Off the coast of North Carolina and  southeastern Virginia, stretching nearly 200 miles, is a series of  peninsulas and  barrier islands called the Outer Banks. With its starting point at the Virginia border, the Outer Banks cut through the counties of Currituck, Hyde, Dare and Carteret, separating the mainland from the outer islands of Bodie, Roanoke, Hatteras, and Ocracok are Albemarle Sound and Pamlico Sound. The islands got their names from the original Native American inhabitants, including the Kinnakeet, Chicamacomico, Ocracoke, Hatteras and Manteo.

During the 1500s, most Native Americans aided the new settlers in the region, like the Croatan Manteo, for example, who helped colonists settle the Roanoke vicinity. This friendly relationship soured around the 17th century, when continual fighting between tribes and settlers, along with  disease, destroyed the Native American population occupying the Outer Banks. The first English colonists to settle the Outer Banks in the late 1500s included John White, along with more than 100 other compatriots, making their first attempt at settlement on Hatteras Island. However, they found the island to be too dry, making it unsuitable for living, and as such, the settlers sailed the Pamlico Sound and eventually settled on Roanoke Island. John White sailed back to England to gather supplies, but it was three years later before a supply team returned to find that the Roanoke settlement had vanished. The mystery of the “Lost Colony” remains unsolved to date.

For about a century, settlement of the Outer Banks was avoided, but the inlets and coves and the islands’ isolation was a magnet for pirates and smugglers seeking a safe haven. As such, during the 1600s and early 1700s, pirates used the Outer Banks as a primary base of operations, as they targeted Spanish and British ships carrying gold. Blackbeard (Edward Teach) who made Ocracoke his home, became one of the most legendary and feared pirates associated with the Outer Banks, and his capture by the  British Royal Navy concluded the Golden Age of Piracy in the region. In the late 18th century, the construction of several lighthouses and lifesaving stations on the islands of the Outer Banks to minimize shipwrecks along the coast.

The Outer Banks is a great place for fly fishing, brackish fishing, offshore fishing, inshore fishing and pier fishing. With acres of wetland habitats, the Outer Banks has a wide variety of animal life, including wood ducks, alligators, black bears and red wolves, along with plant species, including the Atlantic white cedar, bald cypress, wildflowers and shrubs. The natural beauty of this isolated region is there for you to enjoy.

"Watermarks will not appear on product."