TWiF (This Week in Fishing) December 27th -December 29th

Tuesday, December 27th: Merry Christmas everyone! The holidays have been relaxing, which for my family is not always true. For the first time in over 15 years, my family and I weren't heading to Asheville, NC. We did have my wife's family come to St. Leonard on the Saturday before Christmas and we had a very nice time with them. The next morning we got up early and drove down to Myrtle Beach, SC. We were using some of our vacation points for what we planned on being a week's stay. Our condo was right on the beach, and I brought down a couple of spinning rods to give a little fishing a try.

A visit to the Bass Pro store, and a couple of questions to one of the clerks, showed me that trying surf fishing in late December might be time wasted. So I purchased a two week freshwater license and decided to visit some of the retention ponds in the area.

This morning I drove to one that was behind a couple of small stores and began to cast my trusty 1/32 oz jig dressed with deer hair. The second cast paid off with the small sunfish above. According to the catalogue that came with my license, South Carolina is home to eight species of sunfish. It was my hope that maybe I'd get a new one, but alas the two I caught were just typical bluegill. I also caught one small largemouth but as I was removing the hook it slipped from my hands and back into the water. I'll probably try a couple of other baits and techniques in that area, or maybe even try another pond or two. I'll just have to see.

Wednesday, December 28th:

A week at the beach, in winter, but who could tell? The temperatures here in Myrtle Beach were in the low 70's with a slight breeze. We spent the morning on the beach playing games as a family. After that and a quick lunch I drove up to try a little more at the same retention pond I tried yesterday. Being in mid day, I struggled finding the right combination to catch much. I did manage one nice bluegill, but that was almost an accident as I was putting my fishing bag down when he hit.

Later that evening I drove back to the same spot just before sunset. I had a different jig head, this one was paint yellow, with a small Berkeley minnow style bait. It also was yellow with some white on the underside. I got several pulls on it before I cut it in half, figuring it was too long. That paid of with a nice redear sunfish.
Eventually the bait was torn apart so I switched to a small piece of " which was about the same color. It brought in a couple more bluegill. At that point the sun had set and I decided to head back to the rental. We'll see what tomorrow holds, but the weather is about the same I plan on trying some more.

Thursday, December 29th: Last full day in Myrtle Beach and I started it with some time along the pond. I used the same small jig with a piece of the hot worm as before and was lucky enough to get three bluegill to bite. Now being the Fish Nerd that I am I was well aware that the first one I caught was going to be my 1,400th fish of 2016. He wasn't the largest fish in the pond probably, but he was my favorite! I thought it was cool that I could catch a "milestone" fish outside of my home area.

I'm not sure if I'll get out again before the end of 2016, so I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! Thanks for staying with me on my adventures and I hope to continue with the updates in 2017.