Dogs should be leashed if walking on the beach that others are using, bait should be kept in a cooler to maintain it. Many of the beaches I fish require dogs to be leashed. We always have dogs visiting at our beach house and they are always leashed when on the beach.

It depends on what area of the Outer Banks you are fishing, northern outerbanks would be from Corolla in the north to Nags Head to the Oregon Inlet, southern Outer Banks would be Hatteras Island starting from the southern end of the bridge to Hatteras Village, I would recommend the Outer Banks pier in South Nags Head and the Nags Head pier in Kill Devil Hills as my two favorites, primary fish to target would be Blue fish and Spanish Mackarel early morning before sun comes up using Gotcha plugs on the end of the pier and flounder in closer to the beach using Gulp 3-4 inch mullet pattern in white color. Two piers on Hatteras Island-the Rodanthe pier and Avon pier. I do not fish these but probably the same fish to target with the same baits, best time to fish the OBX is mid October to Thanksgiving as the water cools down, primary focus is speckled trout with possible redfish if water gets cooler and rough.

I second on the St Croix Avid Inshore rod 7 foot medium light, best all around rod I own and I have several dozen rods, primarily used for speckled trout, flounder, smaller blues and puppy drum in saltwater. Bass( large and smallmouth in freshwater),American shad(to 6lbs) and walleye.

Match it up with Shimano Stradic CI4 3000 loaded with 10lb Berkley Nano and you have a fish catching machine.

Bait runner, I have one on one of my 5000 series bait chucking surf rods.

I would go with a 7 ft medium light rod, you can get a decent ST Croix in the $100-$120 range, also you could look at the Fenwick rods in the 6.6 to 7 foot range in medium or medium light in the $70-$80 range.

3 and 4 inch swimming mullet in white and chartreuse , fish them on a drop shot rig.

8-10lb braid is plenty for most bass that you will catch. Use an 8-10lb fluro leader connected with a small barrel swivel. I use medium and medium light 7 ft spinning rods for all of my bass fishing with 2500/3000 spinning reels.

I use Yum Dingers which are senkos, over the this past week have caught 12 bass on the same senko(wacky style) and still have the same senko on the hook ready for my next fishing session(I do use the ring on all of my wacky rigs). I do agree that some Senko companies do not make very durable worms, Yum is not one of them.

Drift boat much easier, no trees/bushes to hook on your back cast in the middle of the river, also not fighting current, slippery rocks and extra gear you have on wading the river. Also guide can position you to reach more fish than you can reach wading, I have done the drift boat and it is a blast.

That is a fine setup,St Croix with the Revo, only thing wrong is your line, get rid of the fluoro as a main line and just use it as leader material. Depending on what you primarily fish for would dictate which synthetic line to use and the associated lb rating, with the same basic setup that you have I use 8lb nanofil with a 6 to10 lb fluoro carbon leader depending on the fish I am targeting, this setup covers all of my large and smallmouth fishing as well as American shad up to 6 lbs( hardest fighting fish Lb for Lb in freshwater) . I use the same setup in saltwater for speckled trout, redfish,small stripers, flounder,sea mullet and small blues. What you have is a very practical setup for many types of fish, just need a better line setup.

Have fished on many cloudy days with no rain and do catch fish but not at the frequency I catch them on rainy days. Sunny days in the summer do shut the fish down by mid morning . Also windy days seem to turn them on as well. Perhaps it has something to do with surface impact of the water from rain and wind that makes them more interested in feeding as well as changes in pressure gradient .

I fish lakes for bass in light to moderate rain in the summer and have my best catch rates on rainy days and on average larger fish.

I fish the northern OBX several times per year. Best flounder fishing for me is in the summer months. I use a drop shot rig with the various gulp mullet patterns/colors. Most flounder are caught within 10 yards of the beach. Look for the holes at low to moderate tide, watch the beach people that are going in the water during the day. When they wade out in water than quickly drops to waste or chest deep that's where you want to fish early morning or in the evening although I have caught them in the middle of the day in areas where people are not swimming.

Go with the medium light 7 foot for ned rig, drop shot, wacky rigging, can't go wrong with the St Croix rods, also use Berkley Nanofil to increase casting distance. 8lb nano is more than enough to reel in most freshwater fish and many saltwater fish as well.

Fish early morning before sunrise, also fish on rainy days( no thunder or lighting).