CRABBIN it up in Murrells Inlet

      Hey Guys! I am coming to you today from Myrtle Beach, SC! I've been in town for a whole week now and I am heading back home in 6 days. This has been a great 2 weeks of Vacation. While I've been down here I have had some fun time meeting new anglers all over. Last Wednesday I headed over to 2nd Avenue Pier to see what was biting and how many people were on the pier fishing. We walked all the way down to the end of the pier to find a group of men that were fishing. These guys were awesome! None of them knew each other but if you walked up to them, they looked and acted as if they came together just to fish. Most of the time when I go to the pier it is filled with people and 80% of them are drunk and rude and don't want you talking to them. These guys were catching Spot, Ribbon Fish, Shark and some relaxation from the wives.

     "My Wife wants to do Recreation, like Para-sailing, Shopping and Roller Coasters... I just want to RELAX... That's why I'm here.", said one random Angler on the pier. We were there for at least a Hour, just talking listening to how they rig their lines and swapping some good ole fishing stories.


    A couple of days later I talked Melissa into going crabbing with me. Crabbing is a very, very, very, VERY easy thing to do and I'll do a short "HOW-TO" story on CRABBING and what our success was.

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SUPPLIES
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First off You need Feet. and then Legs. and then. Hands. and I guess you need a brain.. jk.

but seriously this is the list of what you need!

1.) Crab Trap
2.) Small Diameter 50ft rope (If it doesn't already come with the Crab Trap you purchased.)
3.) Chicken Neck, Chicken Drum Stick, Turkey Neck, Fish Head (All of these baits will do great)
4.) Cooler for captured crabs with the surrounding water in it
5.) Cooler for your drinks/snacks to keep you hydrated
6.) Gloves (Just in case you are scared of getting pinched)
7.) Towel (so you can wipe your hands off after touching raw bait)
8.) SunBlock!
9.) A comfy chair
10.) and a pretty girl with a umbrella just to keep you company and help you check the traps!

*Check the Tide chart for where you will be crabbing*
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     Well, Melissa and I headed down to Murrells Inlet Last Friday and we stopped by a bait shop I heard about on the internet called "Perry's Bait Shop". Great place to go to get supplies and learn from the pros. We purchased 2 Crab Traps that collapse on 2 sides (They are more heavy duty than normal crab nets) and they were $18.00 a piece which isn't amazing price but isn't too bad either. This day we used turkey necks because they ran out of chicken necks. I have never crabbed in Murrells Inlet so I googled some places and found a pier called "Veteran's Pier" which is right beside Captain Dick's Fishing Charters.

It was low tide when we arrived, WHICH is when you want to be at your location to crab! We found a deeper hole right beside the marina and set up camp there! I put our turkey necks in our crab traps and tied our ropes to them. We then proceeded to CRAB, I placed my trap on one side of the pier and she placed her's on the other side of the pier.

 
Now the instructions on putting your crab trap in the water is no difficult task, you can do it anyway you want but we found that if you lower crab net right above the water and swing it out 5 feet(either straight out or diagonal) and make sure your crab net sinks straight down produces more crabs. Now if you have the kind of traps that we have you need to make sure your trap doors open up so you can actually allow the crabs in the trap! We modified our trap doors with small weights so we will always know that our doors will open. On a side note, make sure your trap is in enough water so the water is above the trap.

   After, we put the traps in the water we organized our spot and got us something cold to drink and chilled for about 3 minutes and then we checked our traps. To check the trap make sure you pull the trap up quickly but make sure it isn't too close to the pier so your trap doesn't get stuck on the pier and then you loose all of your crabs.

   We pulled up our traps and both had 1 blue crab each!

To keep a blue crab, it has to be 5 inches MINIMUM point to point to keep it!

AND THAT'S HOW SIMPLE IT IS TO CRABB IT UP!  We stayed out there Friday for about 2 hours and caught about 14 crabs but only had 7 keepers and then we caught a baby flounder in one trap.

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We went back to Veteran's pier 2 days later and caught 13 crabs but only had about 5 keepers that met the standards. But during that crabbing day I brought my rod-n-reels to fish while we waited for crabs. I had Melissa rigged up with a open face reel and had it rigged carolina style with fresh cut shrimp and for myself I had my baitcaster with a BPS XPS Rattle Shad.

Melissa caught a baby fishy and then she hooked a HUGE crab with her rod-n-reel and lost it right when it got to the pier. I was casting and retrieving my lure pretty quick behind boats that were passing in the middle of HUGE balls of baitfish, and hooked a flounder and it fought great! I was suprised that I caught the flounder with the rattle shad but It was cool.







I purchased some new lures at the Bass Pro Shop: Myrtle Beach so we are heading out again tomorrow to crab and fish!

****You can use 2 crab traps per person without a saltwater fishing license!****

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The Faithful Bass Pro Shop Hat

       It was about 3pm when we arrived on the lake[Camden Side of Lake Wateree, SC]. My Grandfather and I went scouting for a good cove to drop the trolling motor in and start doing some damage. We started working the first cove down from Clear Water Cove landing. He had the ole Bright Green Lizard[Texas Rigged] on and I had a Heddon Tiny Torpedo[Frog Color Scheme] tied on. We start casting on structure around docks and buoys, and bream was tearing up our lures. Soon as the tiny torpedo would hit the water, there would be instant splashing around the lure. It was funny watching my grandpa work the lure around the docks, because when a baby bream would bite the tail of his lizard he would get surprised and  try to rear back on it and set the hook like Kevin Vandam with a 8lbr. The reason why I thought it was funny.... He had a mouthful of sunflower seeds in his mouth and everytime he would get a bite and not snag one he would say..."WILL YOU LOOK AT THAT. THAT WAS A BREAM BITE!" on every word 10-15 sunflower seeds would shoot out of his mouth.

      You would have to pull a matrix move so you wouldn't get sunflower buckshotted in the face.

    Well we kept on moving around the cove and trying to skip our lures under docks and trying to at least catch something![At this time my grandfather and I didn't catch a fish in like 3 weeks, so we were really wanting to go home with something in the live well] We start heading towards the 2nd cove from the landing and kept up with our tactic of fishing around the docks. When we got halfway around the cove I saw a HUGE 5lb Bass swimming up by the boat! I said, "PAPA, LO.. LO. LOOOK AT THAT!"[My sunflower seeds were just shooting out like a m16 Assault Rifle]. The Bass swims out of sight for a instance and swims back up to the surface! My grandpa[Sitting on the back of the boat]jumps out of his seat trying to get the fish net. So happens the Fish net was stuck all around 3 rod-n-reels. Then the Bass Disappears

     So I was like DANGIT. We could have definitely got that fish! as soon as the words came out of my mouth, the Big Bubba Bass pops up!

**SLOW MOTION**

My Grandpa jumps for the net AGAIN!

FAILS AT UNHOOKING IT FROM THE RODS.

Pause ||

As a Good Ole Country Bass Fisherman, What could I have done? I'm standing on front of the boat. I couldn't get the net. I couldn't snag him with a treble hook. I did what a True Country boy would do.

I REACHED TO MY HEAD.

TOOK MY BASS PRO SHOP HAT OFF.

AND SCOOPED THIS BAD BOY UP IN THE BOAT.

I'm a true fisherman.

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My first Fishing Blog on my blog spot!

Late February 2011 @ Lake Wateree, SC
    About 4pm, my Friend and fellow Firefighter[Blake Stokes] head out on the Lugoff side of the lake. This was Blake’s first time fishing with me and basically first time fishing in years. We pulled out the ole’ Bass Tracker TX-17[everyone is scared of the tracker] and head to some promising spots. I had all of my rod’s pre-rigged and tackle box organized with my soft plastics, topwater, some crappie jigs and some more stuff. Blake came prepared with a rod-n-reel [older than him] with line [older than him] and a tackle box of lures he had never used or never seen how they were used [spoons, spinner bait, and some old sun baked plastics.] I laughed and helped him choose a lure to use. We arrived at fishing spot I’ve never fished,[nice cove, about 12 piers inside of it and some large structure in water at the back of cove, Sunny/Chilly afternoon] and we start stalking some fish with the trolling motor.
We were throwing some soft plastic worms around the piers, trying to get a reaction shot out of some of the bass that were chilling and watching tv. We worked most of the cove without any luck or a single bite. So to show Mr. Blake Stokes that I can catch fish, EVEN if they are bream or some small crappie, I tie on a Chartreuse lead head with a pumpkin seed and bright orange swim tail and I start chunking the lure into structure. We worked around the structure for a good 20 minutes without landing something and then all of a sudden…… BLAKE GETS A……


…..Birdnest. So I proceeded to help him untangle his line and he had to cut like 30 yards of line off haha. Well when we finally got the line fixed and he started tying on another lure we were transitioning from 1 pier to another with no structure and I randomly casted my jig in the middle of the 2 piers [60 feet gap, of no structure]. Once it hit the water I let it drop for about 4 seconds and started a moderate/fast retrieve, when all of a sudden… BAM! BIG FISH ON!
 
      IT SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF ME. I never had a fish take my jig and slam it that hard before! Being caught off guard, I lost the fish because I didn’t get a good hookset. So at that time, Blake is sitting there with drool coming out of his mouth and his eyes are huge. I tried to play it cool, like that was normal for me to get strikes like that because you know.. i’m “professional”[lol. jk.] But I started having the shakes because that just made my adrenaline go sky high! So I repositioned my boat and casted at the same spot. and… BAM! another one on! I set the hook good this time and this bad boy fought for a good minute or so! I finally got him on the boat and It was a beautiful Striped Bass[Not a trophy size but it was beautiful]

     After that fish, I re-positioned my boat and casted same place and BAM! another one! and then did it again BAM! another one! and did that 2 or 3 more times and all together landed 5 Stripers all in the 3lb range. It was such a frenzy that I forgot Blake was in the back of the boat not having any success, So we kept on circling that area to see if he can get one on. no luck… By that time it is straight up DARK. I told blake, I’m sorry but we gotta start heading back to the landing so get everything situated and tie the rods down, get in the driver seat. turned the key…… BATTERY DEAD.

         We were really far from both Lugoff and Clearwater Cove Landings. So I had a little juice left over in the trolling motor and started to head towards some houses with lights on. We see a guy in his garage and he walks outside and is walking across his yard, so we start yelling at this guy and waving our hands and HE KEEPS WALKING![found out that he had mp3 player in and just got done working out]. I look at Blake and he is pale.[At this time, I was calm because the boat has died on me multiple times and left us in the middle of lake trying to survive off of fig newtons. but those stories are for later times.] So I told blake, we need to land our boat at their pier and walk up and talk to them and atleast find out where we are so we can call up somebody to pick us up.
We start walking up in the yard with our Fire Department hats on and our Walkie-Talkies blaring different County Frequencies and pass by some huge dog droppings. We walk up the stairs to this beautiful house and finally get to the back porch. We look to the right and see 2 HUGE dogs, A White Husky/WOLF and a German Shepard that is taller than me napping on the porch. A woman comes to the window and peaks out and runs out the door right passed us and slams the dogs in a private room. Blake and I look at each other like… uh what is this crazy woman doing? Then a man comes to the door with a hat on that says “K-9 TEAM” and Tells us that we were very lucky that his German Shepard was sleeping because that dog was a Trained bite dog for law enforcement and he bites people that come in the yard.

Blake and I turn pale.
    
       But to make a very long story short, He turned out to be a principal for a local school and he helps out the local police agencies finding bodies on the lake.
He jumped us off, and we started back towards Clearwater cove and made it home safely.
**Blake has not gone fishing with me since.**

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