It was a family affair in late February aboard Sunshine and Whiskey, Micah Young’s custom-built 27-foot boat, which was launched from the Carroll Campbell Marine Complex in Georgetown.

The plan was to catch Young’s father, John Young, a mess of black sea bass and run the boat in advance of competing in the ongoing South Carolina Wahoo Series.

In late 2021, Micah Young, a Marine Biology teacher at Wilson High School in Florence, headed north from the Winyah Bay jetties to a bottom spot and found a very nice grade of black sea bass, much larger than the 13-inch minimum size limit, in about 40 feet of water.

The Youngs, with Micah’s 15-year-old son Thomas and brother Kevin also aboard, returned to the same spot and quickly found black sea bass were still there, readily hitting mullet and squid, but the fish were a smaller grade.

As usual, Micah Young worked a Bluewater Candy Roscoe jig on the spot soon after they got set up.

“A lot of people use those for black sea bass, especially targeting the big ones. I don’t pull up on any (spot) that I don’t put a jig down — anything will hit them. I always put one down first and give that a whirl while everybody else is fishing with bait.”

After about 15 minutes, Micah Young hooked up with a fish bigger than he expected on the jig in about 40 feet of water.

“To be honest, I’ve heard rumors over the years, especially around Beaufort, of people catching goliath grouper,” said Micah Young, who was using a medium-class setup with a Quantum reel and 20-pound test. “The way the fish was pulling, I couldn’t think of anything else pulling that big in that shallow water. It kept digging in the structure like a 30-40 pound grouper.

“I couldn’t do much, I couldn’t put too much pressure on (the fish). Once we got him off the wreck, he headed north and just went. We had to follow him like you would a really big king.”

After about 30 minutes they finally got a good look at the fish and knew it wasn’t a goliath grouper.

(editor：)