- Yeah, so how does this fishing pier last a hundred years when so many other fishing piers have been washed away?
Well, you can thank the family that built it back in 1923, the same family that's been rebuilding the pier year after year ever since (peaceful music) It's dawn at Cape Fear, another sunrise in the skies beyond Kure Pier.
A century of fishing history here, where every day still starts the same way, at first light, lines tight, waiting for that first bite.
(upbeat music) - He's right there.
Tom.
- [Jeff] But Tyrone Powell will tell you, after 27 years of fishing the Kure Beach Pier, this is the day he'll remember.
- I'm trying to get him to go back left.
(upbeat music continues) - [Fisherman] Get him, Ty, get him.
- If I can get him to go back left.
- [Jeff] Hooking a 90-pound tarpon from Kure Pier on his 12-pound line, too big to pull up, so as a crowd gathers below the pier to watch, well, that's where Powell is headed too.
- That's a good thing, he's going past that sand bar.
- [Jeff] And then after fighting the big fish for almost an hour comes that feeling of finally reeling it in.
(crowd applauds) On the beach, cheers, and back at the pier, - God bless, good job.
- [Jeff] Handshakes to celebrate his biggest catch ever.
- Nice tarpon.
- And as Powell heads out the door to fish some more, well, maybe he's hooked on Kure Pier too.
(relaxing music) - 777 feet from the road, 632 feet of it sticks out over the water.
- [Jeff] Owner Paul Robertson knows every inch of Kure Pier from the bottom up.
- That's a six by 12.
- Every brace, board, and beam below this pier deck, every post and pylon propping up the pier for decades.
- And where the pilings step out, you can see all the old stubs that are still left out there, but it's not pretty, no, but it's strong.
You don't need to make everything pretty.
This tells a story.
(relaxing music continues) - [Jeff] The hundred year story of Kure Pier begins with Robertson's great-grandfather, L.C.
Kure.
- So L.C.
was the first originator of the pier.
He had some background in building ship wharves.
- [Jeff] But the pier that L.C.
built that grew so popular through the 1920s, and '30s, and '40s was no match for Hurricane Hazel in 1954.
So it was Robertson's grandfather who rebuilt Kure Pier after Hazel.
In 1984, when Hurricane Diana made 400 feet at the far end of the pier disappear, Robertson's father rebuilt it a second time.
And in 1996 when a one-two punch from Hurricanes Bertha and Fran left the Kure Beach Pier in ruins again?
- [Paul] They say they don't make 'em like they used to.
- [Jeff] Well that's when Robertson's dad rebuilt the Atlantic's oldest fishing pier again, even taller, raising Kure Pier from its original 18 feet to today's 25 feet above the water.
(relaxing music continues) (waves roll) - When you have the storms now and you're sitting out here and I come down during the eye and then look out the back door and go, whew, you know.
You can see the ocean spray come up through the cracks.
They're just touching the bottoms of the boards, but they're not getting on top of the pier to be able to cause havoc.
- But you kept on building back, your family, storm after storm, year after year.
- I mean, that's our livelihood.
This is what we do.
- [Jeff] Kure Pier hasn't changed much over the years.
They do sell souvenirs now and t-shirts here in a much bigger pier store.
The old Kure Pier store from the '30s is now a restaurant across the street.
And during the summer months, the family that founded Kure Beach and built Kure Pier still welcomes other families to vacation here.
- Great grandparents, grandparents, parents, and the kids, they all say they would never go anywhere else.
And then they go and they eat in the restaurants for dinner, and then they come out on the pier and they get their ice cream, and then they walk the pier because it's free to walk out.
It warms my heart with all the love that other people have for it, as well.
- [Jeff] But after Labor Day, when the shadows on Kure Pier get longer and those vacations at Kure Beach become summer memories, well, that's when this pier that's famous for fishing gets back to its hundred-year tradition.
- We call it the September flip.
You go from the tourist to the fishermen.
The tourists are here enjoying themselves and doing their thing.
But spring, fall when the fish are moving, this is 100% a fishing pier and fishing town.
- There's no fussing, no beer, no drinking on this pier.
It's a family pier.
- [Jeff] 90-year-old Tom Harty is part of that fishing family, so is 79-year-old Mark Arthur.
- And it depends on how the fish is biting, but most of the time we fish about eight hours.
- [Jeff] Yep, every Wednesday all year, you'll find Tom and Mark here on the Kure Beach Pier next to the rest of the regulars, all at the rail with rod and reel, along with a pelican named George, who's just looking for a free meal.
(relaxing music) What's the biggest fish you ever caught on this pier?
- I caught a 10-pound, two blue.
- One day, it's good, and one day you can't catch anything.
- [Tom] But you know what, the fellowship is worth it all.
We made a lot of friends over the years.
- You've got a responsibility.
- Yeah, keep it going.
- Keep this open.
- Absolutely, absolutely.
It means everything to me, but it means so much to so many people.
(relaxing music continues) - [Jeff] And come hurricanes or high water, Paul Robertson promises they'll always have a Kure Pier to come back to no matter what.
- [Paul] And if they another one comes and knocks it down, we're putting it back.
For it to be here for a hundred years, obviously we're doing something right and we're not going to change it.
(relaxing music continues) - By the way, if you're planning a visit here at the Kure Pier, well, no reason to circle any special dates on your calendar because this pier is open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
Even during the winter months when the pier store is closed, the pier itself is still open.
Just don't forget your rod and reel.