Imprinted in my memory from childhood is a fishing trip Dad and I took to 4KI to target big Bluefish during their early spring run. One of dad’s friends had fished the previous weekend and had caught some big Blues right over the top of some structure at the reef. His friend was kind enough to share his loran numbers with us as well as pass on some rigging tips. We went with great expectations of some serious action on light tackle. The weather conditions were not quite ideal, but that is to be expected in early spring in the lowcountry and we were not about to let some rough seas keep us from having a good time. After a long ride from Stono Inlet in sloppy four-foot seas we arrived at the reef. Dad asked me to pull our reef marker from underneath the console while he prepared the anchor. After spending about 5 minutes with my head underneath the console and turning three shades of green, I reported that I had some very bad news. “What is it Tim? You are not getting sick are you?” “No. No, I think I will be okay, but I cannot find the reef marker,” we must have taken it out the boat when we were giving the boat its annual spring cleaning, and forgot to put it back. He and I both knew it would be tough to get on the structure without a way to mark it especially with the rough seas, moderate winds, and fast current; however, we had just spent 2 hours getting our brains beat out to get there so we knew we had to give it our best shot. Dad said, “Well just get on the numbers and then start looking on the depth sounder for the structure, once we are over it let me know and I will drop the anchor, hopefully the structure is big enough that even if we drift some we will still be on top it.” I then spent the next hour and a half staring at the depth sounder, looking for any hint of a structure.
I will be the first to say that staring at a depth sounder for that period of time can get boring and frustrating, not to mention that looking down in those rough seas was not helping my queasy stomach. I would spot some struct