Myrtle Beach Report, April 23-27
Stayed at the Lighthouse Motel, fished the 2nd Avenue Pier. If you stay at the Lighthouse you get free fishing at the pier which is nice, especially for 2 people staying for 5 days.
Wednesday:
Got there Wednesday around 2 or 3 PM, checked in and took everything to the room and rested for a bit. Decided to head out to the pier. Started out with squid, finger mullet, and shrimp. Had a few small bites on the squid and shrimp, caught a croaker and cut him up for bait. Changed baits to finger mullet and the croaker and went at them. Wound up with 15 or so 1-2 pound blues, threw several small ones back. Also caught a few keeper whiting. Got tired of reeling them in after a while so me and my dad started letting the little kids out there catch them after setting the hook. Evening ended with a 3 foot shark, I'm guessing sharpnose but don't really know, it was dark and we just let him go. It had plenty of teeth so it wasn't a dogfish. Hooked into something big after that didn't like it when I set the hook. Made the drag scream and a few seconds later he was off. Don't remember if he cut the 50 lb. test bottom rig or just spit the hook. Headed back to the room, gutted the fish, dropped them in ziplocks and tossed them in the freezer.
Thursday:
Woke up bright and early Thursday morning and headed out, put out some cut mullet and a croaker I saved from the night before. Just had a few small little pecks, didn't do much with them. Saw some guys jigging and catching some Spanish Mackerel. I hadn't ever tried it before and nothing was happening on the bottom, so I brought my bottom rigs in and talked with the guys. Wound up getting a Spanish rig, tied it on and after a quick lesson I fell in line with them and started jigging. After the guys caught a few fish I hooked up on my first one and I was hooked. I wound up with 4 keepers in the cooler, from 12-14 inches. Called it a day and got out of the heat for a rest. Headed back out later around 4:30. Only took my Spanish rod and rig and didn't catch anything except a few silversides and 2 or 3 grass shad. It was weird to catch bait on the same rig as what eats them, but oh well.
Friday:
Headed back out when they opened the pier with the Spanish rig and cooler. Stayed and jigged for a few hours but after no fish I headed back to the room. Went back out later and didn't catch any. Found out Sunday that I was leaving too early and getting back too late.
Saturday:
Was planning to leave Saturday but we decided to go out on a boat the night before and stay another night. Got up early and headed up to Calabash, NC and went out on a party boat with the Hurricane Fleet for 4 hours. Just blew $80 plus $5 on some half rotten cut fish for bait. Got back early afternoon and rested for the rest of the day in the room. Reports I got on Sunday were that a ton of Spanish Mackerel were caught from piers Saturday with lots of people limiting out pretty fast.
Sunday:
Had to leave Sunday. Got up around 9, got everything together and in the car, kept a Spanish rig in my pocket and my rod out. Walked out on the pier around 10 or 11 not expecting to stay long. Caught a small skate, then the fish started biting about 12, with high tide at 1:09 I believe. Caught 10 or so, all 12 inches or better except 1. Finished off my limit from people catching them who weren't keeping them. Left around 2:15 and put the fish on ice.
Had a great time except the party boat, met a few locals and got their numbers so I don't waste a 45 minute one way drive if the fish aren't biting. Hope to head back this weekend if my sunburn is better and there's still some fish being caught. Most Spanish that were caught were 12 - 14 inches, big one I saw caught was 15.25. There weren't too many under 12 but there were a few.
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Fishing is fun; Catching is better
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