Myrtle Beach State Park SC

[Johnsfolly]

Ok so it has been a while since we actually went on this trip. My bad! Anyway we went down to South Carolina to meet with a friend and go out on a fishing charter trip that we set up to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Well long story short our offshore trip was cancelled due to high seas. However prior to and just after our scheduled offshore trip we spent a few hours fishing the pier at the Myrtle Beach State park in Myrtle beach. When we got to the pier we saw a couple of folks catching some small pompano. Never caught any of those guys so we decided to set up and fish close to the wave zone.

We were fishing high/low rigs with small pieces of shrimp. It did not take long to get the first bite. Sue picked up the first pompano!

Then Livie caught a pompano as well. This was about as big as we ended up catching. Maybe up to 10 inches.

I finally got on the board with a pompano!

We caught quite a few. Even some doubles like this pompano and pinfish! Of course being a public pier you never know when you might get photobombed.

At least it was our friend. We caught southern kingfish, pinfish, and striped sea robins. Trying to get onto some different fish we went further out onto the pier and fished deeper waters. Caught more kingfish, sea robins and black sea bass. Livie and my buddy caught a couple of yellow jacks (again I still haven't caught one).

While we were fishing these high/low rigs, I had a bigger rod with a piece of cutbait soaking. Had a couple of hits and got stripped. Then had a fish hit an run with the bait. I tightened the drag and tried to set the hook. The drag was screaming and I thought that I was going to get spooled. I put some more pressure on the reel using my hand and pulled the hook. Never did see that fish. There is no shark fishing from this pier and cutbaits must be less than 2 inch pieces and no live bait bigger than 3" could be used. Near the cleaning station we saw a 7 to 8 foot bull shark that would hit the carcasses of the Spanish mackerel folks were cleaning. Would have loved to been able to try to catch that guy. I did land a toothy critter in the form of a snapper bluefish. Have to keep your fingers away!

 

On one of my casts near the cleaning station I got a solid thump and set the hook. The fish ran with the line towards the end of the pier and the pilings. I had to tell a couple near the cleaning station that I needed them to move to keep up with this fish. I caught up to it just as it wrapped up my line. I gave it some slack and I could feel it untangling itself. Once it felt free of the pilings I put on more pressure. I was so excited that I caught and landed my first spadefish! Not a big one but a pretty fish and a strong fighter for its size. They fight a lot like big bluegill or redear sunfish.

To me the trip was a success. We had fun and caught a bunch of fish.

What a difference a day makes. We were all smiles as we headed out to fish the next morning on our charter. The wind had picked up over night due to an approaching storm. Got out to the inlet and were met with 4 to 5 foot seas. We trolled for Spanish but no bites and called it short. Captain wasn't going to charge us but we gave him a large tip for the attempt.

The pier was rough as well. Caught far fewer fish in the rough water, but still managed a few pompano, kingfish, sea robins, and one summer flounder.

With my friend living there full time and when (if) this covid nonsense calms down, I suspect that we will be back there a lot.