excellent sharkmanship

Yes, it’s what you think. We had it all planned out: Labor Day weekend was going to be it. My dad came down to fish with us, along with our neighbor and one of John’s coworkers, who also brought his son. We prepped on Saturday afternoon, getting the Sea Hunt (“Marmaduke‘s Revenge”) ready with all of our tackle & gear for the next day. We went to be early the night before, planning to be up and at ’em around 5 am and have the boat in the water by 6 am 6:25 am. Check. Out near the jetties part Charleston Harbor looking for bait by 6:30 7:15 am. Check.

Captain Wuan aboard Marmaduke’s Revenge

We’d found a spot and anchored up at the jetties by about 8:30, got our lines out. We were doing it. We were fishing. And boat/people watching. And admiring houses and lighthouses we could see in the distance. And getting both GoPros ready for action. Hah. And fishing. Fishing, but not catching. Actually, I take that back. We’d caught some feisty bait in the cast net, and they were swimming around like a member of the Phelps family, effectively assisting us in catching each other’s lines as they zig-zagged through the water. One rod tip would start to bend (much to our excitement – what was on the line?), and within a few seconds, another would bend. It only took one or two tangles for us to figure out our method just wasn’t working. [Side note: braid tangles real quick if you’re not careful.] [Side note #2: I apparently excel at tangled-knot undoing. Must be the years of untangling this lion’s mane I have on my head…]

It’s calm in this photo, but the waves really picked up after a couple of hours, and we decided it was time for a cold beer, a little boat ride, and a change of scenery. DONE! As it always seems to happen, we were bringing lines in and getting ready for our move when we heard the unmistakable “zzzzzzzzzzzz!!!” of line being stripped from one of the rods, tip bent over and line going fast. Do you know what I mean? I feel it happens every time – stand up to stretch in the deer stand, and a doe walks by right then. Get out of the duck blind to pick up decoys, and a group of red heads start working the pond. Take a bathroom break in the dove field? Guarantee you’ll miss 3-4 pie shots with your britches down.

But I digress. So, I grabbed the fishing rod and let whatever was on the other end run for a few more seconds, then started reeling. I was definitely hooked up to a fish with some heft, but we had no idea what it was. In the minute or so that I was fighting the fish, remaining lines came in and John had just enough time to pick up a GoPro to film the catch. Alas, I had already turned them off when I was packing up, so naturally when the spinner shark at the other end of the line cork-screwed out of the water with an epic 1440 (that’s 4 360’s, in case you’re bad at math, or didn’t get my cool lingo), followed immediately by another 720. And THEN the camera turned on. And the shark promptly cut the line. I’m sure all of this happened in about 5 seconds but it felt like several minutes. Alas, no shark footage… yet. Shocking – I caught a shark.

So, we took a cruise farther inland into the creeks, caught some more bait, and anchored up in a tarpon-y looking spot for round 2 of the day. The little boy who was with us promptly caught… Another shark. Womp womp. But he was so cute and excited, it was just as entertaining, and well worth it.

 

Hilarity did ensue when John attempted to pick up the bonnethead so they could get a picture. That was one wiggly shark, I must say, and no one wanted to get caught on the business end…
So he belly-flopped back into the water. Over the next 2-3 hours, we kept our eyes on the water with hopes of spotting a tarpon fin ease out of the water. In fact, 3 separate times we saw a tarpon do exactly that, or roll, not too far away from us. That gave us just the boost of hope & excitement we needed to pursue them the rest of the afternoon.
Unfortunately, we never had the opportunity to land, or even hook, said tarpon. A couple more sharks were caught, and I think even a stingray. No way, right?

Chomp, chomp, huh?

We headed in around 5:30 that afternoon, a little disappointed and a little sunburned. But, that’s why they call it fishing, am I right? The beer was still cold, the boiled peanuts still delicious, and a great time was had by all. Per usual, for those aboard Marmaduke’s Revenge.

Who wouldn’t enjoy a beautiful day on the water?

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