What to Bring on an Outer Banks Fishing Charter

Rods, reels, terminal tackle, bait, ice, fuel, the mate's work in the cockpit and the vessel's North Carolina for-hire licence, which covers every angler aboard so nobody needs to buy their own. Most boats also clean and bag your legal keepers at the dock, though a few charge separately for it on big offshore hauls — worth asking when you book.

You do not need to bring your own rod, and on an offshore boat you should not: the trolling gear is matched to the spread and the mate needs everything to work together. If you have a favourite light-tackle rod for an inshore trip, ask the captain first — most are happy, some have good reasons not to.

Sunscreen and a hat, applied before you leave the dock. Polarised sunglasses, which are the single most underrated item — they cut the glare and let you see fish. Layers: it is ten degrees cooler and considerably wetter offshore than on the beach, and a windbreaker at 6am on a run east is not optional. Non-marking closed shoes with grip; no black soles, which mark the deck.

Food and drink for the day in a soft-sided cooler — hard coolers are unwelcome on many boats because they slide and take deck space. Cash for the mate, 15 to 20 percent of the charter price, which is genuinely expected and largely is the mate's pay. Motion sickness medication taken the night before and again in the morning if anyone is prone to it, because taking it after you feel unwell does not work.

For a full Gulf Stream day, add more water than you think, a second layer, a dry bag or ziplock for your phone, and something to eat that survives twelve hours in a cooler. Bananas are famously unwelcome on a lot of Carolina boats — several captains are entirely serious about it, and it costs you nothing to bring an apple instead.

For a four-hour inshore trip, travel light. Sunscreen, hat, sunglasses, a bottle of water and a towel is genuinely the whole list. There is less deck space on a bay boat than people expect, and a large bag is a tripping hazard for four hours.

Hard coolers, glass bottles, large backpacks, and anything you would be upset to see go over the side. Deck shoes with black soles. Alcohol in quantity — a couple of beers is fine on most inshore trips, but a captain has every right to end a day over it, and offshore in a sea is not the place.

Also leave the fixed expectation of one particular species. The captain reads the water on the morning and decides what is realistic; a group holding them to a target that left three weeks ago will have a worse day than one that lets them fish.

Confirm the dock and the time — your captain calls the evening before with both, plus an honest read on the weather. Set an alarm earlier than feels reasonable for an offshore day: boats leave between 5:00 and 6:00 and they do not wait. Take the seasickness tablet.

And check what the trip includes on the trip page before you pay, rather than on the dock. Every listing on this site shows the price the captain set, what comes with it and how many the boat takes — 0% commission, no booking fee added to your side.