‘Monster’ was lurking offshore in Port Royal. Here’s what a surprised fisherman reeled in
Matthew Dale knew he had a “monster” fish on his hands when it finally began to show itself in the shallows off of Sands Beach in Port Royal after a 20-minute battle.
“I was surprised something that big would be that close to the shore there,” Dale told The Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet.
Dale had bagged one very large and very round black drum fish, a species known to prowl the bottoms of nearshore coastal creeks and marshes, using its chin whiskers to detect oysters and other shellfish before crushing them with powerful jaws with rounded teeth.
The state record black drum was caught in 1978, also in Port Royal waters. That fish weighed 89 pounds, according to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.
Nobody will ever know how Dale’s fish measures up to the record because he released the brute before measuring or weighing it.
“I was just trying to hurry up and get it back in the water,” Dale said.
Based on photos, Dale estimates the fish was 54 to 56 inches long and weighed over 80 pounds “for sure.” In the end, Dale released the behemoth back into Battery Creek so it could live to fight another day.
“That was a fish of a lifetime man,” Dale said. “It makes me want to come back on Labor Day weekend to go fishing some more down there.”
Elizabeth Gooding, a recreational fishing data coordinator in the SCDNR’s Office of Fisheries Management, called Dale’s fish “a particularly impressive catch.” The fish is the largest black drum that has been shared with her since she took over the SCDNR’s State Record program in 2021, she added.
The 31-year-old Dale lives in Belmont, North Carolina, where he owns a landscaping company.
His family decided to spend a few quiet vacation days fishing and frolicking on the beaches of neighboring South Carolina.
Dale, who loves to fish, was in his element at the Port Royal beach popular with fishermen and shark tooth hunters.
“If you want to catch something,” he says, “you have to have a line in the water.”
The black drum struck Dale’s hook, which was baited with frozen finger mullet, on Tuesday. Up until that point, he had not caught a fish longer than a 12 inches.
As Dale’s surprising catch became visible, people took notice and began to watch, taking pictures and video. Dale was thinking, “If that’s really a drum, it’s a monster.”
It took Dale 15-20 minutes land the lunker, which was hooked 40 yards from the beach.
This story was originally published April 5, 2024 at 9:31 AM.
