I spent a lot of great times there, and I'm jealous. Here's my suggestions, trying to make em short:

Get or bring two rods, and get sand spikes to hold them.

One spinning or baitcasting rig that will throw lures up to two ounces or so. 12 to 14 pound test. for that one, you get a couple Hopkins spoons (1/2 to 1 oz or larger), a couple Krocodiles, a couple floting and sinking mirro-lures, a couple of gotcha's, a and the swim baits as described by teodoro above.

For the spoons and gotcha's you'll need swivels or your line will twist beyond use in a couple of hours. You can tie directly to the swim baits and mirro lures, but if there's spanish mackeral or needlefish or blues around, you'll get cut off quick. You should go with a 6" wire or braid leader to avoid that, esp. on the spoons.

Okay. Take your heavier spinning rig and put a spreader rig on it- a double hook deal- ask the tackle guy- that will handle a 2 to 4 ounce pyramid sinker. But some mullet, squid, whatever- you might still be able to go down to the fish packing houses (if there still is such a thing- ask around at say Nedo's store in Hatteras) and see if they'll sell you some bait fish. Cut yourself some nice fillets and bait the spreader rig-

I spend most of the time on the inlets- oregon, hatteras, Ocracoke, wherever there is a lot of current moving from the ocean to the sound. Cape point is too crowded for me, but its a mecca for American fishing, worth seeing and fishing no matter what. But I like the less crowded inlets. You need a tide chart. Hit the inlet at the slack tide, and be ready as it shifts. the best tide is an outgoing tide that is sucking bait out of the sound into the surf. You'll need the bigger pyramid sinkers to hold bottom. Get your bait out there- look hard at the water- read the surf- where are the holes? the channels? where are the sandbars where it is too shallow? where is all the bait flashing around? Where is all the action? It's there.

Now, while you are soaking bait and waiting for that 45 pound red, or that bluefish blitz, or that flounder, start pumping those spoons into the wash, watching for birds, bait jumping, whatever. Keep throwing, keep watching- there is always something happening on that shifting tide- the incoming tide will bring all kinds of fish in, too. Speckle trout will show up, and you'll just see a few glass minnows jumping out of the wash- throw in there, ahead of where the action is. When the birds show up, something big is about to go down. I've seen blues - 12 pounders- pouring out of the waves like walls of quicksilver - but that was in the late fall. Summer is a slower, easier time, but still great fishing. Those Spanish will show up right on the tide change, and they are incredible sportfish.

When the tide is all in, that's the time, as teodoro says, to hit the Sound. the trout and reds are all up in the grass, in water that is too shallow the rest of the time. Use the plastic baits, the mirro-lures.

when nothing is happening, head back to the inlets and soak bait- there's always something moving through there. Keep the baits fresh. If all else fails, put some small hooks on your spreader rig, buy some blood worms, cut then into real small pieces and start fishing for spot and croaker for the frying pan. You can buy a flounder rig- the kind with a tube sinker and then a big float that keeps the bait off the bottom, and start working the surf with that- witha chunk of mullet cut to look like a small fish or a finger mullet, whole, on the circle hook. That is super fun, but takes some learning- basically, you have to fish until you ctach one, and then do whatever it was you were doing that worked, and do that again. Flounder are in really weird places- right in the wash, in little depressions in the sand, in big cuurent. You cast out and retrieve the rig, swimming through the likely places. You'll catch blues like that too.

There's so many ways to do all this- the trick is to keep out there, keep at it, change it up. There's no doubt about the fish being there. It's how to close the deal with them that is in question. Soemtimes you'll find pompano right in the wash during hot weather, too. Use sandfleas on small circle hooks, or flyfish for them witha little yellow fly.

Good luck!

007, my father had good luck with blues right in the surf there back in the 70s, shiny spoons, etc. My fishing in the banks has mostly been soundside. Take the kind of rod you'd use for smallmouth, get some red jig heads, some white Gulp! baits, wade into the sound along drop offs and jig them back toward you. I can't say how representative my time there was, but I had great luck with this technique for puppy drum and trout. I've seen flounder hit that rig, too, though I've never experienced it myself.