Dillon has a surprisingly large amount of shrimpers compared to other inland SC counties. The shrimpers are shrimping through the fall, competing in the shrimp net tournament, and sharing stories. I enjoyed their stories so much that I wanted to take up the sport. I knew that the only way to make myself learn about shrimping was to buy the poles and go from there.
The 2017 shrimp baiting season has been hard on the “Dillon shrimping fleet.” I was yet to make a trip where the wind was less than 20 mph NE and most of our trips yielded comparatively small amounts of shrimp. One crew had to run their boat aground to prevent themselves from being swamped in the waves and many shrimpers reported only a third of a cooler load after a full day’s work. By noon a week before, we had only caught three shrimp; one shrimp per person.
November 4th was the last weekend of the SC shrimp baiting season and my freezer was lacking the spoils of war that I had hoped to collect in the beginning. Hunter Jordan, Myers Jordan, Bryson Cobb, Zeb Boykin, and I planned one final quest to McClellanville to catch the white shrimp. The latest reports showed that shrimp were being caught in deep holes. We spent the entire season shrimping off of baited poles and deep holing was a last resort effort. We have never tried deep holing for shrimp but had nothing to lose by giving it a try. We met the night before to add duct tape to the border of the net which will cause it would remain open like a parachute as it descends to the bottom. A net without the tape will usually close before it reaches these depths.
We left Dillon at 4:30 Saturday morning bound for McClellanville. As is our tradition, we stopped at the Ice Hoise store in Georgetown to buy extra bait mix and breakfast. We pulled into the little fishing community of McClellanville and launched the boat. The deck was loaded with nets, buckets, poles, coolers, and bait as well as fishing poles in case we couldn’t catch shrimp.
The sun was just rising over the marsh grass as we approached our starting point in the creek. We came up on a deep 30 foot hole, and Myers tossed the net. The tape changes how the net reacts to a throw and we almost had to relearn the technique to be able to throw it. The crew waited in silent suspense while the net sank beneath us. I watched our sonar and could see when the net reached to the bottom. Myers pulled the line tight and we realized that the tape also adds a lot of drag when pulling it up.
Myers released the net on the deck and we saw nothing. The way the crew checked through the empty net reminded me of Forrest Gump and Lt. Dan while they were starting in the shrimping business. We tried several deep holes and still no shrimp.
We went back to the original method of using poles and bait balls to catch the shrimp. Hunter steered the boat while Bryson and I mixed bait and Myers and Zeb shoved the poles into the hard sandy bottom of Bulls Bay. Two other boats were working their poles to our left as we tossed our bait near our poles.
The poles should be placed perpendicular to the current to capitalize on the range covered for shrimp passing by and also to pull the boat away from the poles after making a cast. For example; if the current is east to west, your 10 poles should be in a line north to south. Myers emphasized the importance of accuracy when pitching bait to the poles saying, “Accurately throwing bait will make or break a day of shrimping.” If the bait is too far from the pole, then it will draw the shrimp away from your casting area which means you will not catch the shrimp by the pole. We dropped two bait balls by each pole and drifted away allowing time for the shrimp to gather for their feast.
Zeb was throwing the net for our first pass and made a few practice throws before we approached the first pole. I thought it would be tough to learn with Myers, Hunter, and myself because we all throw the net in a completely different way. Zeb quickly mastered the art and his first cast landed in front of the pole as round as a pancake. His pass produced a lot of shrimp and spirits were high. Myers was next and he continued to rake them in. A well thrown net is as pretty to see as the looped line on a fly cast and each net load held at least 20 medium sized shrimp. Myers would dump the net on the deck and the free hands would gather the catch and drop them into a bucket.
The net was heavy and held a heavy resistance when pulling it in. Retrieving the net took two people to pull it in because of the water resistance on the tape. The tape didn’t allow it to close all the way and we could see shrimp escaping but there were so many shrimp that it didn’t bother me too much.
Hunter, Bryson, and I each made a pass casting and for the first time, it looked as if we might fill the cooler. The cooler was packed with ice and while I casted for shrimp, Myers and Bryson scooped ice out of the cooler to maximize space for the shrimp.
Hunter put the engine in reverse after each cast to keep the boat away from the poles. We were reassured that this was a good spot because we could see the shrimp jumping in our prop wash around the boat.
The cooler was filled by noon and we popped the heads off the shrimp as we navigated home. Shrimping is fast action when the going is good and we never had a chance to stop to eat lunch. Zeb crawled to the back of the car on the way home and started passing sandwiches forward. The ride home is always more lively after a successful day on the water.
There are certainly easier ways to get shrimp but nothing equals the time, planning, experiences, friendships that are made on the water. Recreational shrimping has been a low country tradition for years and there are many who participate in the shrimping season from Dillon. Hunter, Myers, and I have been with our dads years ago, and it has been an adventure trying to relearn the sport together. We came home with an empty cooler over and over but we finally managed to find the shrimp and end the season with success. The poles, nets, and bait are stowed away and awaiting the Shrimp Net Casting Tournament to kick off the next shrimping season.