Snagged a gator at Bushy Park?

Saltwater Inshore Reports
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Tried my luck at Bushy Park today, and the only “luck” I had was something extremely heavy, extremely lazy, and unknown.

I was in the main cove there at Bushy, fishing in about 4’ of water on a dropping tide. Was tossing a Shad Assassin paddle-tail. One of my jerks seemed to snag something, like a log or rock. Tugged on it several times to free it up, but nothing.

Used the trolling motor to get over on top of it, and suddenly the “log” (I couldn’t see it in the murk) started swimming out for the deeper water near the yellow bouys that float there. Slowly. It wasn’t in a hurry, and didn’t seem to be afraid.

It headed out to around 13-15’ and just moved here and there. I was using 10# Power Pro so I didn’t have much I could do with it. I would get directly over the top of him as he sat on the bottom, and pull straight up (holding the spool so the drag wouldn’t slip).

It would get mildly annoyed, swim SLOWLY 20-30 feet away, pulling drag very steadily— no head shaking, rolling, anything… wash rinse and repeat. We moved probably 8-10 times. I was only able to pull this thing a foot or two off the bottom, and it would suddenly just “stop” coming up and not come up any more. I got the feeling that I was pulling up a body part more so than the whole animal since it always stopped dead when I tried to pull it up more than a foot or two. Then it would swim away again 20-30 feet and camp out again. It went all over the place out there, so it wasn’t a floating log or crab trap.

I’ve caught a LOT of large rays and this wasn’t fighting like a ray, and I don’t see many rays up at Bushy Park anyhow (I was within sight of the boat ramp). Rays typical hall arse when you hook them. This thing just moseyed around as if it were just a little peeved, but not enough to actually try to get away.

After 30-40 minutes of this (me mostly wanting to find out what I had on the other end), the jig just popped loose. I must say that I’m impressed with that Power Pro 10# stuff, the Palomar knot held amaz

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I know this is a VERY long shot but it could of been a sturgeon

(http://www.dnr.sc.gov/cwcs/pdf/Sturgeon.pdf)

DNR theorizes there are several hundred in the cooper river system, I know Bushy park can be pretty brackish even without all the rain, many sturgeons when hooked just got to the bottom and sit not really putting up a fight.

Weirder things could happen, a manatee managed to get into Lake Marion last year so who knows ?

  • Adam
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Or better yet lets call Jeremy Wade from River Monsters. FISH ON !

  • Adam
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Yeah I saw a manatee at Breach Inlet, and two of them at the Pitt St. Bridge in 2005 (before I moved away for a while).

I had not thought of a sturgeon, which I would have loved to have seen. I could see this happening, since a sturgeon has (I believe) thick plating of some sort similar to the gator. Would explain why the critter didn’t just freight-train on me when I snagged it (ie, didn’t hurt it). Although I still think the gator theory is the best one. That, or I’m sure there’s a good conspiracy theory we could cook up.

I’m going to stick with the gator-theory, since buying the sturgeon-theory would really piss me off that I didn’t land him. I couldn’t care less about a small gator, they are a dime a dozen. Sturgeon? Now that would be cool.

“Sire, it belongs in truth to the Church of God, in whose name I speak, to endure blows and not to inflict them. But it will also please your Majesty to remember that she is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.”…Theodore Beza

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Yeah sturgeon is on my bucket list, heard stories from my grandpa about him catching them on the cooper at night around foster creek. You’re right gator is far more likely a culprit I gotta say your story has me convinced to try braid. I think i’ll rig that on a ugly stik and go after the bushy park beast :wink: lol

  • Adam
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quote:
the bushy park beast
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Uh oh, now we have us a true river monster.

Maybe I should embellish the tale a little bit. How about this?

I was fishing one afternoon tossing a giant bucktail made by an old toothless salt, known locally as “Brine” (although, he may have just been “Brian”, it’s hard to tell with all the accents around here). Anyhow, this bucktail was a wide as my hand and weighed nearly a pound. The feathers of the bucktail were plucked from a live bald eagle, which Brine would catch with his bare hands by sneaking up on them in their lofty nests. The lead head was made from recycled bullets which Brine, apparently, had been collecting from injuries he had sustained from his frequent hunting trips with Dick Cheney. And, I was using my grandfather’s old Penn reel that he used to use to catch 600 pound reef cod down in Florida (some people call them grouper, I call’em reef cod, mmmm hmm). The rod has been handed down for generations, made by my ancestors who lived under a lonely mountain somewhere east of the Mirkwood. The rod is made of pure mithril and was more than 16 feet long. I was prepared. I was on the trail of a critter known to the locals simply as “The Bushy Park Beast”.

The day couldn’t have been worse. When we got to the boat ramp, the wind was howling and the waves were crashing over the dock. But there had been reports of this beast seen by locals, and it had the water skiers so scared that they had to ski with one hand and carry a bang-stick with the other. I nearly didn’t get the boat launched without swamping it with waves, but after we got it in the water and headed out, it became clear to me that I had not made a good decision. The weather was simply not cooperating, and my wife had put bananas in our lunch bag. Well, we pressed on anyhow.

My son was with me. He was 4 years old, but already he had salt in his blood… mostly because of an unfortunate mishap a few weeks prior, involving a crab trap, a cargo ship, a bowie knife, and a can of vienna sausages. But he was as fearless as I was. We

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next sat there will be 200 boats anchored, looking for the beast. someone will get video of something that will fuel this tale.

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Someone will get a video where you can hear the beast “snorting” up in the weeds (feral pigs, all over the place out there).

“Sire, it belongs in truth to the Church of God, in whose name I speak, to endure blows and not to inflict them. But it will also please your Majesty to remember that she is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.”…Theodore Beza

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HAHA… love it! See ya at the park

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Man that’s a awesome story! You are quite the writer!

Wait…

So you say it is a true story ?? :slight_smile:

miss’n fish’n

212 SEAHUNT CC
Sea Squirt 16

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I’ve heard the bushy park beast perfers the taste of feral pig, better bring your swordfish hook in 11/0 and place a peice of pork loin on it.

  • Adam
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Is the 11/0 hook and pork loin what I’m supposed to use to catch the bait?

“Sire, it belongs in truth to the Church of God, in whose name I speak, to endure blows and not to inflict them. But it will also please your Majesty to remember that she is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.”…Theodore Beza

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quote:
Originally posted by penfishn

Man that’s a awesome story! You are quite the writer!

Wait…

So you say it is a true story ?? :slight_smile:

miss’n fish’n

212 SEAHUNT CC
Sea Squirt 16

I’ve been reading my son “The Hobbit” and am now reading him “The Magician’s Nephew” (part of the Chronicles of Narnia series), so the juices are flowing lol. It has to go somewhere, and it ended up here.

“Sire, it belongs in truth to the Church of God, in whose name I speak, to endure blows and not to inflict them. But it will also please your Majesty to remember that she is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.”…Theodore Beza

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You should have just posted that first!

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I am seriously considering naming my beat up old tinny “The Bushy Park Beast”. A mild overstatement, but with the right font, it would be priceless.

“Sire, it belongs in truth to the Church of God, in whose name I speak, to endure blows and not to inflict them. But it will also please your Majesty to remember that she is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.”…Theodore Beza

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LOL, great story, keep up the good work. I remember as a kid, fishing bushy park and cypress gardens, and diving off the trestle at cypress. alot of gators around there

22 Seminole CC
130 Yamaha

Bill Daniels

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Needs to go in print , LOL

Wicked fishing
175 CC Pioneer Bay sport
90 Yamaha 4 stroke

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Large snapping turtle maybe

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