Jacob,
Glad to hear your adventuring into surf fishing. Surf fishing the OBX is my favorite way to fish. I am somewhat new to fly fishing and/or surf fishing. It is also where I have had the most success. I started out surf fishing with a surf spin reel. I have since moved on to fishing with a fly rod. One of my best accomplishments is catching fish in the surf with my hand tied flies. Somehow, I have managed to catch fish in the surf every year I have been to the OBX. You would be surprised by what you can catch from the surf. I have caught ribbon fish, blue fish, crabs, flounder, croakers, gar fish, king fish and others. The gar fish I caught was about 3 ft long and jumped out of the water. This was one cool toothy critter. I caught it during the day at Kitty Hawk. There were about 30 people watching me bring the fish in. We had to clear the beach because it was going all over the place. It went airborne about three times and scared the hell out of everyone. I landed it on the beach and one of the local fishermen helped me unhook it and helped me get it back on its way. I had no idea how to handle this fish. It had a 6-inch mouth full of teeth. Fortunately, I trimmed the barbs on the hooks so it was easier to unhook the fish.
Last year I was out on the surf and ran into a school of Blue fish. The Blues were chasing the baitfish. I was chasing the bait fish when I found the blues. I went out to about chest high and used a spin rod to cast to the action. It was a feeding frenzy. Every cast landed a fish.
The year before it was all fly action. I killed it on the surf. I found a pattern in the water that that allowed me to hook fish that were too big for my gear. It was also the year that I had large fish hit me in the thighs and roll over right in front of me. One fish hit me and I saw a large white under belly that was about 2 to 3 feet long and that was what I saw. I think there are some big fish in the surf. Be careful. The more you fish the surf, the more you realize that we are swimming among monsters!
It also occurred to me that casting to baitfish/ schools of blues up to your chest also means you are swimming with whatever is chasing the Blue fish. This is also exciting and scary.
The bay side is an oasis. Down around Salvo, you can go to the bayside and have unlimited access to some of the best wadding you can imagine. There are areas of the Bay that go up to the main road. These little channels have one to two feet island/banks that hold lots of fish. Tons of structure that hold fish. Also, the weed beds hide fish. These fish come out to attack a fly. You will also see skates circling around you as you fish. Crabs are also active in the area. A good day includes lots of fish within eyesight and the whole area to yourself.
This is just a sample of things I have experienced fishing the OBX surf.
All the best,