2017 South Carolina Day 4

After an early morning breakfast of waffles, we were out the door shortly after 6:00 for our fishing charter out of Hilton Head.  In addition to Uncle D, SO and myself, Uncle D's friend Chris was joining us.  Traffic was light and we found the dock and our captain waiting for us.

First up was sea trout, which I had never fished for before.  Action was tolerable, but slow.  We tried a variety of fishing setups, using lures, minnows and flies.  We caught several sea trout and SO caught a large lady fish - which will make an appearance later.

We tried several more places for various fish in the sound and open ocean.  Action wasn't too hot, but there was at least some bites everywhere we went.  Eventually our captain cut up the lady fish and set out two very large hooks which hunks of it as bait right on the bottom.  Soon enough, one of the rods started bouncing and I reeled in a nice, if a bit small shark.  I had always wanted to catch a shark, so I was really happy.

Shortly after that, Chris started to bring in another fish from the bottom - much bigger than my shark.  It took out tons of line before leaping from the water a couple times and snapping the steel leader.  We were able to see that it was a very large spinner shark.  We may not have had the right tackle for something that large, unless we would have had tons of time to play the line.

Bottom action slowed down and the seas were getting very rough, so we headed to another spot to put more lady fish chunks out.  This time Uncle D was able to bring in a decent sized shark.  Throughout the bottom fishing, we had several more sharks on the line, but were unable to bring any of them in.

We decided to extend our charter by an hour and went into the flats to go after reds.  This was probably a lot more fun than the early trout fishing and we caught several reds.  

We also managed to bring in a few flounders.  I've always heard they taste good, but flounders are very ugly.

We were about fished out and had landed an incredible variety of fish, so we headed back to the dock.  On the way into the dock, "Shorty" stopped by to visit.  It was pretty neat seeing a great blue heron so up close in person - er, bird.

Our captain helped us clean the few sea trout that we kept - also keeping the roe sacks from the females.  I've never had them before, but when in Rome...

We all headed back and told lies, looked at pictures and rested for a while.  It never ceases to surprise me how much just being out in the sun all day can sap so much energy.

We all tried the roe during a dinner of fresh sea trout.  I was apprehensive, but it was surprisingly good.  Delicate flavor, with an unusual, but not bad, texture.

After dinner, Uncle D and I went out to wet a line a few more times.  We hooked into a couple small bass, before tearing it up on the crappie.  At one point, after reeling in a smaller crappie, the fish got very energetic and nearly bent the rod over.  Reeling it in to the bank, I saw it was a massive large mouth bass - by far the largest I've ever hooked.  I fought with it for a while and told Uncle D to come over.  After fighting, the bass got off the line.  Looking down, I saw a crappie still attached to my hook.  The bass had taken the crappie as I reeled it in.  I was a bit bummed I didn't land the bass, but it was sure an interesting fishing story.  And a true one.

With potential severe weather building to the northwest, we turned in for the night, ready to bike home.