Redfish in the Back Yard

10.18 and 19

Water temp 72

Hunter wanted to get into the action, so he came down from C town this past weekend.

I took him to the bend in the river where Nancy and I cleaned up earlier in the week, but as usual they the fish had evacuated the area.

He had fished some areas further south in the river so we headed down past down town to search out his locations.  We arrived to find boats all over his hole.  We barged in but the bent pole pattern didn't work too well, as we didn't get a bite and we didn't see anyone with their rods bent.  So we continued south and found a small creek that had a lot of bait.

The tide had turned and was incoming and we just floated up the creek with current.  We bagged a little red and a bunch of trout of which there may have been one keeper.

We came back up the river hoping the incoming tide would change our luck, which it did big time.

We fished across the river and as I picked up a few small pups I started seeing the bigger boys up in inches of water.

We changed out game plan and started seeing the big schools of reds in the shallow water waiting for enough water to get into the grass and stuff themselves with fiddler crabs.

I baited a carolina rig with a finger mullet and tossed it up in the skinny water.  It wasn't in the water but a few seconds when the mullet was tried to get wings over and over.  A big gulp occurred every time the red missed the flying mullet.  Finally the red connected and then I connected.  After a spirited battle this nice overslot red came to get his picture taken.

We chased the big school of reds until the tide got high and they dispersed, but it was an hour of non stop action.

Sunday arrived windy with an outgoing tide.  Hunter wanted to fish a couple of hours before heading home.

It was much tougher to set up because of the wind and tide, but we managed to get Hunter set up on a small oyster point and he pounded the reds until we got blown off the hole.

All of his fish were on the sure ketch sure kurl jig.  I can't wait until my package comes today.  I only have one left that isn't superglued together.

Fish In The Box

10.14.14

Water Temp: 78

We decided to stay close to the house this morning due to the impending storms.

As we left the ramp the wind was relatively docile, but as we reached the area where we like to net our bait, the wind was really howling.

I managed to put about two dozen shrimp in the boat and we headed off to our destination.  We soon realized that the wind wouldn't allow the tin boat safe passage so we pealed off to fish an area of the river that the channel swings close to the oyster strewn bank and nestle in out of the wind.

That turned out to be a good decision as the bite was on as many numerous small trout came boat side and three nice keeper trout and a keeper redfish were in the box before the bite petered out.

We had hit the tide just as it started coming in and the hour or so of the incoming tide was a fish stew.

Nancy was connecting on the live shrimp and I was nailing them on a jig head with a Sureketch grub.

I couldn't catch anything on them in Florida, but they love them here in South Carolina.

Nice 18" trout started the day

The SC reds have a beautiful blue tinged tail

Panko encrusted fish sandwiches was the menu special at the Chandlers Tuesday night.

Yum!

Girlz Rool Boyz Drool

10.1.14, 10.2.14

Patty and Willie had time out from their job in Northeast Georgia after consulting with Google maps  and realizing we were a "short" 5 and one half hour drive away.  So they jumped in their van and headed to the low country to see if Nancy and I could find any fish here.

We headed out to the Broad River again, to soak some cut mullet and see if a big red would give them a South Carolina welcome.

Well by the end of the day, Willie and I had heard the title of this story a few times, girlz rool, boyz drool.

Nancy quickly got on board as her rod doubled up and again she put the ol' Mitchell reel to the test.

After a back and forth battle she brought this beauty to the boat.

Willie caught a really nice toad fish and Nancy brought a ray boat side, before Patty got on the board.

She fought and fought as a battle raged between her and what we (the boyz) thought was a big ray.

But she kept saying, no way!

As usual, she was correct as this massive bull came to the Seacraft.

We weren't able to entice any other big bites.

As the tide slackened we tried dropping some cut shrimp on the pilings for some sheepshead, but only ended up with a black sea bass for our efforts.

Day two, we headed to the Cat Island area trying to find smaller fish so we could have a fish fry.

But, all we could bring to the tin boat was about a dozen small trout.

Always good to have guests and family in to fish and enjoy good times together.

We promised them next time we would have them figured out and a fish fry would be guaranteed!

Update on Bull Red

10.1.14

The big red that I caught in the Broad River a couple of weeks ago was tagged.  Hunter cut the tag off before we released it to swim again.

The following day, I cleaned the algae off the tag revealing a SCDNR tag.  I reviewed the instructions online on how to report the catch.

I received a letter with a t-shirt this week.

The letter stated that the fish was caught tagged on December 3, 2002 8 miles offshore of Charleston. It was 35.4 inches long then.  It traveled 70 miles to the Broad River where I caught it.

So when you catch a bull red think how old it is and marvel that anything can stay alive that long in the salt!