A hesitant post, but going, going gone...
Before I get into this trip report, I want to mention that after the great day hunting, I returned Sunday afternoon to the same spot and found it dug out. At first I thought it was city workers removing brush, trees, branches and logs from the banks. I was wrong. Forty+ feet of holes up and down the bank. What a difference five days make. It used to be my favorite spot but now I have a sinking feeling that its never going to be good again. I am by no means one to throw the first stone, and I am not pointing any fingers at anyone, or wish to upset anyone, I just got to find out what others have already been going through. Guess it was finally my turn.With that being said, here is the trip report. (I typed it up prior to Sunday's trip up so I am not changing much in it)
My sister Jessica stopped by for a few days of Fossil hunting on her way up to New York and the plan was to go to GMR on Monday but unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate. However after seeing Flex68’s spearhead he found and the one I found from the same spot on a previous trip with Govinn as well as me talking about the other perfect spearhead my friend Greg found in the same spot of the creek she was chomping at the bit to find her own.
So she stayed another day and Tuesday we were at the creek ready to find whatever ancient treasures the creek had to offer!
My sister bought a pair of hip waders which I suggested she try them on at the store but she replied that they would be fine. So when she put them on at the creek she found that she was the proud owner of two left foot hip waders! Well she just shrugged it off and followed me down to the creek. I told her where she would have the easiest time entering and once she met me in the creek I put her in a spot that would be pretty productive and she started screening away.
I moved upstream a little bit and picked the spot I was screening the previous Thursday with Flex. I started screening and got through a few screens when I hear my sister exclaim “F#*% MY LIFE”! Well that was a strange statement and I looked over at her expecting her to have found something broken or not but she was staring at me with a look of shock and holding up a big tooth. I asked her what it was and she replied “Great White”! WHAT?!?! From 20 feet away I could see that it was a big tooth! I think it took me about 2 seconds to cover the distance and she handed me a big nearly perfect great white. I measured it with her screen and it was definitely over 2.5”. What luck! We had been in the creek like fifteen minutes and she couldn’t have gone through three screens! Talk about starting strong.
After congratulating her on her awesome find since it was the biggest great white I have personally seen come out of the creek and the fact I was a little jealous I started screening in my spot with a new fire and desire. I screened and screened and scooped and scooped all the sand and gravel and trash and junk and leaves and fossils that my shovel could manage and after two hours and countless screens I had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to show for it. Well except for a couple broken worn teeth and some bones.
My sister continued finding the usual stuff including some not to shabby crow shark teeth and belemnites. After awhile I started thinking that it was time to move. I didn’t really want to move though because I knew me and Flex hit my other favorite spots pretty hard a few days earlier. I instead went over to where my sister was insisting would turn up some finds due to the amount of gravel and loaded up my screen a couple times. I was nearly ecstatic to find absolutely nothing. HA. Well that was short lived.
I wandered back over to my spot and filled up my screen again, this time as I was shoveling I saw something sticking out of the mud as I was dumping a load onto my screen. It was big, it was gray, it was smooth and it was definitely toothy. Sweet! Finally a screen with some potential! I didn’t stop there and kept filling my screen until I decided it may have been a little too much and I dragged it out into deeper water to rinse it out.
Knowing that I had a tooth in my screen I rinsed all the sand and large amount of mucky leaves to find that tooth I saw. What I didn’t expect was for a mostly complete with no serrations meg to pop into view first. Followed by a a tiger shark tooth. Followed by a 2 ¼” Mako, followed by another chunk of a meg and then as I was in shock about my luck turning I saw in the upper left corner of the screen my favorite kind of shark tooth. A great white. A lower great white and it looked mostly complete. I exclaimed to my sister she wouldn’t believe the screen I just had and picked it up and lugged it over to the bank so I could pick out the toothy treasures. Of course the great white was what I picked up first. And what a beauty it was. All the serrations, a perfect flawless root that looked more mako then any great white I had ever seen, and 1 3/8th inches long! It definitely put a smile on my face. My first complete great white of the year and it was flawless! And neither was I complaining about a really nice modern tiger, or the big mako that showed up on my shovel. As I was putting the teeth in my hand my sister asked, “ what about that one”? I looked back at the screen as she plucked out a GMR rarity for me. A big hemipristis. Unfortunately the middle and some enamel was busted but it would have been a monster, at least 1.75”. What a screen, what variety in just one screen! That’s what I love about GMR!
After that the flood gates unleashed! There was hardly a screen for awhile that I didn’t get something good. A complete 2 ¼” great white, a beautiful fat great white blade with a lot of root damage, many more broken great whites and makos, complete modern tigers. It was awesome.
Finally after a few wonderful screens that really got me pumped I got an empty screen again. I had filled it with a lot of sand and a lot of rotten wood and leaves. It literally had about 9 pebbles in the entire screen. I was about to dump it when one of the pebbles in particular caught my eye. Im not sure what it was, I think I thought it was a broken crow shark tooth at first but when I took a closer look I could distinctly make out worked stone. I dropped the screen and gave out a muffled laugh as I plucked the arrowhead out of my screen. I looked it over and noted the dark stone with a white streak through it. It was perfect. I automatically felt bad because my sister was the one who wanted to find an artifact. That quickly passed as I remembered she has the biggest great white I have seen in person come from GMR. I walked over to show it to her. It was my fifth artifact I have found in North Carolina and fourth from GMR! What a day this was turning out to be!
About that time my sister pulled out another great white. This one not nearly as big, probably 1 1/3” long, but what it lacked in size it made up for in quality. A rare gem with a shiny enamel blade, a perfect square root and the sharpest serrations I have ever seen on any tooth. I have never seen serrations actually form perfect triangles before, it was that sharp. I wish I had a better picture of it but my sister packed it off to England and I only have a picture taken on my IPhone.
After that I had to take a break for a minute, I had a tooth case of nice teeth, a small perfect arrowhead, I didn’t think this day could get any better!
I finally went back to my screening and filled up another screen and went through the normal ritual. I cant say at this point I was expecting an empty screen and I was not to be disappointed as I found another lower great white tooth in my screen. I immediately noticed the complete root and light colored blade! I picked it up and felt the perfect serrations and admired the light blue green and tan blade! I love blue/green colored teeth! I put it in my tooth case and feeling invincible went back to the screening and finally my streak ended and I went back to the usual broken teeth and or empty screens. I did do pretty well however with the broken megs. I pulled out two megs with no serrations and worn enamel measuring 3.25 and 2.75” long as well as two split megs nearly four inches each with enamel but no serrations.
I gave the complete ones to my sister and continued screening and finally it was nearly time to get out of the creek. Which about the same time I started getting empty screens again. I told my sister that it was three strikes and I am out. Then I added that I would love one more complete great white to finish the day.
Well I filled up my screen with sand and gravel just hoping that it was going to show up. I felt it was coming, I could imagine that perfect tooth popping into my screen. I finished filling it, rinsed it out and the pitch came, it was fast and low and I swung and missed. STRIKE ONE… an empty screen.
Second pitch, this one was a little heavier and slower, especially after I filled my screen way too much and I was worried about the screen holding up and not shooting out all the staples when I lifted it out of the water. I eventually managed to lift it and get it rinsed out. I found a broken tiger, and a broken great white in this screen. I was like, that doesn’t count its broken. So my sister joked that I fouled off that pitch. Either way, FOUL BALL=STRIKE TWO!
If I thought the last two screens were filled too full, this one beat them both, I actually washed out some of the sand with my shovel and then continued filling. Finally I had enough. The ball was released, it was a fastball, right down the middle, I rinsed out the screen, swung as hard as I could, and CRACK! A hit! I washed out all the sand to see a tooth. A big tooth! That ball was going, going, GONE! I plucked out my biggest complete tooth of the day, just a hair over 2.5” of perfection in a great white. It was easy to see the lighter colored root, the bluish gray blade, the smooth shiny enamel! What luck! I couldn’t believe it. It didn’t really sink in about all the luck I was having until later but I finished rinsing the rest of the screen after I handed my sister the great white and carried it to the bank! What a day, what a way to finish! I was talking to my sister about the tooth when I glanced back at my screen and noticed no other shark teeth but something black caught my eye! Long and rectangular and full of noticeable lines and ENAMEL! I knew what it was in about two seconds! I plucked out my second GMR horse tooth! Not only did I just hit a home run, but I crossed the plate and had time to do a little victory dance! HA.
This was definitely my best GMR day ever! Ive had days where I have found more teeth, more great whites, but four perfect ones is my definite high beating my previous high of three which I have done twice!
Until next time, good hunting!