A Cottage with a View

Soundfront with private beach & gigantic dock!

This Cottage offers spectacular views of Bogue Sound, the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), and Bogue Banks. It is located on +/-1 acre of lush grass with giant live oaks along the Southern Outer Banks (SOBX) of North Carolina.

Your time at The Cottage with a View includes: telescope, wifi, bluetooth receiver, outdoor speakers, Plex server, several Roku-enabled TVs, full size laundry/dryer. The kitchen is fully stocked: pots, pans, plates, dishes, bowls, placemats, cutlery, serving ware, prep knives, drinking glasses, coffee mugs, crockpot, 2 blenders, 2 food processors, 2 coffee makers, 2 ice makers, numerous cousies, 5 micron filtered tap water, bottle openers, toaster oven, microwave oven, hand mixer, electric griddle, shrimp peelers, oyster knives, several seafood cookbooks, and miscellaneous other kitchen gadgets and such. New gas grill (2023) with extra tanks in laundry room. You need to provide your own food and beverages though.

Also included are multiple protected moorings for your boat, and trailer parking in my yard is fine too as long as you don't collapse the septic lid.

A unique digital door lock code and numerous additional property details and FAQs are provided in the famous welcome letter (see reviews) provided after booking.

The Cottage with a View has 3 bedrooms:
(1) Queen bed
(2) Queen bed + single bunk above
(3) Queen bed + sofa sleeper (full).
*The den sofa is also a queen pullout
**Pack-n-play crib also provided.

Outdoor Seating:
• 2 hammocks (1 at end of dock, 1 on land)
• 4 plastic Adirondack-style chairs that you can put anywhere (stored in carport)
• 4 rocking chairs (on the covered porch)
• 2 "regular" chairs (on the open patio off kitchen)
• 8 person picnic table (on the covered porch)
• 8 person picnic table (on the open patio off the kitchen)
• 1 acre of grass
• 2 small sandy beaches on either side of the dock
• 1 tree swing

If you need room for more people, there are several waterfront VRBOs within easy walking distance...
• Magnolia Retreat - https://www.vrbo.com/3353865 (immediately next door)
• Sound Front - https://www.vrbo.com/2020894 (700 ft east)
• Sound Front - https://www.vrbo.com/2220644 (800 ft. east)
• Canal Front / Sound View - https://www.vrbo.com/295629 (½ mile east)
• Canal Front / Sound View - https://www.vrbo.com/722523 (½ mile east)

Distances:
~2 minute golf cart ride to the quickie mart, a grocery store & Dollar General.
~5 minute car drive to Walmart.
~15 minute car drive to “The Circle” @ Atlantic Beach.

THE PROPERTY HAS NO TOWELS OR LINENS. Blankets & pillows are included though.

Fishing is incredible here. Literally seconds after dropping a hook off the end of the dock, something will bite it. Common species, depending on season, include: Sheepshead, Flounder, Speckled Trout, various Drum, Croaker, Spot, & Mullet. Learn to do a "Carolina Rig" and you'll be set.

Fishing licenses for kids up to 16 are free; otherwise $5 for NC residents; $10 for non-NC. Numerous charter services available that will pick you up/drop you off at our dock if you ask them. There is a tide clock in the cottage & also published as "NC State Fisheries" (add 90 mins.) or "Spooners Creek" (add 30 minutes).

Cast netting for your own bait is the way to go in my opinion. Avoid doing it right @ the submerged oyster reef on the west side of the dock near the very end (marked with black metal pole). Many guest nets lost there through the years. Depending on your cast netting skills, you'll get live shrimp & various small pin fish, etc. suitable for bait for FREE. If you want sheepshead, shovel up some fiddler crabs at the shore when the tides change.

You can also cast net, fish & crab from the boardwalk along the adjacent boat basin and canal. Don’t leave anything hidden underwater that could get tangled in a prop (like a crab pot or cast net).

If you go crabbing, please know the difference between the species & sexes! For blue crabs, keep only the males & throw the females back. For stone crabs, just yank off a claw of either male or female & throw him/her back (a new claw will grow back within weeks). If he/she is already missing a claw, let him/her go without taking his/her last remaining one.

Fishing guidance (though your mileage may vary):

+ Sheepshead can be caught with fiddler crabs on a Carolina rig doing the most damage when fished next to dock pilings. Heavy drop shot rigs seem to work well too. Artificial Coco Crab has been pulling in fish as well. The effectiveness of fiddler crabs hasn’t changed in millennia, but sea urchins will work better for the bigger sheepshead. Dropping cut shrimp to the bottom while sheepshead fishing may result in a nice black drum, too. Store-bought sand fleas work good for the sheeps too.

+ Red drum bite gold spoons, Redfish Magics, Skitterwalks, topwater plugs, & popping corks, especially when cast near the oyster bar & shallow mud flats with a fast retrieve. Mullet & menhaden fished on either corks or on the bottom are popular choices. Live mullet on a Carolina rig is hard to beat for red drum fishing, but cut mullet has also been a decent producer through the years. Hooking up a jerk shad Gulp shrimp to a 1/8 oz. jig head will work for the reds as well. Soft plastics by Fathom put on a 1/4 oz. jig head will get bites too.

+ Flounder go for Gulp shrimp on a jig head, as well as mud minnows or other live bait like a pin fish, & they generally go for a Carolina rig fished on the bottom. Low tide has traditionally been the best part of the day to find a doormat at the dock, with the mouth to the canal being a great place to seek them out just beforehand as the tide is falling. They are also being tricked by Fathom rat tail baits on 1/4 oz. jig heads, in addition to live mullet on Carolina rigs. Jigging Spro 2 oz. white & glow bucktails tipped with a 4” white Gulp shrimp is a VERY good way to bend your rod over too. The flatties love hanging around the dock, & they can also be caught by hooking a Gulp to a 1/4 oz. jig head or bucktail. If the current is strong, you may require a little more weight to keep the bait in front of the fish. They have also been caught on spinner baits & live bait (4-5” finger mullet or mud minnows work best). The minnows can be Carolina-rigged or put on a jig head to get attention from the flatties.

+ Flounder gigging is spectacular here. Barely need to get your knees wet.. Flounder can be seen after dark on the sandy bottoms of the sound all around the shallows near the docks & canal mouths. Walking along the sandy shallows at night is a relaxing way to stalk the elusive flatfish. Also the simplest, as you only need a short gig, LED pole light & small battery carried in a fanny pack. Flatties will usually stay put as you advance close with the light in front of you, & slowly move into gigging distance ~4-5 feet away. To accurately gig, you have to compensate for the refraction as water bends the light passing through it. This means the flounder is closer than it appears to be, so you have to aim the gig closer to you than you think. If not, you will see a sand trail speeding away in the dark as the flattie blasts off into deeper water! Sometimes, you may get lucky and find a big stone crab creeping along the bottom too. You can harvest one claw & return the stony to the water. Your nighttime adventure can result in a fine flounder and stone crab dinner next day at a Cottage with a View!

+ Mullet & black drum seem to like frozen squid & shrimp on Carolina & other bottom rigs with a small hook getting the most bites. The black drum also go for a fiddler crab every time. Hooking a sea urchin on a Carolina rig will increase your chances of finding the bigger black drum. Gold spoons work well too. Live shrimp & mullet fished at the ICW drop-off near the flashing green marker straight off the end of the dock has yielded the best drum bite since before I was born, & don’t be surprised if you find a speckled trout in the same areas, especially in late Fall (if you want to target the specks specifically, though, use jigs & drifted shrimp). In the canal approach, you can find drum, in addition to some nice flounder hugging the bottom -- & they both love live mullet. Target marsh banks & docks in the sound, ICW, & canal with shrimp, mullet, & peanut bunker live baits for both black & red drum. Artificial baits will work as well, but live has definitely been better, especially when rigged on an appropriately-weighted Carolina rig (or just tip a naked jig head). Whole bait shrimp or Gulps have been the good baits for both Drum species, but switch to cut or live mullet if you want the redfish specifically.

+ Speckled trout & redfish are often caught on soft plastics like Gulps & Z-Man, as well as live shrimp, fresh cut mullet, mud minnows & Zara Spooks. If you find them on the surface, topwater baits are effective as well. Bass Assassin paddle tails, Top Dogs, She Dogs, MirrOlure MR14, 17 & 18 & DOA Golden Brems on 1/8, 3/16, up to 1/2 oz. jig heads are good producers for the specks. They bite a ton in the first ~30 minutes after sunrise.

+ Spots are always here & biting (not always a good thing), & 50+ fish days are possible during the Fall run. Bloodworms, Fishbites, & ESPECIALLY bait shrimp have all been good producers for years.

+ If you are indifferent to species, try hooking a live pinfish through the dorsal & then cast it towards the flashing green ICW marker. Let it go free-range with no drag, then lock it down, place it in the rod holder, check back later

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NOTICE:
There are 4 security cameras on the property. These motion-sensing cameras record static imagery (JPGs, no sound) of the *exterior* of the property and keep you, your vehicles, boats, and belongings safe. The password-protected and encrypted imagery is stored off-site and is not available to other guests.