Huge Shark Catch + Fall Bass Hunt

Huge Tiger Shark Caught in Broad River

We heard this week of an amazing catch on October 5th in the Broad River near Beaufort. A local was fishing with his family at a deep spot known as the "Cobia Hole" near the Broad River bridge. Fishing on bottom with heavy tackle hoping to catch a respectable-sized shark, he got more than he bargained for. After a surprisingly short, but intense battle, he brought a 12 and 1/2 foot tiger shark to the boat. Being so large, there was no way to get the shark into his bay boat, so he towed it to shore to measure and clean it. After adding up the weight of the meat cleaned off, plus the rest of the carcass, it is estimated at near 700 pounds. While a huge shark, amazingly it is over 1,000 pounds lighter than the SC state record (and one-time world record), a 1,780 pound behemouth hauled in at Cherry Grove in 1964.


The story of that world record is an amazing one, not just for the size, but how it was caught. Walter Maxwell was fishing on a hot mid-June morning in Cherry Grove, and he was rigged up for big sharks. Using 130-pound line on a 16/0 Penn reel, Walter hooked up with that monster not from a boat, but from the pier. As crowds of onlookers gathered, he battled the shark up and down the boards for hours, eventually bringing the giant onto the beach. When it was beached it probably weighed over 2,000 pounds, but it wasn't weighed until hours later when it was trucked to a scale large enough to weigh it. In that time it lost a lot of weight from dehydration. However, even that couldn't keep it from going down in the records as the largest tiger shark ever caught until it was broken in 2004 on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Fall Bass Hunt

Fishing for largemouth bass in the fall can be hit-and-miss. Bass become much more picky in their eating habits as the water starts to cool, and many factors weigh into the feeding patterns. Weather is the single biggest factor at play in the fall, and success depends on cold fronts, cloud cover, air temperature, water temperature, rainfall, and water clarity. The best time to fish is the short period before a cold front moves through when there is good cloudcover, but the temperatures have not dropped a lot yet. Fish are cold-blooded, meaning that they need to feed aggressively while it is warmer so they can stock up on calories for when colder temps make the fish sluggish. This is especially true of big bass, who need to feed like a bear that's about to go into hibernation.

Good baits this time of year are baitfish imitations, like flukes or spinnerbaits. Cooler temperatures mean you should slow down your presentation a little bit to accomidate for slower fish. A pig-and-jig combination is also a good choice. In a black/blue color, it is great flipped around structure like submerged timber, docks, and river bluffs.

After a front moves through, bluebird skies and frigid air usually mean the bass bite will nearly shut off all together. However, if you absolutely must go fishing, suspending or sinking stick baits like a Smithwick Rogue work very well fished slowly at deeper depths, where the bass are hunkered down.

Flood Tide Quandary

A full moon, combined with a low-pressure system moving over the area, has pushed the tides to very high levels over the South Carolina and Georgia coasts. Such tides muddy the water and turn normally placid creeks into whitewater rapids on the tide changes. They also push the bait and fish high into the spartina grass at high tide. Needless to say, this creates a hostile fishing environment for the average angler.


Time to leave the rods in the garage, right? Actually, the flood tides present a unique opportunity for the angler in-the-know. South Carolina, and particularly Georgia, lack the traditional salt "flats" typical of Florida and the Gulf Coast. While fishing on the bottom at low tide in the deeper sounds and on the beaches might net you some success in such big tides, it's fishing the skinny water that really gets exciting when the tides get high. Florida anglers boast tales of "tailing" redfish and sight fishing for seatrout on shallow-water flats, and flood tides give Low Country anglers a shot at the same type of action.


Fishing such high tides means special tactics, meaning that you'll either need a shallow-draft flats boat or go wade fishing. Due to the fact these big tides can change in a hurry, leaving even a flats boat high and dry, I recommend the latter. Flats fishing is done strictly with either artificials on spinning or light baitcasting equipment or with a fly rod. I recommend using waders with flats boots to avoid nasty oyster and sawgrass cuts.


When using artificials, a medium-light saltwater spinning reel, such as a Daiwa Capricorn, is best mounted on a 7 to 7 1/2 inch, medium-heavy, extra-fast action rod. I recommend the Shimano Teramar series of rods due to their light weight, but high strength (the over-the-counter lifetime warranty helps, too). Saltwater-ready baitcasters like the Shimano Curado work well on a 7-foot casting rod of the same action.


There are several different artificial baits to try in the grass, and a good selection of each is key to finding what the fish are biting on. However, all baits need to be somewhat weedless in order to slip through the thick grass. Gold Johnson spoons are a good choice, as are redfish spinnerbaits like the Thunder Spin in the Calcasieu color. A 5-inch Saltwater Assassin rigged weedless with an offset worm hook slips through the grass well, and draws hard stikes from tailing spottail bass. If you find an area with less grass, topwaters like a Rapala SkitterWalk or a Mirrolure work well.

If using fly tackle, which is a great option on a flood tide, a 7-8 weight rod is best with weight-forward floating line. Clouser flies, as well as shrimp and crab imitations like a Redfish Ration are great choices. Stained water means that sight fishing isn't as great as in Florida, but casting ahead of wakes and rustling grass can put you on some fish. The greatest thrill of all is watching a redfish barrel through the grass to attack your fly!

Fishing these flood tides can be very tricky and intimidating, but with the right setup and the right location, you can get into plenty of inshore action while everyone else is waiting to put their boat back in the water.

Fall Fishing Blitz

The fall inshore fishing season has begun with a bang. Though temperatures have barely dropped, the fish don't seem to care as the usual fall run of seatrout and redfish has begun early and strong. Limit catches of large seatrout and runs of big bull redfish have been reported the last couple of weeks, and it only seems to be getting better.

Surf Fishing Class

On Thursday, October 12 at 6:30 PM there will be a class on fall surf fishing for red drum on the Georgia/South Carolina coast at the Savannah Bass Pro Shops. They'll be covering tackle, casting techniques, bait, and more. Please sign up by email or in person at the Customer Service desk at Bass Pro.

Seatrout Hawgs



One of the most impressive things about the seatrout catch reports is the size of many of the trout being caught. While large numbers of trout were biting all summer, few were large enough to keep. Now some of the trout are falling into the "gator" category. One recent report was of a limit catch in Ossabaw Sound that included 6 trout over 20 inches! Catches like that are common in Florida and on the Texas coast, but they are a rare occurance in Georgia or the Carolinas.


Red Bullys

Fall bull redfish have arrived on the beaches and whether you're surf fishing or anchored on a boat on the outside of the sounds, you should have a good chance this year at catching a nice red drum. Bait of choice is a mullet, a small blue crab, or a half-crab fished on the bottom. Make sure you have a reel with a lot of line, becuase in most cases these redfish are 40+ inches and topping 30 pounds.

Saltwater Outlook

A stretch of spring tides at the end of the week might slow the fishing for a little while, but then as the temperatures cool down the fishing should heat up on the coast by mid-next week.