The tarpon are only in South Carolina for a short period of time out of the year so Bo Hutchison and I try to make the most of each opportunity to catch them. We planned to meet in Georgetown Saturday morning, fish all weekend, and camp on the shellbank islands in the bay. Dawson Jordan and Bryson Cobb were also on the boat with me. Hunter Jordan brought his boat and had Caleb Griffin, Zach Hayes, and Ryan Stephens on board. Both boats launched together and crossed the bay, headed to a spot where I like to catch croaker and whiting for use as tarpon bait. I stopped at the island and jumped off the boat with our camping supplies and landed on oysters. This was the start of a long weekend. I left our camping gear on the island and hopped back into the boat to catch bait.
Hunter decided to take his boat out to the jetties to catch sheepshead while we caught about 15 croakers and 5 whiting. The fate of the fishing trip relies on keeping these fish alive to make a good presentation for the tarpon. The croaker are especially valuable because they croak when in distress, which can call in the predator while they are on the hook. We were all using the exact same bottom rigs with shrimp and for some reason, Dawson was the only person bringing in the bait fish. Dawson eventually hooked something much stronger than a whiting. We hoped to see a black drum or something useful but it turned out to be a sting ray. As I removed the hook, I felt a sharp burning feeling in my arm and found that the ray had barbed me. We dropped the ray back in the water and moved to the jetties.
We anchored near the jetties where a foam line had formed by two currents meeting. This current can help to draw in many types of predators like the tarpon. We anchored and put the croaker and live blue crabs on lines behind the boat. Some lines had bobbers, some had weights, and others were freelined. This allows many different presentations and depths that we can cover with our bait. The knot I use for tarpon is the perfection loop which allows more freedom for the baitfish to swim and can stretch when the tension is high.
I had spent the week visiting the seafood restaurants and collected all of the leftovers at the end of the day to fill two coolers with chum. It was an awful concoction and it had sat way too long before today. I could not help throwing up several times as I dipped the fish guts in the water, but it took my mind off of the pain in my arm. We had a great chum line leading to our boat and I was confident that any tarpon in the area would be sure to find us.
The unfortunate side effect of a chum line is that the sharks find it too. Sharks are bad news because they eat bait, cut leaders, and waste time that could be spent fishing. When a large shark bites, it will strip line from the rod similar to the way a tarpon would react. A tarpon will usually cut acrobatic leaps and flips when hooked but will sometimes remain beneath the surface for a while. For this reason, every bite has to be treated as if it were a tarpon.
Suddenly, a reel began to scream and I pulled it from the rod holder. At the time a fish bites, every person on the boat has a job. One person grabs the rod, one releases the anchor line, one drives the boat, and another reels in the fishing lines and clears the deck. Dawson took the wheel and put the throttle full speed ahead, almost throwing me off the boat. Bryson fell on top of me and the reel was still screaming as we had lost over a hundred yards of line. We were all yelling in complete chaos. I moved to the bow and we followed the fish for about 10 minutes. Eventually, the fish surfaced and we found it to be a shark. I cut the line because there is no purpose in fighting a fish after it is identified as a shark. We returned to the anchor and continued fishing.
A shark ate my chum cage and I radioed Hunter to borrow his. Hunter decided to switch from sheepshead to tarpon and moved towards us. Hunter came as close as he could to my boat and Zach tossed a chum cage to me while I threw a net full of live croaker to him.
Hunter anchored on the same foam line that I was in, and my chum floated straight back to his boat. We opened MRE army rations for lunch while waiting for another bite. My arm was still throbbing from the sting ray barb and I could not find a position to hold it that would alleviate the pain. A guide fishing on the other side of the rocks hooked up with a tarpon and the boat moved to chase it. They moved farther into the distance, but I could see with binoculars when they finally had the tarpon against the side of the boat. We had been watching this boat for a while and they were using similar rigs to ours.
Both of our boats hooked and lost a fish that had potential to be a tarpon but could not be confirmed. When the unidentified fish is lost, and the bait fish is still in good shape on the hook, then it was possible that we had a tarpon. Tarpon have huge mouths and usually gulp their food whole. Their mouth is solid bone which allows the tarpon to throw the hook easily if there is any slack in the line. We had had enough in this spot and It was time for hunter to leave, so both boats headed back inshore. Hunter, Zach, Caleb, and Ryan pulled their boat out and we followed them to the ramp to collect more bait. We took our fresh loads of bait down to the mouth of another river where we fished for the rest of the afternoon with no luck. Another boat was tarpon fishing near us, also with no luck.
A storm was brewing in the south and the wind picked up. We decided that it was time to quit for the day and we drove to front street to eat at Big Tuna while it rained. It was dark when we finished supper and I drove us back to our island campsite in the bay where we set anchor. As I walked to the island, I got stung in the back of my knee by  a jellyfish. Bryson and I shared a tent, while Dawson pitched his own tent, and Bo climbed into a hammock.
I woke at about 5:30 the next morning to find the boat beached. I put my rubber boots on snatched them off to dump the fiddler crabs out. The tide was still falling so Bo and I scrambled in an attempt to slide the boat into the water. After a great effort, we realized that we would have to wait for the tide to rise again. Bo and I went back to sleep since there was nothing left to be done.
Four boring hours passed as we waited for the tide to rise. The sun had not gotten too hot and the trees provided good shade on the island. Dawson brought some food from the boat and cooked breakfast with Bryson while Bo circled the island with a cast net catching mullet. The tide was rising and we were finally able to launch the boat. Our first stop for the day was back at the jetties. The same boat that caught the tarpon the day before was with us again. We fished through the incoming tide and decided to move inshore to a secret spot where I had hooked two tarpon in the past. The guide boat that was with us moved away as well.
We felt good vibes as we drove into my secret spot. Menhaden were schooling everywhere and the pelicans were diving all around us. We caught some menhaden and anchored to try one last time.
Again, the tarpon never came and it was time to pack our bags to head home.  I always hate leaving because I almost feel like I could hook one if I only had  one more minute. One more minute is a vague term for a fisherman, but we knew that it would not be long before we are back again. We had a long weekend of slow fishing, stingray barbs, jelly fish stings, oysters, and other obstacles along the way, but all these tarpon fishing adventures are just building up to the moment that we finally land the beast. Fishing for tarpon reminds me of stalking a huge buck for an entire season, every hookup is like having the deer in your sights before something goes wrong and the opportunity is lost. We can set the perfect rigs with the perfect bait in the perfect spot, but we still need a little bit of luck to get the bite.