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A NEW YEAR WITH MANY CHALLENGES BUT GOOD FISHING Captain Ralph Goodison
A NEW YEAR WITH MANY CHALLENGES BUT GOOD FISHING
Contributed By: Captain Ralph Goodison
This has been one of the most difficult years in my 26 years of writing for the Trawler. We are faced with a Tug Of War of a Lifetime. Torn Between Saving Lives and Saving Livelihoods. My hope is God can get us through these difficult times. We are lucky to live on Fripp where the Fripp Island Resort, FIPOA, and our community are pulling together during these difficult times.
This year our Fripp fishing has been good. While we did not have tournaments, the fishing and boating community spent time in our beautiful waters around the island.
INSHORE: Fishing was Good with Redfish, Trout, Whiting, Black Drum, and Shark. Flounder improved and night fishing for large Hammerhead and Lemon sharks were good, also a good year for Tarpon.
NEARSHORE: Fripp Reef, Drydock, 6HI, were Good with Black bass Trigger, Grunt, Barracuda, Cobia, and a surprise Kingfish. Slow this year Spanish and Bluefish.
OFFSHORE/STREAM: Spring, a Good year for Wahoo and Dolphin. One of the best years for Kingfish while fair catches of Tuna and Sailfish, and White Marlin. A good crab season, but Softshell season was early this year. Humpback Whales and Killer Pigmy Whales visited our shores.
Looking at 2020, it was a good year for fishing and boating; due to the virus, Tournaments and the Fripp Island Yacht Club activities were canceled with the hope next year tournaments and Yacht Club activities will resume.
As I look into my Crystal Ball and SC Department of Natural Resources input; 2021 looks like a good year for our fishing with the hope Spanish and Bluefish will return. Hats off to Lewis Turner, Jeff Pickney, Captain Chuck, and their staff at the Marina for a great job during the pandemic. We are fortunate to have some of the most pristine water on the Atlantic Coast, making our little island a treasure.
The 40 lbs African Pompano fish is rare to our waters off Fripp.
Captain George on his boat Miss Leia, caught 3 that Christmas day. I was a lucky and I enjoyed some of the eating.
Captain George caught the fish of the Year.
A 12 year old young lady caught this over 90 lbs Tarpon with help from Captain George on his boat Miss Leia.
