Mount Pleasant (Northern Suburb of Charleston, S.C.)

Since this is a fishing blog, I will try to keep my recap of our trip to South Carolina to boat/fishing experiences.   In the process, I will neglect many of the great times we had with new friends and old.  I won't go into the terrific meals we had which ranged from shmancy super delicious Washington DC French/American cuisine to an oyster roast wheel-barrowed in from local pilings.  

Our first fishing adventure came with OC Polk aboard his 18' Parker.   We met OC and his first mate Lisa Marie at a boat ramp by an inlet on Sullivan's Island.  We cruised 8 miles offshore on beautiful flat seas to an offshore reef.  We spent the next 5 or 6 hours hammering fish.  We caught some nice Black Drum and Sheepshead. The biggest fish were 10 and 11 pounds and in all we caught over 160 lbs of fish. You can see a video of the bait above.

Later that day our hosts Ben and Marci treated us and some of their friends to a cruise around Charleston Harbor in the sportfishing boat Ben runs.  The Jabez is a 56' fishing extravaganza complete with fancy pants fighting chair and the whole show.  It's the boat on the right pictured below and you can click on the link if you care to see more.

The next morning we decided to join OC at work.  OC pilots the Spirit of the Low Country, a giant Pink Lady kind of rig that seats over 500 people.  You can see Ben and I in the space located behind El Capitan.  The boat took us out to Fort Sumter which recently celebrated the 150th anniversary of what is generally considered the beginning of the Civil War. 

Later that afternoon, Gayle went to the beach with Marci, and Ben hooked me up with his friend John and his son Ellison for some Redfishing.  John's boat, when planed off, draws less then 6" of water.  You can probably tell in the short video below.  In the picture below you can see I was successful.  In fact, I was the only guy to catch a fish.  I caught that fish on a shrimp with a jighead.  We had a tough day of fishing with a bit too much wind and a drainer tide.  We did not spot many fish and we polled around for a long time.  Much thanks to John for all their effort there.  Going up and down those nooks and crannies is really fun and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Unfortunately, we had to get back home to relieve the grandparents and to get stuff done.  Apparently, Gayle and I missed a fishing extravaganza offshore on Thursday.  The Jabez caught a pile of black fin tuna and several wahoo and who knows how many other types of fish.  Hopefully, next time we go to SC, we can jump aboard.