OCRACOKE, N.C. — Over the weekend, beaches in Ocracoke were covered in flopping fish.
Alan Sutton, who co-owns Tradewinds Tackle with his wife, shared pictures of the weird (but natural) scene from one of their friends, Heather Johnson.
Sutton said thousands of spot -- which are already decent-sized fish -- were driven onto the sand by predatory bluefish. Bluefish can be about 18-34 inches long, and they have teeth.
Bluefish have also been known to chase menhaden, mullet and other small fish out of the water.
"They're migrating out of the Pamlico Sound to the ocean," he explained. "We used to have a similar phenomenon in the 70s and 80s, but most of the time it was bluefish migrating south from the northeast coast."
He said he remembers that happening around Thanksgiving in those days. Now, there's less of a pattern, but it's still a sight to see.
"It doesn't happen every day," he said.
The phenomenon has been drawing fishers to the beach.
Both spot and bluefish are edible, and Sutton told 13News Now he saw some people picking up the beached spot by the bucketful to take home and eat.
"When it's like that, there's no regulation on the spot," he explained.
They're also dragging lines through the shallow surf, trying to snag a bluefish. The smaller ones taste better, but Sutton said they're all fun to catch.
