sharks/rockfish

[fishnnk]

Spent a week in Myrtle .... fished a lot from the beach with the kids. One late afternoon, we saw a shark tailing in the surf . . . dorsal to tail was about 3 feet. A short time later a nice size red drum (about 25-30 pounds) washed up on shore minus his tail :) the red got a little too close to the shark So, like the fisherman that I am, fresh bait :) I cut a big slab off the Red and threw out my circle hook with 100 lb leader on a slide sinker (was the largest I had ... wasn't really thinking I was gonna run into sharks in Myrtle to be honest). 10 minutes later ..... Ziiiiiinnnnngg! There goes the drag and the fight was on right at dusk! 45 minutes go by, fighting up and down the beach, with every head shake he takes more line, I gain 10 yards he takes 20 .... finally get him inside the breakers and I see its a Blacktip Shark :) By this time, I had an audience on the beach wondering what in the world was walking me up and down the beach with the surf rod doubled over. I handed over the rod to my son so I could pull the shark onto the beach by the tail .... as soon as I reached down and touched his tail ..... Ziiiiinnnng .... it startled him and nearly pulled the rod out of my son's hands! One more time .... I thought I had tired him out but they always come up with energy out of nowhere! I reached down again with 2 hands this time because one hand couldn't get around the massive base of the tail .... just then he turned his head towards me and it altered where the line was sitting in the corner of the mouth by the circle hook .... slice .... the 100 lb leader was no match for his sharp teeth! So, it was still a great fight to the end ... I still consider it a catch because I touched it or "tagged" it if you will.
So the rest of the week, I continued to fish for more sharks (I even went to Bass Pro and got some steel). Instead, we found a nursery every afternoon and evening. In the same spot where the big boy was caught, my kids and I caught over 20 infant sharks (all blacktips) on squid. They were fascinating to look at and an interesting spectator piece to bring onto the beach. Which, on a sidenote .... do people in SC not fish???? Because I was around some, shall we say, "greenhorns" when it came to fishing! "What are you doing . . . what kind of fish is that .... " that type of thing. Pretty amusing actually. But, all in all, we caught a lot of sharks, taylor blues, and one Southern Kingfish. The warm gulfstream water seemed to be fairly close in too .... I wished I had my boat down there because I saw several King Mackerel jump out of the water from the beach! It was a good week with the kids!
Then I come home on Saturday to find the tide and the weather to be perfect for an evening of fishing out of Hull Creek. My secret spot is just minutes away from the dock on the Jetski (easier to fish from by myself ... and quieter). I threw out a double bucktail (1 oz and 3/8 oz) and BAMM!! 2 rockfish on the first cast! The one that hit the top bucktail was about 22" and the other about 18" .... I always find that the larger fish attack the larger bait. For about 40-45 minutes until I couldn't see anymore, I landed over 30 rockfish, all ranging in sizes from about 10" to about 25" (all released back to fight another day) .... it was a real fun evening!! Can't wait to get out again
Till then .... fair winds and tight lines!

[dell30rb]

glad you had fun.. sharks are entertaining and always fun. myrtle is known as a bit of a tourist trap (i have seen great hotel deals recently, might have to pay another visit) which probably explains the non-fisherman you encountered on the beach

[fishnnk]

yeah they were quite amusing actually .... even the guys working at the pier didn't seem to have any interest or knowledge at all. The only chatter I got from anyone were the guys at the end of the pier Kingfishing. Glad to be back home where the "real" fisherman are

[fishnnk]

pic of my son holding one of the many young sharks we caught that week LOL

[fishnnk]

monster! well ... she will be soon enough

[ciccofish]

fishnnk - I was also down at MB last week. The previous week they had multiple shark bites in the surf in front of our hotel. But we killed the grouper and mahi offshore. What a blast! I am definately going back.

[fishnnk]

yeah I heard that too .... and the day before we left, the local news channel confirmed that the four attacks were made by the Blacktip ... the same shark we caught that night! My wife was freaking out! :)