I was waiting all morning to use the classic line from “Jaws”: “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
When I finally started reeling in my first Atlantic sharp nose shark, I used it, although I’m not sure the 18-year-old first mate on board the Fish Hook I got the connection.
Although Fish Hook Charters is based in North Myrtle Beach, we were actually fishing off the shore of North Carolina near Sunset Beach. Our 45-foot custom boat was big enough for our fishing group of four, plus Capt. Brandon Johnson and first mate Holden Boulter. It was plenty big enough for the Atlantic sharp nose sharks, which seldom get more than 3 feet long.
They fought like they were mini great whites, providing plenty of action on our five-hour adventure.
We started out the morning trolling for Spanish mackerel and bluefish. The waves of the Atlantic Ocean were larger than those on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida that I’m used to when deep-sea fishing, but this boat (smaller than those 30- or 40-angler “cattle boats” I normally fish from) seemed to handle the waves well.
Trolling is more exciting than fishing off the bottom as is mostly done on Florida charter boats. You basically fish straight down for grouper, amberjack and red snappers in Florida, but you don’t really see the fish until they are close to the surface. With trolling, you often see the fish jumping as they fight against the line and the waves, adding to the drama. You’ll also get more of a workout with trolling, as I soon found out when I caught my first few bluefish and Spanish mackerel.
My line to start was the thick 100-pound test monofilament used for shark fishing, and I was on the starboard side of the stern, so I was catching fish hundreds of feet from the boat, while the others had considerably less reeling to do. The heavy line was causing fits for Boulter, who struggled to untangle at least two spider webs before switching me over to the bright green 20-pound mono used for the mackerel.
There were many times when I had to stop and rest when reeling in one of four mackerel and two bluefish I caught by mid-morning. The smaller mackerel seemed to fight harder than the big ones.
One of my early fish felt like a dead weight, initially pulling hard and then going limp. I actually thought he’d flipped the hook, but then I felt him on the line again.
Boulter started getting excited when the fish got close to the boat, yelling at Johnson to get the gaff. Up to that point, our mackerel were about a foot (the minimum) to 16 inches or so long. Since I had never caught or even seen one of them prior to this trip, I didn’t know what a big one looked like.
They gaffed the fish quickly and pulled it aboard. After measuring its length (26 1/2 inches), Boulter dragged an old, rusty scale out of storage and determined it was “between 3 and 4 pounds.” I called it “just under 4 pounds,” as any self-respecting fisherman would. They told me it was the biggest one caught by the charter so far this season. I called it lunch.
“That one fought less than the little ones,” I said to the captain.
“He heard about your reputation and just gave up,” he said with a grin.
They are beautiful fish, with a bluish cast on the edges and gold dots scattered across the skin.
We switched over to shark fishing with cut bluefish about 20 feet down in 40 feet of water. Multiple lines were put out and when one rod started twitching.
The real battle was when Boulter broke out the heavy tackle, baited up the hooks with some chunks of bluefish and cast out to the starboard side (we were all facing the stern). I caught my first Atlantic sharp nose shark just after 10 a.m., and it fought like a blue marlin for a few minutes. Boulter gaffed it and showed me how to hold it (some parts of a shark’s skin are smooth and slippery, while others are rough) and tried to get it to open its mouth, but it refused.
Soon we had our limit of four (one per angler) and they were all about 3 feet long. Johnson assured us that that’s about as big as they get.
Someone on one of the Fish Hook Charters’ other boats (they have three total) caught a larger shark, but it was a different species. I’d guess it to be about 5 feet long and perhaps 50 pounds. When cleaning the big one, there were no license plates or other junk like the one from “Jaws,” but the lucky angler did keep the jaws for a great souvenir.
For more information on Fish Hook Charters, go to www.fishhookcharters.com.
Ross Bielema is a freelance writer from New London and owner of Wolf River Concealed Carry LLC. Contact him at Ross@wolfriverccw.com.
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