Jolly Roger opens daily for 54th season

If you want to make a Hurricane appear in Southeastern North Carolina, just build a pier. The Jolly Roger in Topsail Beach is no exception. The pier built by the Orr family in April of 1954, lived to just six months before being destroyed by Hurricane Hazel the following October.

The Orr family did what all good pier owners do and just rebuilt it even stronger. They've had 54 good years on the ocean since.

Still in the family, Robbin Orr has run the Jolly Roger Pier since the late 1970s, with his brother and sister joining the act in the 1980s.

Orr's relaxed approach to managing the pier has been keeping customers coming back due to the relaxed atmosphere.

"We've been doing this for a while, so we've gotten pretty good at knowing what we need to do. We didn't even have to remodel this year, because we had this place in good enough shape to begin with," said Orr.

The pier has been open on weekends since January and recently switched to a daily opening schedule.

"We're still expanding our hours. We just keep it open depending on various factor, like the weather and the fish. We even go to a 24/7 schedule sometimes," said Orr.

The crew at the Jolly Roger is a reliable bunch who really enjoy their jobs.

"That's a big part of what we do. We start off with our skeleton crew in the winter months, and then build up to a staff of anywhere from 15 to 24 people," Orr said.

The Jolly Roger is known for it's full breakfast menu which changes to a lunch menu sometime around mid-day.

Orr said that the pier plans on having several events throughout the season, but few plans are finalized. One event that will certainly proceed is the Jake Gibbs Memorial Fishing Tournament.

"Jake was a good friend and a former employee. He was well known by people in the area and by people in the Marine Corp. It will be sometime in early April. This is the first year we've done it, and we'll see how it goes," said an unworried Orr.

The buzz around the pier was that they had a really busy season last year, it looks as though there is a good chance of duplicating that success again.

Orr said that anticipation is building up around the pier.

"We just like fishing. There's lots of fun around here. Just a lot of excitement," said Orr.

The staff at the pier has once again geared up for the ever-growing area. They make changes to the pier as the needs of the customers change.

"We just stay ready for whatever variables there are. That and we hope for no storms," said Orr.

When asked if he had a method for predicting how the fishing would be this year, Orr shook his and laughed and said that nobody can know the answer to that. He then added that everybody seems to think they know how to predict the fish, with all sorts of wild methodology; but in the end nobody really knows and that's just fine with Orr.

The only prediction that one can make with certainty is that when the unpredictable happens at the Jolly Roger Pier, the staff will be ready to adapt to it, and bring a great fishing experience to residents and tourists alike.