Cobia Still On our Minds

On the last set of big tides the river fishing for Cobia was pretty good. Now the sharks are fast and furious making it hard to keep any bait on the bottom. So now the preferred technique is to fish only 1 bait on the bottom and chum the surface heavy and fish 2 or 3 live baits on the surface under a balloon or a rattling cork. Yesterday fishing near the mouth of the sound we boated 3 Cobia hooking all the fish right next to the chum bag. As I let baits out I make it a habit of dropping them next to the side of the boat and letting the current take them out. Well, 3 times as soon as the bait hit the water a Cobia darted out and grabbed the bait. The near shore reefs are also very good places to fish for Cobia. While Cobia fishing you can also catch plenty of Spadefish. On the way in from the Eagles Nest this week we stopped along some of the Port Royal shipping channel buoys and floated some small fish near the cans hooking 2 whopper Cobia and landing 1. Great time to fish in the lowcountry. Tarpon are just around the corner.

Cobia not the only game in town

Made the long hike to the Gulf Stream last week. What a change, the water 65 miles off our coast is clear and blue. Fishing for Dolphin was red hot. We boated 25 Dolphin from 10 to over 30 lbs. We trolled medium ballyhoo behind Blue and White Islanders. At times we had 2 or 3 fish jumping behind the boat with drags screaming. We fished aboard the Work Of Art which I am running blue water charters on. The boat is 35' sporting twin 350 Yamaha's to get us to the fishing grounds fast. Let's go get them as the best trolling season is now through the end of June.

Cobia Time

Time to go Cobia fishing! We caught our first Cobia April 23rd, a record for me. We have not had many days for sight fishing but we also landed a nice 20 pounder fishing the surface about a week ago. Monday we caught a 45 lb whopper fishing a live Whiting on the bottom I saw a 70 lb fish landed Tuesday. With the Full Moon this weekend it is time to go.

Spring Redfish

Cold water Redfish improved in Febuary and the first 2 weeks of March. Catches were good but then the fish became educated or tramatized by all the rain and mostly the wind. With muddy water fishing for Redfish has been very tough. With the cloudy water sightfishing has been impossible, but we still managed to catch a few on most trips. Fair weather is on the way. Fishing this weekend we caught several Redfish but we had to fish lots of area with only a few bites at most spots. The good news is we did manage a couple of nice Speckled Trout fishing under the bridge, more will follow with the warming water temps. Better yet the arrival Cobia inshore should happen this week. The Threadfin Herring are on the sandbars. I have also spotted Lemon Sharks working the flats. Hopefully I will post some pictures of nice Cobia soon, could be you in the picture with a big Brownie.

Cold water Reds

Had the good fortune of being able to fish two days this past week. If you like finding huge schools of Redfish and watching them push water and blow off then you could say it was a good week. We did manage to catch a few but to say the least the fish catching was tough! No doubt the cold water has a big impact on the bite. Monday we fished the incoming tide all the way to high, we could find lots of fish but rare to get a bite. The best opportunity was when the water was in the grass. We fished Gulp baits on 1/4 ounce jig heads and Gulp baits under a rattling cork. The pattern was catch one fish and the rest would move out of the area even on high water. Thus we had to keep moving, some areas the fish moved so far back in the grass we could not get baits to them. The large fish of the day was 23". Friday we fished the last of the outgoing and some of the incoming. Large I mean large schools of Redfish were bunched up on the low tide flats, using the trolling motor and tide and having the fortune of bright sunshine we were able to get into easy casting range of the fish. However, even with a healthy dose of Shrimp Lunker sauce on the fly the fish would not eat. We changed locations several times and had no success until the water began to flood the exposed to sunshine mud and oyster flat areas finally hooking and landing a nice 27" Redfish on a brown and gold Redfish Slider. We also caught a short Red on a Gulp Shrimp. By this time the wind had picked up and sight fishing was no longer possible so we headed for the dock. The other excitement for the day was watching the Dolphins herd the fish along the flat then shoot in at hyper speed attaching the fish, not good for us doing some catching but quite a show. Sorry no pictures I still have not fixed my camera situation.

Holiday Fishing

Time flies when you are having fun. The first two weeks of Dec few folks wanted to go fishing, but like the wind in March the last two weeks were roaring like a Lion. The Redfish were chewing also. The best bite came on the high water with the fish eating Gulp Baits on the edge and in the grass. Thank goodness for Power Pro line as we had very few cut offs and were able to free our baits from the grass and oysters most of the time. Catches ranged from 20 to 35 15" to 30" Redfish. The big tides of this past week have made fishing the low water much tougher, however, yesterday we found tons of Redfish schooling on the outgoing tide over the dead white oyster shells. All we need is a little sunshine and someone who wants to go get them.

Redfish and More Redfish

We just completed the best week of fishing for Redfish I can remember. We had the good fortune of finally having several days with light winds and clear water. The Redfish both over the slot fish and 15 to 19 inch fish were schooled up in all the normal places. The best part being the fish were very aggressive. Enjoy the pictures and lets go fishing, now until January is the best time to catch Redfish in the Low Country.