Stepping out onto the pier, I feel the worn and weathered planks beneath my feet give just a little. The smell of salt air mixed with the briny scent of bait fill my senses and my eyes soak in a panoramic view of the Atlantic Ocean from up high.

I am standing on the Outer Banks Fishing Pier at milepost 18.5 in South Nags Head (pictured above). But really, I could be standing on any one of the piers that dot our coastline from Kitty Hawk to Avon.

And yes, people are here to fish. But this pier, like the others, has become so much more than a just a place where people bait a hook and drop a line. From providing shade for beachgoers to being a place to go out to eat or celebrate your wedding, piers on the Outer Banks have become a lot more than just about catching the big one.

Avon Fishing Pier. Photo Nate Knoth.

Seven of the 19 fishing piers remaining in North Carolina are on the Outer Banks. Once there were 33 piers along the state’s coastline, but that number has dwindled as piers have succumbed to financial pressures or storms. But for the most part, piers on these barrier islands continue to thrive as they manage to change with the times. 

Whether you are on the Outer Banks Fishing Pier for live music at Fish Heads, at Jennette’s Pier for a summer program, enjoying a cocktail at Nags Head Fishing Pier’s Capt. Andy’s, or tying the knot at the Kitty Hawk Pier House, people nowadays gather on fishing piers at the edge of the sea for all kinds of reasons.

People have always gone to Outer Banks’ fishing piers with a pole flung over a shoulder and a tackle box in tow, hoping to hook something on the end of their line while swapping fishing stories with fellow pier goers. But now, that’s not the only thing that has people venturing onto piers these days.

You Can Fish…Or Not

Fishing piers have always been an important part of the Outer Banks’ culture, likely due to the area’s proximity to the Gulf Stream and strong ties to the sea. The first pier to go up here was Jennette’s Pier, built in 1939. As more were built, connections to these piers became woven into family stories and the community’s history. 

Crowds enjoy the view at Fish Heads Bar and Grill, located on the Outer Banks Fishing Pier. Photo via Fish Heads.

But in order to continue to thrive, many owners have changed their business model, looking for ways to draw people to their piers who may not even know a thing about lures, hooks, and reels.

Garry Oliver, owner of Outer Banks Fishing Pier, is one of those owners. 

“I never wanted fancy,” says Oliver, who opened up Fish Heads Bar and Grill on the pier in 2012 in order to stay afloat. “That’s why we still have the old wooden deck, and the atmosphere is very unique. It’s almost like a throwback when you come here.”

According to Oliver, he opened Fish Heads to compete with Jennette’s Pier when it reopened under the new ownership of the North Carolina Aquarium in 2011. And ever since, there’s a lot more fun going on at the pier than just fishing. Now people frequent Oliver’s pier in droves to enjoy food, drinks, and live music seven days a week during the summer.

While fishing is still a big part of his business, things have changed a lot over the years. Oliver recalls how children used to spend the day at the pier fishing from morning until sunset. “People just are not fishing like they once were. I used to say that we were the cheapest babysitting service in town.”

Nags Head Fishing Pier and Pier House Restaurant, owned by Andy and Lovie McCann, has also managed to hold on to that old-timey feel while offering more than just fishing. 

Nags Head Pier. Photo Sue Colao

The pier’s restaurant has been around since the 1970s, and before that, the pier had a lunch counter for patrons. Built in 1947, the McCanns purchased the pier 31 years ago and have made it their own over the years. They expanded their operation to include Capt. Andy’s Oceanfront Bar and Grill in the summer of 2014. It’s now a popular place to spend some time with family and friends with good food and spirits right next to the Atlantic Ocean.

“We’ve always considered ourselves a family pier,” says Andy, adding that it’s been an important image to maintain. “We wanted that kind of atmosphere so we worked to create it.”

McCann says his pier has become a regular meeting place for many locals and visitors in the mornings, a time when people come out with their fishing rods and cups of coffee to spend time talking with one another. “Our pier is a gathering point,” he says.

Rodanthe Fishing Pier. Photo Outer Banks Drone.

Nags Head Fishing Pier has weathered many storms, taking its worst beating during the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962. During the repair, it was lifted from 10 feet above the water to 20 feet. The McCanns have hosted the Town of Nags Head’s fireworks for a number of years and their pier is a fixture in Nags Head. “We hope we can continue for many more years,” Andy says.

 These stories are just a few that the piers of the Outer Banks hold – from Kitty Hawk Pier south to Avalon, Nags Head, Jennette’s, Outer Banks, Rodanthe, and Avon. Regardless of hardships and circumstance, they have managed to weather storms and time by remaining an integral part of the communities that make up the Outer Banks.

Of Tradition, Culture, and Connection

Saltwater fishing and swapping stories will always be a part of the pier experience, and Oliver says one of the best things about this experience is that it draws people of all different ages and walks of life to one spot. 

Oliver grew up vacationing on the Outer Banks and was a pier rat himself at the Nags Head Fishing Pier in the 1950s. 

“My parents would drop me off at the pier in the morning and pick me up in the afternoon,” he recalls. That early love of being on a pier, he found, would remain constant throughout his lifetime.

Jennette’s Pier as it stands today. Photo Marie Walker

The Outer Banks Fishing Pier was originally built in 1958 by a West Virginian welder and washed away in 1962, but it was rebuilt before Oliver and his wife, Mary, moved to the Outer Banks and purchased the pier in 1970. “We were straight out of Texas,” Oliver says, adding that their first home here was the building that’s now the pier’s restroom facility. 

An early postcard of old Jennette’s Pier. Photo via nchistorytoday.com

“We’ve had patrons who have fished here who are doctors, marine biologists, and even a congressman,” says Oliver. U.S. Congressman Rob Wittman (Va.) grew up vacationing on the Outer Banks and fishing from Oliver’s pier. He still comes back to his old stomping grounds to cast a line. Oliver also remembers when local veterinarian Mark Grossman would drop his son off everyday on the way to work and pick him up on the way home.

Before Jennette’s Pier was purchased by the North Carolina Aquarium and transformed into a 1,000-foot educational ocean pier, it was very much like many of the wooden Outer Banks piers that jetted out from the coastline. Now Jennette’s Pier has everything from aquariums, science-based exhibits, summer camps, and educational programs. It also has a large event space for weddings and other occasions.

“I think about the pier the way it once was everyday,” says Mike Remige, manager of Jennette’s Pier. Remige worked at Jennette’s Pier before it reopened under the Aquarium. “People are always talking to us about their family experiences at the old pier. Ties run deep.” 

Fishermen on old Jennette’s Pier. Photo Outer Banks History Center.

People have always had a deep social and cultural connection to the fishing piers they frequent. “People want to identify as regular Jennette’s Pier patrons. They share a connection to the pier over generations.” They also transcend social classes. On a fishing pier, as Remige points out, “you could be sitting next to someone who is worth millions of dollars, and you could be relatively poor, and it wouldn’t matter. It would never come up because you are talking about fishing.” 

Regime says that back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there were more fishing piers in the state of North Carolina than there were on the entire East Coast – from the tip of Maine to where Texas meets the Gulf of Mexico. 

Perhaps it’s because the Outer Banks sits so close to the Gulf Stream or that the fisheries on these islands are so dynamic. Whatever the reason, these islands’ piers have become, and continue to be, places where people gather by the edge of the sea, whether to shoot the breeze, cast a line, or enjoy a drink. 

And they will forever be woven into the community’s culture and into the stories of families who walk along their planks every year. ♦ 

Author: Michelle Wagner

Michelle Wagner has been living and writing on the Outer Banks for over 15 years.