Three piers in Horry County underwent significant damage when Hurricane Ian came to the Carolina coasts late last month as a Category 1 storm.
The damages, however, are not discouraging local fishermen from casting lines.
“It’s been slow since the storm. Nobody has really been catching anything,” fisherman Joe Williams said while on the 2nd Avenue Pier in Myrtle Beach.
Giant waves from Ian took out a large portion of the end of the 2nd Avenue Pier on Sept. 30.
"I wasn't here for it, I was home, but there's some crazy TikToks of it coming down during the storm," Paul Nalepa, a longtime employee of the shop on the 2nd Avenue Pier, said. "There ain't no more dunes. The waves knocked them out. Those waves were angry as hell."
The Coastal Angler Magazine reports that “hurricanes have been known to result in large amounts of dead fish, crabs, sea turtles, oysters, etc. due to reduced amounts of dissolved oxygen in the water, rapid salinity changes, and violent surf,” which is bad news for fishermen.
“I need my saltwater fishing,” Daniel Shlyonsky, a tourist from New York City, said while fishing at the 2nd Avenue Pier.
The Apache Pier in Myrtle Beach also took a hit during Hurricane Ian and Shlyonsky said that fishermen there are still active, but are forced to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with one another.
“It’s definitely super crowded over there,” he said. “It’s definitely rougher at Apache because [Hurricane Ian] took out a larger section.”
Fisherman Prince Bowens said he has still been frequenting the 2nd Avenue Pier since the storm and that with shrimp as his bait, he has been able to catch mostly Spot fish.
The Cherry Grove Fishing Pier in North Myrtle Beach was split in the middle from Hurricane Ian and, according to owner Edmund Stephens, repairs will begin in January and are predicted to take five to seven months.
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