Murrells Inlet SC Memorial Day Fishing Report 2024

Blue_Runner

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Fish 5 full days and 2 half days out of Murrells Inlet SC. Weather started off with NE wind blowing pretty good, which limited our options. Later it calmed down nicely and we were able to try out a few different spots.

Day 1
Sunday 6/19. My wife was leaving for the week so we thought would try to get her on some fish before she left. Made a fuel stop at the circle K. Pulled up with ~20 gallons in the tank. Knowing we would fish several days I decide to fill it up. I try to never over fill the tank, but this day I had an oopsie. Overfilled the tank and it spit gas everywhere. Knowing there was fuel in the fill line I decided to pull the deck plate and do a quick check of the hoses - not expecting to see any issue. Well there was an issue. Gas very slowy seeping out around the sending unit. Grabbed some papertowels and packed around it good enough to get it home without leaking into the area around the fuel tank. I decided I need to pump out some fuel to get the level below the top of the sending unit in order to take the sending unit off and reseal it. Pumped out 6 or 8 gallons, pulled sending unit, used thin layer of fast drying fuel rated gasket maker around the sending seal and top of the tank. Put it all back together real nice and tight. Couple hours later it was dry good to go. Managed to still get a little fishing in and wife got an upper slot red in the boat! She had another pull off. Kept a check on the sending unit and never saw any problems the rest of the week thank goodness.

Day 2
Monday - caught a keeper sheepshead and a few throw backs. A guy fishing near us was nice enough to give us a sheep he caught earlier.

Day 3
Daughter got a 23" black drum - I love the fight of those BD, man what a tug! He rode home with us. I got a stud sheepshead, fat 18"er who also took a boat ride. Bunch of other non-keepers

The rest of the days were pretty much the same. We brought home 2 or 3 nice fish every day. One day we had an 18.5 and 19" flounder. I'm pretty sure my daughter foul hooked one of them casting a the rocks. Ended the trip with 15 keepers made up of 2 black drum, 3 or 4 red drum, 2 flounder and the rest were sheepshead. Had one fish fry and froze the rest to bring home to enjoy later.
 
Sending units ……not sure why designed so weak.
Maybe something to do with the plastic fuel tank not offering as tight a grip ?
Not sure . Good report
 
Thanks guys

As we all know - crap happens. Very dangerous any time some sort of fuel leak is involved, therefore I'm thankful that this time crap happened at the fuel pump and not miles out in the ocean.

Another thing - before I go on a trip I make sure I can get the inspection hatches open by hand. Those things can get on there pretty tight over time and you never know when you might need to get in there. I take them out, (sometimes have to beat them out with a piece of wood and hammer if they are real tight), clean the edges and housing, then reinstall just hand snug.

Also, try not to overfill your tank like I did. I can normally look at my fuel guage and tell how much I need to put in. I just took my eye off the ball that time...but glad I did considering the seal around the sending unit was weak.
 
Also, try not to overfill your tank like I did. I can normally look at my fuel guage and tell how much I need to put in. I just took my eye off the ball that time...but glad I did considering the seal around the sending unit was weak.

I topped off a couple weeks ago, like you unintentionally. I looked at my gauge beforehand, and added up the hours since my last fill. By my calculation I should have been 5-10 gallons shy of a full tank when it started coming out of the overflow. Yeesh. This Suzuki is even more efficient than I previously thought. I did plenty of venting and sniffing before I fired up the engine and fortunately detected no fumes.
 
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