Surprise in 60 feet: Sailfish shows up near Murrells Inlet
After a successful morning trip catching king mackerel on a live bottom area about 17 miles east of Murrells Inlet on Wednesday, Capt. Alex Hrycak was ready for more king action on his afternoon trip.
Hrycak, at the helm of Marlin Quay Marina’s 31 Contender, Carolina Fly, headed to the same spot in 60 feet of water with a group of customers from Newberry.
“We had caught a bunch of kings in the morning, the bite was on fire, so I decided to go back out there,” said Hrycak. “We got to the spot and it had gotten a little choppy, and there weren’t any other boats around. It’s a big area with a lot of live bottom.”
Hrycak started fishing with the standard live-bait method for kings, low-trolling menhaden (pogys) on wire live-bait rigs with 25-pound test line. The action started slow, then got crazy.
“We grinded for a while, had one king in the boat and (released) a small cobia,” recalled Hrycak. “Then something whacked my prop wash line and then my long line went off.”
Hrycak thought he saw a bill pop out of the water on the long line strike, so he quickly dropped the bait back.
“I fed the line back and that’s when it hit,” said Hrycak.
In a split second, Hrycak realized he was hooked up with a sailfish, in green water in a depth of 60 feet. The large majority of sailfish encounters off the South Carolina coast occur well offshore, near the break or beyond, in deep blue water some 50-plus miles out.
“It started head shaking and came out of the water, started running pretty good and did the tail walk that they do,” said Hrycak. “I got the angler (Todd Guy) in the bow and started chasing the fish. It didn’t run too far, maybe 75-80 yards. It jumped a few times, went down about 30 feet and then did a tail walk at the boat.”
When Guy worked the sailfish to the back of the boat, Hrycak noticed it wasn’t in the best of health, and for good reason.
“It was not a real big fish, not a monster or anything, about 40 pounds. It was about 5 1/2 feet (long), it just didn’t have a lot of girth on it,” said Hrycak. “It had somebody else’s (mono) leader wrapped around the bill, the dorsal and head. I got about 20 feet of leader off of it.”
After freeing the sailfish of the leader, Hrycak took his time reviving and rejuvenating the fish.
“I dragged him for 3-4 minutes at the side of the boat, before he started kicking and I gave him a good push,” said Hrycak. “He swam off good.
“I like to think I helped him out. He was not a super healthy fish, but healthy enough to want to eat.”
Hrycak noted that sailfish are occasionally encountered in that depth range in late summer through early autumn, and he was glad to be the captain fortunate enough to run across one this time.
“It’s usually anywhere between August and October when guys see them out there,” said Hrycak. “They usually show up when more bait starts showing up in the fall when we get our good kingfishing. Personally, this is one of the earliest I’ve seen one out there. But I’ve had people tell me that every August somebody catches one. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do.
“It was pretty cool. I was more excited than the guys on the boat, and (Guy) had never seen a sailfish.”
Bates Redfish Open
A number of local youth anglers competed in the Brody Bates Youth Redfish Open last Saturday out of Buck Hall.
The event was sponsored by Sportsman Boats, with the winners earning a Future Scholar 529 College Savings Plan. A total of $13,500 in scholarship money was awarded.
The anglers were able to weigh in a two-fish daily bag limit of red drum within South Carolina’s slot limit of 15-23 inches.
The winners, with aggregate weight for two red drum and scholarship earnings, were:
- Middle School Diviison: 1,. Cubby Weaver 7.15 pounds ($3,500). 2, Conrad Beglin, 7.12 pounds ($2,500). 3, Chloe Skipper, 4.09 pounds ($1,500).
- High School Division: 1, Ashton Rouhselang 6.47 pounds ($3,500). 2, Blakely and Carew Bates, 5.25 pounds ($2,500).