A prominent South Carolina sportfishing captain tagged his first great white shark of 2021 Thursday after he and a client hooked the same shark almost simultaneously.
“While we weren’t watching we had this girl come up and crush both baits on a fly-by and we landed her on two rods,” Chip Michalove, of Outcast Sportfishing, wrote on Instagram. “Exhausting day, as it was just myself and Pavel Vykopel, and he’s got a blown-out rotator cuff.”
Michalove, with Vykopel’s help, placed two scientific tags on the 12-foot shark before setting the apex predator free.
The white sharks that Michalove targets each winter migrate into South Carolina waters after the summer and fall feeding season off Cape Cod, Mass. However, they’ve been difficult to locate this year.
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“We’re already halfway through the season and it’s different,” Michalove told For The Win Outdoors. “The water in Cape Cod was unusually warm in the fall so it delayed the migration. Then, finally when they arrived it was 20- to 30-mph winds every day.”
Michalove and Vykopel made several moves before finding suitable conditions for setting up a chum slick. They were fishing with false albacore when the 12-foot white shark gobbled both baits to propel them into battle mode.
They had the shark alongside the boat in only 20 minutes.
Michalove, who runs out of Hilton Head, said this was the first white shark he has caught at this specific location.
“Now we’ve landed white sharks in 5 different spots off South Carolina, we’re getting better at figuring them out every winter.” he said.
–Images courtesy of Chip Michalove/Outcast Sportfishing
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