jealous.

In 2004 Jeffrey begin writing the weekly fishing column for the Brunswick Beacon newspaper in Brunswick County, drawing on his long time fishing experiences there, his frequent fishing expeditions down in Ocean Isle and Sunset Beach, and the angling friends, pier and tackle shop owners, and fishing guides he knew in the region. Jeffrey has now been writing his Fishing Insider column for the Brunswick Beacon for seven years.

Jeffrey has published two books, his fiction novel Lafayette (2010) and his new book Surf and Saltwater Fishing in the Carolinas (2011) both available on Amazon.com and at bookstores such as Barnes & Noble. The author’s blog can be found here. 

“The best time to go fishing is when you can get away” – Robert Traver