The Outer Banks on TV

With season 8 of Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks having premiered on July 18 and season 2 of Netflix’s Outer Banks series premiering on July 30, the words Outer and Banks have never been more prominently splashed across web pages, social media feeds and TV screens. Thanks to these two shows, people all over the world are more familiar than ever with this place right now.

Outer Banks

While Netflix’s popular series Outer Banks obviously purports to be set on the Outer Banks, the show is not actually filmed here. It’s filmed in Charleston, South Carolina. The show is entertaining, with characters and a plot that could believably take place here (life in a tourist town and commercial fishing hub, looking for a missing father and buried treasure while dealing with typical teen drama), but it doesn’t get the vibe or many details of its namesake location right.

The name of the show’s fictional county name, Kildare County, is a good one as it seems like a hybrid of the real Kill Devil Hills and Dare County. The TV show setting consists of marshes, beaches, waterways, bridges and marinas, a lighthouse, shipwrecks, bridges and ferries, and that’s accurate to the Outer Banks. But if you know the real Outer Banks at all, then you know that the flat bridges, palm trees, plantation house, houses on the ground, lighthouse and ferry to Chapel Hill (LOL!) do not ring true. Nor do the class war between the rich and the poor, the Kooks and the Pogues (I’ve lived here 27 years and I’ve never heard that term) or the fact that the locals’ main mode of transportation is boats. Regardless of all that, it’s a good show, and fans are very excited about the premiere on Friday, July 30. Whether you binge it all this weekend or spread it out for a while, just don’t expect to see any real Outer Banks scenery.

The lighthouse is one of the clues that Outer Banks is not actually filmed on the Outer Banks.

Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks

On the other hand, Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks is a reality show that’s filmed on the Outer Banks, and some of the cast members are locals (some live in N.C. coastal communities south of here). The competitive drama and action are embellished for production, but for the most part the show is an accurate depiction of fishing for bluefin tuna.

Season 8 of the show premiered on July 18 on The National Geographic Channel. You can binge seasons 1 through 7 on Disney+, but you’ll have to watch season 8 old school for now. It airs on Sunday nights at 7:30 p.m.

If you don’t already know, Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks follows real-life fishermen, not actors, as they hunt for bluefin tuna off the coast of the Outer Banks. It's a spinoff of the original Wicked Tuna series, which was set and filmed in Massachusetts. Then came Wicked Tuna: North Vs. South, which pitted Northern and Southern captains against each other. Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks features an all-Southern, North Carolina-based fleet trying to out-fish each other in the Gulf Stream waters off the Outer Banks. Most of the show is filmed on boats in the ocean, but sometimes you’ll see some scenes at a local marina or get a glimpse of the local landscape or the bridge over Oregon Inlet. Plus, you get to see some locally built Carolina boats in action.

Oregon Inlet Fishing Center-based Fishin' Frenzy has won top boat in the most seasons of the Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks.

Four Outer Banks-based boats are fishing in Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks Season 8.

Captain Greg Mayer of Fishin’ Frenzy, the reigning champion of the series, has returned for Season 8. He’s well-known on the show, having fished seasons 1 to 5 before coming back for Season 8. Fishin’ Frenzy won the top spot in seasons 1, 2, 3 and 5 and has caught the most tuna across the board on the show. Fishin’ Frenzy is a 53’ locally built custom Carolina sportfisher built by Billy Holton. Its permanent dock is at Oregon Inlet Fishing Center.

Captain Britton Shackelford of Doghouse is also back for Season 8. He fished seasons 1 to 5 and skipped a few before coming back to the show. The 61’ custom Carolina boat permanently docks at OBX Marina.

Captain Nick Gowitzka of Little Shell is back, having fished seasons 4, 5 and 7. He was the mate on Fishin’ Frenzy with Greg Mayer in the early seasons. As captain he fishes a 42’ Provincial, not a Carolina boat but a fishing machine just the same. It’s docked at Pirates Cove Marina.

New to the Outer Banks fleet is Captain Jimmie Horning Jr. of Hog Wild. At just 22, Horning is the youngest captain in the fleet, though he’s been a seasoned angler since he was a small child and a licensed captain since turning 18. His boat, a 54’ Paul Mann Carolina sportfisher, is docked at Pirates Cove Marina.

The other three boats in the Season 8 fleet hail from N.C. towns south of the Outer Banks: Reel E’ Bugging with Captain Bobby Earl, based in Morehead City; Offshore Outlaw with Captain Adam Price, based in Atlantic Beach; and Rasta Rocket, based in Holden Beach. Rasta Rocket holds the distinction of running the smallest boat in the fleet, just 28’! That's a small boat for catching enormous bluefin tuna, but Rasta Rocket holds its own and has a reputation as the favored underdog.

Fans of the show have been known to pop up at the local marinas to get a glimpse, and maybe a selfie with, the Wicked Tuna stars. Recently at Oregon Inlet Fishing Center, I saw a group of women who were positively giddy with excitement and waiting with phones poised in camera position as Captain Mayer was backing Fishin' Frenzy into its slip. I didn't stick around to see how the encounter went down, but needless to say: If you do try to catch your favorite Wicked Tuna boat pulling up to the docks after a day of fishing, be respectful of their time. They are on the clock with a charter, after all, and they've been up fishing since the wee hours of the morning. Better yet, book a charter with your favorite boat in the fleet and see what it's really like to fish with them.

Enjoy these TV shows, but don't spend your whole weekend inside watching TV. When you're ready for something to do out and about on the real Outer Banks, check our Daytime and Nightlife events listings.