Just Angling for August 4, 2005

By Donald Millus

Discretion Good Tactic For Angler

A neighbor of mine stopped his car on Tolar Street the other morning as Alice and I were taking our evening constitutional. “Eighty-six degrees feels pretty good after high nineties,” he observed. I agreed. Alice and I had gotten back on the water early that morning and managed to catch dinner for two before the rains came.

We had our choice of fishing one day out of the weekend, and that takes some planning. The night before the weatherman in Columbia, WIS-TV, told us that there was a seventy percent chance of rain on both Saturday and Sunday. The weather map showed a mass of rain with some thunder and lightning over the midlands and moving toward the coast. We decided to go early Saturday and perhaps beat the front. We didn’t.

I had set our radio alarm for 4:30, but instead of the usual weekend left-over classical music that used to be heard on our local public radio station, there was soothing music that let me doze until 5:30. (By the way, am I the only one who can’t stand the “Peoples’ Pharmacy,” especially in place of “Only A Game” on Saturday morning at seven? They’ve put that great sports show into Saturday afternoon when real sportsmen and women are off doing stuff. When the days get shorter and I’m driving to Murrells Inlet at seven I don’t want to hear about homeopathic remedies from wannabe physicians.)

Alice was happy to be back riding shotgun and sticking her head out into something less than eighty-degree heat. A splattering of raindrops hit as we left Conway, but soon stopped. We had a pleasant surprise as we approached Highway 17 on 544. The Horry County line is a few hundred yards up 544 and that last stretch before the highway has always been neglected. I became accustomed to slowing my van and trailer to ten miles an hour on this stretch. Lo and behold, it’s been paved! (Speaking of highways, did anyone notice that the fabled Interstate 73 is not planned to go through to the coast? Some oldtimers may remember the same thing was done with I-20 two generations ago. The more things change, etc.)

Alice and I trolled slowly along the outside of the north jetty, hoping for a trout or bluefish or spottail or flounder. Basically, we were fishing for dinner. I had one solid hit with a Cotee red-hed jig with a “Reel-Shrimp” chartreuse tail in a spot that is as productive consistently as any on our coast, where the weir connects to the high rocks. With the tide coming out there always seems to be something there. The bluefish we netted went some 16 inches. Surrounded by carrots and onions and wrapped in aluminum foil there was dinner for two from our backyard grill.

Nothing else hit my jig. We went to the end of the jetties and drifted for whiting. As I flipped the first one on board I noticed that the sky to the south was a consistent blackish-gray. The sky was also moving directly toward the Inlet. We had dinner for Alice’s mistress and me on the ice. It was time to quit.

By the time we got the boat on the trailer it was raining. By the time we got to Highway 17 it was raining heavily. I would not have to mow the lawn when I got home.

Alas, the rain stopped at the Conway city limits. Fortunately, I had to go to a church supper. At least I had only two fish to clean, and some great lasagna and home-fried chicken, plus the usual Horry County array of super-sweet deserts to look forward to.