Frisco Pier -- by Jake Worthington

The National Park Service will be tearing down the beloved Frisco Pier in the fall. The pier, which took its last knockout punch in 2010 with Hurricane Earl, has been closed since that sad September day. While I never had the privilege of fishing on her, I have caught plenty of Speckled Trout and Puppy Drum while surf fishing on her north side. I have heard the stories of friends and old fishermen tell the tales of how many fish had been caught from her wooden planks. The pier was said to be a haven for King Mackerel and Cobia. Located near the Frisco-Hatteras border, the old wooden pier was built in 1962 and was called the Cape Hatteras Pier. The pier was damaged during Hurricane Isabel in 2003 and was then bought by its last owner Tod Gaskill. Gaskill repaired the pier, but hurricanes and storms took their toll. Then Hurricane Earl struck the knockout blow which closed the fishing platform permanently. The National Park Service struck a deal with Gaskill in 2013, in which the Park Service purchased the pier and the right of way from the state highway. This essentially ended all talk and rumors that the pier would be saved and repaired. The National Park Service announced this June that they would finally be removing the skeleton of the beloved pier and her
pier houses in the late fall of 2016.
The Frisco Pier House is an iconic Hatteras Island Landmark and is recognized by its bright yellow colors that have survived numerous Hatteras Island seasons.
She is regularly the focal point of photographers and painters who use her for beautiful works of art. Wooden piers like Frisco are disappearing from the North Carolina coast because of their high maintenance and insurance costs. The Frisco Pier was the only fishing pier south of Diamond Shoals on Hatteras Island, and because of its location is one of the reasons the pier produced such great pier fishing seasons. This same location is also one of the reasons it may have become a victim of numerous hurricane assaults. They don’t call the area of Diamond Shoals “The Graveyard of the Atlantic” for nothing, and all of the damage to the pier is evidence of the dangers of having a pier in such a hot spot. However with the risk comes the reward. If you look at old fishing reports from the pier or talk to some of the anglers who used to walk her planks, you will learn that the Frisco Pier was a highly productive pier. I have talked to anglers who said the pier frequently yielded great catches of the normal bottom fishing fish such as Spanish Mackerel, Bluefish, Trout, Sea Mullet and a host of other fish. So if you are down here in Hatteras this late summer or the early fall, make sure you stop by, + take a picture or two of her, and wish her farewell.