I live on the water in Beaufort so I'm out there two or three days a week and I prefer the inlet route to the cape even if its rough (which it usually is) as the back way is full of very tricky ever changing shoals and you can run aground very easy unless you are following someone who knows exactly where they are going like me who spent a lovely rainy december evening with my old chesapeake on a sand bar in my duck boat waiting for a tide change . Lucky for me I had some jack daniels and flounder sandwiches as I never killed a duck all day ...When you go out the Beaufort inlet stay about 50 yards (even at high tide) off the first red can buoy which is a day marker to get around the little shoal right on the shackelford ocean point then turn left and you will be running in 8 to 14 feet of water right along the beach and head for the light house with deep water all the way . You can troll for Kings and spanish on the way down but get in about 20 feet of water around 7 MPH. IF you start catching bluefish (I caught a 12 pounder last thursday doing this) you need to speed up .I run my shotgun or way back line with a mann's stretch 25 in baby dolphin or red and white and both outroddrers with Yo-zuri crystal minnows or medium Rapala divers with red and white colors and one number 4 planer with a yellow flash huntington drone spoon for deep kings and big spanish.We are now starting to pick up dolphin and some are gaffers but you need to be in around 50 feet of water about 3 miles out ( do not use small clark spoons or lures as the litle peanut dolphins and blues will drive you crazy)but troll the same way , same speed but throw out a couple of pink and white , blue and white or green and white sea witches , jap feathers or Boone dolphin feather rigs in blue and white or Green and yellow or white with a 5 or 6 inch white or yellow sea striker rind or ballyhoo on the surface and see what happens but keep the yellow flash drone spoon (Or pink or silver color) on the planer as there are lots of 30 to 35 inch snake kings in the area.Once you see the cape lookout rock jetty with boats tied up on both sides before the light house turn in to that inlet and there is a hook with lots of fat flounder and trout (berkleys gulp shrimp or minnows work great carolina rigged with 4 ounces of weight ) and good bottom lumps that hold big drum and cobia and out of the wind. IF you can't get out the inlet (like the last two days) watch where the ferry's (24 foot parkers and carolina skiffs) that drop off and pick people up every half hour or so and go left down the inland side of shackelford about 100 yards and move very close to the beach in between the range markers and you will see that right off the beach is a drop that goes from 3 feet to 17 or more and runs all the way to the red buoy ( in 34 feet of water with both big flounder and 20 to 80 pound cobia) )that marks the jetty where the game commission has a toilet facility and deep water hole for the big tour boats. In my opinion this stretch of beach is one of the most productive in the area and overlooked by most fisherman. Last year my son and I caught three amberjacks trolling this stretch with big rapala deep divers on a crappy north easter day that was at least 20 mph and they were all in the 29 to 33 pound range and very good on the grill....Frank