I went fishing with Bo Hutchison in Georgetown this past Saturday in search of the tarpon. We caught whiting, croaker, and black drum to use as bait, and we rode out to the jetties. As we fished, a school of sturgeon passed by, lunging their full body out of the water. Sturgeon can grow to be up to 18 feet but these were between 6-8 feet in length. One sturgeon almost landed on the boat, splashing all of us. It was quite a show and entertained us while we waited for the Tarpon, which never bit. The tarpon is a tough fish to hook, and even more so difficult to catch. How did we get started searching for a fish, that we could spent 3 summers chasing, with only 6 bites?
Dad, Dawson Jordan, and I, woke early on a Sunday morning towards the end of the summer of 2014, and towed the skiff to the boat ramp for some red fishing. The motor had been failing the day before and would not push the boat more than 5mph. An ear-piercing alarm sounded until our ears were ringing. We were already in Georgetown so we decided to try fishing in areas closer to the boat ramp. We met a fisherman along the way who told us about a spot to find tarpon that we could reach with our crippled motor. Knowing that we would not reach the hot spot for red fish, we gave the tarpon a try.
Before this time I had never considered tarpon fishing. It is more like hunting than fishing. When tarpon fishing, it is considered expected to get skunked, successful to hook up, and a miracle to catch. For this reason, most fishermen choose not to pursue the tarpon. I packed several sets of ear plugs to help make the alarm more bearable for the boat ride, and we limped across Winyah Bay. The bay was packed with bait fish and we had the live-well loaded by the time we set anchor. Tarpon want an easy meal, and will fit anything from a small menhaden to a football sized mullet into their gaping mouths.
We put 4 lines out behind the boat and shredded some baitfish for chum. Our docking buoy was tied to the anchor rope off the bow. This is important for tarpon fishing because there is no time to retrieve the anchor. The rope has to be un-clipped from the bow and left in the water while the boat chases the fish. The buoy keeps the anchor rope at the surface so the boat can return when the fight is over.
I had 0% confidence in our luck for catching tarpon. We had never attempted this before and there was so much water around us. How lucky would we have to be for a fish to cross our path? Even more to get a bite. Just then, I saw the back of a tarpon roll on the surface. The fish had to be over 6 feet long. I rubbed my eyes and wrote it off as wishful seeing. All of the sudden, I heard the zing sound of line being stripped from a rod. I turned to see Dawson grasping the rod screaming, “TARPON TARPON TARPON!” I immediately let loose the anchor and dad shifted the boat in gear. The chase was on! I reeled in the lines that were still in the water and looked over my shoulder at Dawson. He was standing on the bow with the rod pointed at the fish. I could see the tarpon about 70 yards ahead trudging through the water like a freight train. The water here is no more than 2 feet deep and the fish was causing a wake off both sides as he fought. This was still early in the morning and our struggle with the tarpon was the only cause of any ripples in the glassy, quiet bay.
What seemed like an eternity lasted only a minute. Dawson’s rod tip popped straight up and the line went slack. The silver king had escaped. Everyone on the boat was silent, except for the obnoxious alarm that wouldn’t stop ringing. All we could do at this point was to hook up with the anchor line and try again.
Our lines were in the water and we waited for a second chance. I had already written off the day in my mind as a huge success. This was sheer-dumb luck, but I felt like we had to have been doing something right to hook the tarpon and it created a burning drive in me to catch this magnificent fish. The second chance never came that day but we did manage to catch several red drum in the marsh grass using live mullet and shrimp on popping-corks.
Since then, I have hooked 6 confirmed tarpon and 2 possible tarpon. We have not gotten one to the boat yet but I know that this will be the season. Every summer, the tarpon migrate north along the coast until many find their summer stay in the menhaden rich waters of Georgetown. You will know when I catch one.