So, I have been teaching a buddy of mine from Belgium how to surf. It's my son's best friends dad. They are going on a trip to the coast of Ireland at the end of the month and he is hell bent on surfing while he was there. Last weekend, we went Saturday morning and Sunday. Saturday was pretty small. Knee to possibly waist high. Whatever, I can still ride that.... Next morning, conditions were supposed to be better. More favorable tide. offshore wind. But when I wake up, I saw that the swell had dropped from a predicted 1.8ft @ 7 seconds to like .8 @ 5 seconds. Knowing this, it was basically unsurfable, so I brought my fishing gear. As soon as we got to the beach, I was deflated and said, okay, I am going back to the truck to get my fishing gear....
So, I never try and fish by people, but these "massholes" were on the southern end of the beach with like 8 rods with lines out, in spikes on the shoreline, so I setup next to them, and we basically set the precedent for "This is now a fishing zone for the day"... So I set up two rods, both bottom rigs, hoping for whiting, but most likely going to hit rays and sharks... I did NOT have my PVC spikes to put the rods in, so I basically laid them down on the beach and was watching them....
About 45 minutes into our beach session, I look up the beach and see all these people standing around something. Taking pictures. So I walk up to them, and there is a live sting ray, beached. The tide is going out, so this thing is just baking in the sun and laying there. People are taking photos of it. Kids are attempting to touch it. I am like, listen, don't touch it, it's alive, and how about we not just stand here making Tik Toks and we help it... So I grabbed a boogie board from one of the kids on the beach and slid the ray back into the water. After about 10-15 seconds of thinking it make be dead, it finally woke up and swam off. Everyone was all clapping and happy and I am like, why the fuck are you all just staring at it....
Anyway, after an hour and a half or so of fishing, I am hitting nothing. The buy down the beach has pulled in one whiting so far with all of his 8 rods.... So, my son and his little girldfriend say "Can we go to the lazy river?" There is a tide creek with a jetty at the south end of the beach, which is where the sand forms the sand bars from... But the creek is very long, so at high tide, you can get on a raft over by the parking lot and ride the tide all the way out to the ocean. Super cool spot. On the back side of the dunes. Most people don't even know it's there. So we are bullshitting, exploring and what not and we finally head back to our spot on the beach after about an hour. When I gt there, I notice my one rod is not where it was. It's way up higher on the beach. It's reeled in. I am like, Hrmmm... WTF? So this hispanic dude and his girlfriend come up to me. They were fishing next to me. They speak no English, but basically, he said that my rod started getting pulled out into the ocean and he chased after it and reeled in what he called a "Grande Shark",,,, So I thank him for saving my rod and basically say, year, I probably shouldn't have left that un-attended, especially since it wasn't spiked into the sand...
Then my son is all pissed like, that was our shark.... I explained, well, at least someone got to catch it and fight it... "Daddy, you should have pulled the rod in....".... He would have rather no one caught a shark, even with our rod... Kids....
Then yesterday, when they cleared the beach for shark sighting, I packed my shit up and figured, I guess it's a bad look if I am throwing bottom rigs out into the water full of large sharks....
I really need to get my butt back out there to catch some fish, I'm good for 2-3 times per year these days lol, but when I do, I usually am pretty successful. I like this little pier on the river / intracoastal on Melbourne Beach, lots of space to move around and try different setups, it's covered at the big end section where most people fish, tables, etc., I'll probably hit that place up again soon with the girls.
Yeah, the fishing is really good around here. Yesterday, SCDNR changed the rules AGAIN, on our prize fish, the red fish. Slots moved to 15-23" and now you can only take one Red per person, and two per boat, so they are coming down with an even heavier hand on the one fish that everyone comes here to catch. I suck at catching redfish. We sold our boat a few years back, and with Reds, you really need a boat to hunt them down in the marshes and shit..... But if you want to catch a bunch of sharks, you can just toss any chunk of bloody meat into the water here. Ocean or intracoastal, and within minutes, a shark is going to get it... It's fucking crazy.
As mentioned before, my son's best friend is a legit little angler. His mom has a boat and she grew up fishing in tournaments with her Dad and shit. Anyway, whenever we go fishing with them, we do more "catching" than "fishing" and this past weekend, they didn't disappoint.
My son also landed a 5ft shark. Couldn't tell if it was a medium sized bull or a giant black tip, but whatever it was, it bit through the leader line when it was almost to the boat....
But they caught a couple of reds, a trout, a sharpnose shark and a rare skate.... Not bad for only being out there 1.5 hours or so.
Little Shark. Atlantic Sharpnose.
Throw in a trout.
The Skate. A rare catch around here.
The ride home.
So, my daughter didn't have dance Friday, so she was home, which was unusual. The boy didn't have shit to do, so I asked the crew if they wanted to go hangout and walk on the beach.... Everyone said yes... I sneak out and start loading up fishing gear. Wife gives me the stink eye: Why are you loading all that up? I thought we were walking on the beach.... Well yes, yes we are... But the boy and I are going to setup two rods, cast out, leave them in the PVC spikes on the beach, then we can walk up and down the beach. I will bring binoculars and if the rod bends, we will run over and handle it...
So, some other dudes around me are out in the water, like chest deep, casting out. They are catching tiny Whitings and keeping them. No slot on them here....
So, anyway, after the long portion of our walk, my daughter and I walk ahead to get to the rod.... No bend. I real it in.... Something took the bait. So, I am hooking more mullet on the rod. I am like ankle deep.... My daughter is right next to me. Right as I start to walk out to cast again, I see a 5ft+ shark like 5 feet in front of me. In the shallow. In like 2 feet of water. Wasn't a black tip because I could see the fin. All grey, so I think it was an Atlantic Sharpnose. Coulda been a bull, but it didn't look thick, just long... So, I yell to my daughter to look, she sees it. I am yelling down the beach to my son, but by the time they get to us, it was gone. My son thought I caught the shark, but I said nope, this fucker was just chilling and swimming around my feet.... Anyway, at that point, it was time to do, so we packed up and left. Skunked....
Yesterday, I put up all my halloween decor outside, cut the grass and shit, then grabbed the boy and took him to the dock at the end of our street. I have a good feeling. Gonna be a good day. Gonna catch some shit. I DID NOT check the weather. So, about 20 minutes into our fishing session, the clouds form, starts to rain. Thunder. The whole shit. It continued to rain all day long... So, I got skunked on the fishing stuff all weekend long. Ohh well. Did get to see a beast of a shark up close though. It was almost sunset, so the water had that eerie "It's feeding time" vibes going on....
Also, there was no guard tower on this stretch of beach. There was one about 1/2 mile north. Now, in the summer, when a shark is spotted in an area like that, they clear the water for 30 minutes.... As the shark passed us, I looked down the beach and there were kids sitting in the sand in about 2 feet of water, 1/4 mile down the beach. Right in the path of where the shark was headed. I asked the wife "Should I be that guy and walk down the beach and clear people?" Or do we just continue on.... She said "That shark is long gone... I probably wouldn't create all that panic"..... I assume the shark swam right up to these kids and just kept it moving.