Shark Fishing on Hilton Head Island

I chartered the USS Cajun and Captain Fred Mix of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina to take my family and I on a once in a lifetime Shark fishing adventure.  The first day we went out w/ him to survey the area and look for dolphins in the channels running through the island and managed to see a few on this trip but the real fun didn’t start until day two.

When we pulled up to his private dock on one of the many channels that run throughout the island I stood on his dock and talked to him as he got the boat loaded up.  While we were standing there a large dolphin rolled up on it’s side not very far from me at all.  I must have looked like a hillbilly as I started pointing at it and freaking out, he just laughed at me.  As I was looking at Fred’s dock and admiring the entire setup I couldn’t help but notice that the whole thing was solar powered.  His boat lift, the lights, and even his automatic feeder were all solar powered.  His entire dock was what you might call a “green dock”.  I was very impressed.

Finally my mother and father in law joined Donna and I on the dock and we boarded the USS Cajun for the trip.  The boat ride was incredibly smooth, we had already pumped my mother in law up with Dramamine prior to leaving so turbulence was a concern in the back of my mind but it proved not to be an issue at all.  We headed downstream a couple of miles from his dock and discussed what we were wanting to catch that day, which of course for me, was shark.

Captain Fred pulled us into a shallow alcove off from the main channel and handed my mother in law the wheel of the boat and told her to keep it steady.  We all kind of sat there in amazement as he pulled out his net and began casting it for small baitfish called Mullets (see Wikipedia description here).  In the first cast of the net we pulled in about a dozen or so small baitfish, 5 small shrimp, and 1 squid. While we looked on with amazement at the tiny squid Captain Fred reached down and picked it up and swallowed it whole. It was incredible. We ended up casting our nets 3 or 4 times until we finally netted the size and quantity of baitfish we needed for the day, we even netted one small juvenile shark that we quickly got out of the boat…

As we trolled down the main channel on our way to a destination that Fred had never fished before he kept us entertained with stories of some of the celebrities he had encountered on the island in the past including the late Dale Earnhardt, Oprah Winfrey, and John Cougar Mellencamp. Fred first started frequenting the island in the 1960’s and had became a regular by the 70’s and it wasn’t hard to tell that he never regretted moving there full time.  We could simply point at a large yacht or a seaside mansion and he could give us the entire story surrounding it. He was like an encyclopedia of knowledge when it came to Hilton Head Island.  As we continued onto our destination we also spotted several large dolphins who would come up for air.  It was so cool to see them up close and personal. Spotting a dolphin was one of the things my wife had wanted to do all week so I knew that even if we didn’t catch a single fish she would be content, of course I wouldn’t be unless I got to wrestle a shark.

Once we made our way to our destination, which was a large pocket about the size of my neighborhood back here in Conway, we dropped our anchor.  I glanced over at the depth finder and noticed that it was registering about 40-50ft in depth where we were sitting.  I looked all over the screen and didn’t see a single fish anywhere but I trusted Fred’s judgment in picking the spot.  Fred carefully baited our lines w/ the large mullets that we had netted and tossed them over the side of the boat.

Fred then gave us a quick once over about handling the large bait-casting rods we were using and before he could even get finished I heard the drag on my pole start singing.  I think it even shocked Fred a bit too.  I quickly jumped into place, without even putting on my safety belt that the pole clips into and went to work setting my hook and reeling in this monster.

I have to admit, the fight was a little more than I expected and it took me longer to land the fish than I had expected too.  I finally got the fish to the side of the boat and it rolled up on its back to splash us real good and we immediately realized that this was a shark.  I bet you could have heard everyone in the boat go, “Shark!” from a mile a way. As I got the fish close to the side of the boat Fred reached down and grabbed the line to pull it near the boat and see how well the fish was hooked.  Since I had been fighting the fish it had worn itself down a little bit but was still nothing to play with.  Since the fish was so large there wasn’t any way that we were going to be able to pull it into the boat so Fred pulled it up onto the side as best as he could and reached down with his pliers to try to remove our hook.  The next thing I know Fred raises up and the pliers that he was initially holding were gone. We sat there with a “what do we do now” look on our faces as Fred pulled out another tool and cut the line to release the shark.

No sooner than Fred got another hook tied on my line my Father in Laws poll doubled over and the drag started singing.  He ran over and grabbed the poll and set his hook and started reeling in our second shark of the day.  The two shark hit so close together it was almost like having a double right off the bat.  The rest of the day would pretty much go this way…

My wife Donna decided she wanted to catch a shark so she sat down in the chair and we got her fastened in to reel in the next one we hooked.  She struggled and struggled at first but finally pulled in her first catch of the day.  Next up we told my Mother in law that she was going to reel in the next one, so she got situated in one of the seats and we got her setup to reel in the next one.  It was hilarious to listen to her as she pulled in the shark.  I think the fight pretty much wore her out but Donna was ready to go again.

We fished on for about 2 hours and enjoyed the scenery, catching all sharks up until my Father in law hooked something that felt like he was pulling up a Volkswagen.  He fought and fought to get this large fish to the surface and finally he was able to roll the fish up on it’s side so we could see what it was.  He had caught a stingray. We were freaking out at this point and all I could think about was that Animal Planet guy that got gored by one of these things.

Finally Fred helped him get the fish up to the side of the boat and pulled it onto the side so we could get a closer look at it.  The tail of the fish was whipping through the air toward us but we were a safe enough distance away that we weren’t in any danger, and then out of nowhere Fred reaches down with his gloves on and grabs the tail of the fish and holds it up so we could see it.  He explained how the stinger works and how they use it to protect themselves in the wild.  It was an incredible lesson in marine biology.

No sooner than my father in law had released his stingray back in the other poll started zinging again.  Having just wrestled our largest shark of the day out of the water my arms felt like jelly so I told Donna she was going to have to take this one, she jumped into the seat and got secured in to reel in the catch.  It didn’t take us long to realize that she had something large on her line as well, and since it wasn’t fighting like the sharks had been doing we had a pretty good idea that it was a stingray too.  She reeled and reeled and finally rolled the fish up on the surface and sure enough it was a stingray! She wrestled and wrestled to get the fish up to the side of the boat and finally Fred was able to cut the line and release the fish.  We had to cut the line because it had swallowed her hook completely and none of us wanted to reach down and grab it.

We fished on a little longer and finally Donna hooked another fish, this one was running like greased lightning through the water and I noticed that it was even pulling her up from her seat so I got a little concerned.  Finally she yelled out, “I can’t hold it” so I jumped over and grabbed the poll from her and began fighting this massive fish.  It was all that I had in me to get it to the surface of the water so we could identify it, Fred said it looked like a black tip shark.  I continued to fight the fish until finally I got it landed and released.  I was exhausted, we all were at this point so we headed back in and called it a day.

All in all we hooked several sharks, I honestly lost count.  We landed 5 larger sharks total, and 2 stingrays.  This was the fishing experience of a lifetime and I think it’s safe to say it was the highlight of our vacation this year, we talked about it the entire 13hr trip home…  For more photos from our fishing adventure, click here…

Lastly, I promised Captain Fred that I would give him a shout out on my blog when I got home so here goes…  If you are going to be anywhere in the Hilton Head Island area and would like to do some serious Shark fishing, you should call Captain Fred Mix and charter him and his boat, the USS Cajun.  He can be reached directly at: 843-683-3474.  Fred also sells yachts, you can visit his yacht website here…

Also, being the nerd that I am, I did something pretty cool while on the boat.  I tagged the location where we released our catch on Gowalla.  You can locate this spot here. Do me a favor though, if you do decide to head out w/ Captain Fred, please check in on Gowalla at my spot and post a message as to how many fish you caught that day…

FYI, Shark Week starts August 9th on Discovery!!!