The reason we moved came to fruition this past weekend. Hunter came down to fish the weekend with us!
Nice when a plan works out.
Saturday was a gloomy, drizzly day, but felt fishy with the tides working in our favor.
Hunter and I headed out to the river to try and capitalize on what few locations Nancy and I found earlier in the week. All of those locations were high and dry as the tide had dropped the water off our trout hole. They would have to have lungs to live where we caught them earlier.
Hunter threw the cast net and picked up a lot of finger mullet and pinfish, but they were the only fish that came to the tin boat on Saturday.
As we were cleaning the boat up at the end of the day, Hunter got a text and said "ugh, you ain't gonna want to see this". It was a text, with pictures of course, of the big reds his buddy Jeff had caught and put in the boat fishing out of Hilton Head on Saturday.
We are wise enough to let a guy from Boston tell us where to go, literally and figuratively, and we decided to fire up the Seacraft and head over to the Broad River on Sunday.
Nancy said she would go since it was forecasted to be a nice day, while Charlotte had to stay behind and study.
So, after a nice brunch with the Westcobbs we set off to the Broad.
There is an excellent ramp at the foot of the bridge which is an easy 15 minute drive from our home. It is nice to see the facilities here and not having to pay the Wakulla County "user tax" I mean boat ramp fee.
Not knowing what to expect, I was surprised to see the water rolling under the bridge. A little on edge about anchoring and holding in the swift water, Hunter chucked the anchor out and we started baiting up with some cut mullet.
The view was architecturally pleasing.
We may have been in the water about 10 minutes when Nancy got on the board.
She put the old Mitchell to work.
She battled the big fish in the swift water for about 15 minutes and was rewarded with this monster bull red.
As the tide slacked a few trash fish came aboard, small sharks and rays.
We decided to look for some bait up river while the tide was flipping and we rewarded by seeing some nice tarpon jumping and feeding on menhaden in the river. Hunter tried but couldn't connect on any menhaden in his net, so we headed back to the bridge for another hour of fishing.
As the cleaner water started flowing back up the river, it was my turn to get introduced to the bull red population of South Carolina as my rod went down and my cut mullet was devoured by another bull.
Again, a nice fight occurred and soon a pretty red came boat side.
After all of this hub bub came to an end, I hear Hunter say "oh sheet" and I see his line ripping to the surface. Knowing that tarpon made journeys through the spans of the bridge, I quickly jumped back to the controls and got ready to fire up the old Seacraft. But, the big fish torpedoed to the surface and shook it's huge head and broke Hunter's line before we had the opportunity to give chase.
We gathered up and pulled anchor marveling at what big fish swim in the Broad River.
I think it's a good start to South Carolina Low Country fishing!
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