South Carolina Surprise Fishing Trip!

[Johnsfolly]

I will start this by saying that my wife had me fooled and gave me a great gift for my birthday! I had planned for a fishing trip somewhere. I was looking to travelling to North Carolina to take advantage of the potential shad run in the Tar River outside of Rocky Mount, which is about a 5 hour trip. I also wanted to try for some of the unusual sunfish species like spotted sunfish or banded sunfish or fliers in the small sloughs, ponds, swamps, and creeks that are found in NC. I was also thinking about a run to the coast for any new briny species that I could catch. Well that did not happen!

So instead of a 5 hour run, we ended up in Myrtle Beach SC about a 9 hour trip. After a long trip we ended up at a condominium complex. My first comment to my wife was are we leasing a time share ! Instead out comes an old college buddy! I was very surprised to say the least, since he was last known to be staying in Florida. I knew right away that we were going to have some fun this weekend, but I still wanted to fish. Fortunately that was not going to be a problem. My wife and friend had us booked on a charter trip for Sunday

After getting my SC nonresident license on Sat, Jim and I went out to a little pond/swamp area to try for some micros including any possible sunfish. Well it is still cooler weather even in SC which may have tempered the fish bite. We did see lots of small fish activity mostly with them leaving the area after we just arrived . I did land a pumpkinseed sunfish. while fishing between the trees.

We moved to an open pond and were able to catch some redear and bluegill sunfish. As we headed back for dinner the captain of the charter asked if we could switch from a morning to an afternoon trip. With the morning temps around 35 versus 60 deg in the afternoon and winds dying down all pointed to a heck yeah we will switch. We got to the marina early and had to wait, but it was nice to be in the sun and excited to be soon out on the water.

We were booked on the Carolina Girl out of Murrell's inlet.

There was still a chop on the water and the captain shortened the run from his intent to hit a reef five miles out to one closer to shore to allow us more time to fish. I'll be honest I struggled initially. I was getting strong bites, but set the hook on just water and quickly went through many shrimp. Sue was the first to get a solid hook up and after a decent fight she landed her first ever black drum.

Now we were only in 30 to 35 ft of water, but each drum had a decompression issue. So we kept those that were legal size. I would like to mention that catching a black drum was one of my goals for 2020 since I have not caught one previously and to have my wife catch one made me a bit jealous. Fortunately I didn't have to wait too long before the big bend in my rod let me know that I likely had a black drum on the line.

I caught one other which was the last fish of the day for me. Lots more bait stealers. I did have a lighter rig with smaller hooks that I could have used, but not enough weight to hold bottom. Livie hooked up with a big fish, but lost it halfway to the boat. She did end up catching a small sea bass.

Sue hooked a stronger fish and landed a decent spiny dogfish (another species that I still hope to catch for my life list).

So our family was landing fish and trash talking my buddy Jim that was getting no love for most of the day. He did finally get on the board with a large silver porgy about 40 minutes before we were headed back into the dock (also a fish that I need to catch ).

it was a tough bite, but a great Bday on the water with family and friends. We would go out with this charter again, maybe later this summer. We were still talking to each other when we got back on land. So the trash talking was taken in stride .

 

[Ham]

I feel like Gaspergoo are really prone to barotrauma