# Unbelievable night, need help! Update 9/26!



## weathermantrey (Sep 24, 2010)

I just experienced the craziest hour of fishing I have ever had tonight.  

For starters, I have never surf or saltwater fished before. Anyways, we are in charleston, SC for the weekend, so I figured I'd wet a line.

Last night,  I decided to go see if i could net some bait on the beach.  I netted several dozen mullet and come back and got one of my rods.

I started fishing at about 6:30. I managed to catch a small bluefish and a stingray.  Then, right at dark, I hook into a MONSTER!

I'm fishing with an abu garcia 6500; 30lb red cajun line, and a saltwater rod.  

Fellas, I NEVER slowed this fish down!  It spooled me, and then snapped off my line!!!!

Well, since I didn't bring my tackle box I headed back to house.

This evening,  I brought 5 of my abu rigs with me.  The evening started off slow, I hadn't even gotten a bite. Then when it started to get dark. IT HAPPENED AGAIN!!! I got spooled!   Over the next hour,  I broke off 15 different times!!!!  3 of those times I had the fish about half way to the bank before it broke me off.  

Also, 2 of those times, I saw the fish jump in the moonlight about a 100 yards out.  All i can tell you is that it was a fish, and it looked like it was 5 or 6 feet long and made huge splashes in the water.  

So, what kind of fish am I wrangling with here???? In the morning, I"m going to the tackle shop and significantly upgrading my line. LOL.

I catch 40 and 50lb catfish on a regular basis back home, and fellas, whatever I'm hooking into here on the beach is in a completely different league!!!

And I'm fishing on Isle of Palms beach next to breech's inlet if anybody knows where that is.  I would love it if somebody could tell me what kind of fish this most likely is.  I'll report back tomorrow night, hopefully with some resolution to this story!!!


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## d-a (Sep 24, 2010)

Sounds like a tarpon

d-a


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## olcowman (Sep 24, 2010)

I don't know what it is but I wouldn't wade out in that water past my toes if i was you! Did you bring a rifle with ya? If you got one you might try and get a shot off at it when it jumps or something? I don't know nothing about this kind of fishing either but it sure sounds fun and next time you go if you take me i'll pop a cap in for ya...

If you manage to subdue whatever it is you got to post us some pictures. And oh yeah, don't put your hands nowheres near it's mouth, I seen that on the tv.


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## DBM78 (Sep 24, 2010)

Some type of shark most likely try get you a 5ft or 6ft leader and try again. Most of the time sharks with cut the line with their body or tail.


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## jamrens (Sep 24, 2010)

spinner shark...


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## bkl021475 (Sep 24, 2010)

d-a said:


> Sounds like a tarpon
> 
> d-a



x2 Sounds just like a tarpon!


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## oldenred (Sep 24, 2010)

most likely a shark, decent size 6ft plus


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## Georgia27 (Sep 25, 2010)

Tarpon


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## GAGE (Sep 25, 2010)

bkl021475 said:


> x2 Sounds just like a tarpon!



That is my guess as well!


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## redneck_billcollector (Sep 25, 2010)

Could be either a shark or tarpon.  I know on Tybee I used to catch sharks all the time surf fishing once it started getting dark.  I lean more towards shark because of all the breakoffs and not thrown hooks, which tend to be the case with tarpon cause they have very tough mouths.


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## Dustin Pate (Sep 25, 2010)

I am also going with spinner sharks.


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## jamrens (Sep 25, 2010)

im still staying with spinner shark.. try some 300lb mono or a wire leader to find out for sure the only thing that might say tarpon is you cant get it turned.. But im still pretty sure its a spinner..


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## olcowman (Sep 25, 2010)

Do sharks jump out of the water like that? I know tarpon will jump like nobody's business. I've seen them great white sharks jumping out after them seals on the tv but i thought that was sort of unique? I ain't real familiar with sharks to begin with as they ain't real common up here in the flint.


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## jamrens (Sep 25, 2010)

spinner sharks do.. youtube some videos of them and they will suprise you...


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## southgabowhunter (Sep 26, 2010)

shark or tarpon


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## jamessig (Sep 26, 2010)

So 15 breakoffs and only two fish jumping. The non-jumping bites were most likely sharks. A couple hundred pound bull shark would hardly notice the drag from #30 test line. Only way to know for sure what the jumping fish are is to land one, but I would suspect spinner sharks which don't get all that big and should be within the ability of your rig. Average spinner is probably in the 100 pound range and they don't get bigger than 200 pounds. Makos are notorious for jumping and occasionally are caught from shore but your gear doesn't stand a chance of landing a sizable one. A big mako will weigh a 1000 pounds or so.
Try long steel leaders and at the very least #50 braid, #80 braid would be better and your reel will hold quite a bit more #80 braid than #30 mono (#100 braid is supposed to have the same diameter as #20 mono). I would use leader material weaker than the main line, it could get expensive dumping a spool of braid and then having your arbor knot fail. I'd rather lose a fish than 50 bucks worth of brand new line.


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## weathermantrey (Sep 26, 2010)

Well,  I went to the tackle shop and bought 125lb mono leader line, and 13/0 circle hooks. This is what the guy at the shop told me I needed.  He said the circle hooks would keep the sharks teeth from cutting the line.  "if it was sharks"

Anyways, on one of my reels, I went ahead and bought a spool of 100lb spider wire and put it on there.

Just like the evenings before, not any bites until it started to get dark and WHAM! fish on! It took me about 10 minutes to get it in and it was a shark.  Probably 4 or 5 feet long and maybe 50 or 60lbs.  

Over the next hour I managed to land 4 sharks, and had 2 break me off.  Of the two that broke me off, one of them was on the 100lb power pro!!!  It jerked my rod out of the rod holder and I had to dive into the water to catch it just as it was about to disappear!! 10 seconds later it had nearly ran out my entire spool of spider wire so I cranked down my drag and clamped my thumb down on the spool hard and held on tight!! Fellas, I'm not joking when I say I phyiscally couldn't hold him back and I just had to let the rest of the line sing off the spool and then with a hard yank he about jerked my arms off and snapped the line at my spool!!

I think the sharks I caught are called finetooth sharks?? Not really sure though. The smaller of the sharks I caught jumped up out of the water like crazy right after I hooked him!  I'll attach some pictures to this thread in a little while.  

Thanks for all the help guys, and it was definitely a blast reeling those jokers in! Yall should have seen the crowd formed on the beach to watch my reel these things in.


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## weathermantrey (Sep 26, 2010)

Here's a picture from the cell phone. My mom has all the camera pictures, so I'll have to wait for her to upload them online before I can post them.


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## DBM78 (Sep 27, 2010)

Catching a shark that size from the beach is a lot tougher than catching the same size shark from a boat. After a shark that size and running up and down the beach you need a break. Nice job thanks for the update. I have caught my fair share of sharks out of SC the water gets so warm in the summer the sharks love it. If your fishing in or around Charleston I bet the water is over 80 degrees.


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## shea900 (Sep 27, 2010)

Oh yeah! Can't wait to see some more pics.


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