ANGLING STORIES

The local hole.

I've been fortunate to travel to some special places to fish, places like Alaska, New Zealand, Mexico and the Bahamas that offer unique and unparalleled opportunities, but this area has a fishery that is totally unique. It's really the most challenging angling out there, so when you pull something in, especially something as exotic as a tarpon, it's that much more rewarding. Having grown up here fishing all my life has been invaluable to me as a guide. Just being in tune with the bait patterns, how the fish respond to different currents, moon phases, light conditions and varying tides, plus knowing what's been caught where and how over the years-you eventually develop an intuition for what's biting and where you will most likely give your charter the best experience possible.

I grew up fishing all over the Lowcountry, both inshore and offshore, but inshore was always more alluring. At every chance I'd launch my boat from our dock at Secessionville, hitting the water in search of the next great hole. In 1996, the local tarpon craze was just getting underway. There was a deep hole that I was constantly passing over, not five minutes from our dock. It had never yielded anything more than rays, sharks and other trash fish. But as I came to better understand tarpon fishing, I became convinced that with some patience, an angler could pull tarpon from this hole.

So I got two buddies on board with my theory, and we fished that hole every day for two straight weeks. We'd sit there for hours on end, chumming away and fighting sharks. And it would be just when we'd reach the point of calling it a day and putting away our gear that a tarpon would catch us off-guard and jump violently off our line. It was frustrating, but it did wonders for our resolve. Eventually we modified our tackle and adjusted the drags, and it finally paid off. What thrilled me just as much as boating that 140+ pound tarpon, was that we had done it so close to the house. I think my grandfather had always believed they were there, and to get a picture for proof meant the world to me, even though he had long since passed.

-Peter Brown