Newbie Here

[TASPL-Designs]

Thanks for the welcome.

zippyFX, It was a lot of fun. Sort of Unsuccessful, but I learned a lot and had a great time.

Started out a few weeks before leaving and I was researching things to do in Myrtle Beach when I found fishing charters, Looking through the charter pages I saw shark fishing charters. That got me thinking, I never liked the idea of charters too much, they bring you out to known spots, rig up their rods and lines, bait the hooks and basically hook the fish for you then just have you reel it in with over sized gear. There's no real skill, technique or fun, just a test of strength, how fast you can reel it in.

I had some money to spend when I went down so I started looking at boat rentals to go out myself, then I came across something I never heard/thought of, Surf Fishing. Basically with a bunch of research, a lot of contradicting information and a tonne of videos later I decided I was going to take a crack at it.

I joined a forum down there, got talking to some locals, found a local bait/tackle shop to put together a rod/reel combo for me so I could just pick it up once I got there, Found out where I can and cannot shark fish and headed down.

First things first I would have to catch some Bait, The wife and I went down to the beach at night to try and catch some from shore, couple hours of absolutely nothing, we had fun though. Next step as I was only there a week was to step it up and try and catch some bait, so off to the pier I went, things were slow, really slow. 2 Hours of nothing but a couple pieces of shrimp stolen. Then out of no where, BAM, a small whitefish, too small for eating really but definitely a good sized for bait, Tossed it in the cooler and threw back in the line and bait with high hopes.

Another hour goes by and no one is really getting anything on the pier, then all of a sudden the guy next to me has a hit and starts reeling in his fish, its a baby shark, about 10" long. First time I got to see a shark up close in person, so I'm staring at it and then I feel my line tug, I set the hook and start reeling it in, I too had caught a small, maybe 12" shark. Was very cool, I let it sit a little bit to calm down because I knew there teeth were still sharp, once it calmed down i removed the hook and took a closer look and let it go. Then I caught 2 more within 30 minutes, about 15" -16" long, by this time EVERYBODY is pulling up sharks on the pier, Nothing else, just baby sharks. Can't keep the sharks even for bait so my time there was just being wasted.

I went back out the next morning to catch more, no luck at all, saw 2 people in the 4 hours I was there catch anything. Went back home, had a nap, knowing it would be a long night.

7pm rolls around, Someone I met on the forum came down to come out fishing with me and show me the basics. I got to pick the spot from doing some research, and we went out. Only had the one piece of fresh bait but he brought out some frozen tuna heads to cut up and use for bait. We set up the sand spikes on the beach, tossed out the bait and waited. Nothing hit at all in about 4 hours, and the surf was really rough, so we packed up and moved down the way to an Inlet to try and find some bull sharks or anything really that was swimming the channel for dinner. No luck there, we stayed there until about 3 or 4am, I was tossing in my bait rod trying still to catch more bait, Caught 2 Toad Fish, super ugly fish. We then packed up and went back to the beach, stayed there until about 10am then he had to head back home so I packed up and left also, since the beach was starting to get busy and people get freaked out about that stuff.

All in all it was a great experience, met some new people, Learned a lot about lines, knots, rigs, weights, hooks, bait, sand spikes.

Can't wait to go back next year and hit the surf harder and bring me in some big sharks.

Anyways, Hopefully I didn't write too much, just thought I'd share my experience.