For You Guys that Don't like the Cold Weather

I had some nice folks from Wisconsin yesterday who had the opinion that our cold weather was warm and temper ant when I explained our temperatures have been in the 20's every night for more than a week and it might be tough to get the Redfish to eat, their comment, "20 above or below". We fished the last of the outgoing and first of the incoming tide. Even though we put baits of live Mud minnows and Gulp shrimp in front of hundreds of fish, no takers on the low water. It was fun seeing lots of fish schooled up in tight schools and not very spooky. The technique was to use the trolling motor to move against the tide and set the power pole down when a school moved away from the boat. After a few minutes the school would move back toward the boat. We did get a few bites if we cast a bait well ahead of the anticipated path of the school and the school moved over the bait. The other key was not to move the bait, if you moved the bait the school would spook away. After the tide changed and flooded some mud flats and oyster beds that had been exposed to the sun in the morning the fish began to eat. Not that it was a bite every cast but a well placed cast ahead of a school would produce action. The Gulp shrimp worked just as good as the live Mud Minnows. We landed 8 all over the slot except 1. Great time of the year to fish, glad the weather is getting warmer.

Message to Redfish

Mr. Redfish, if the winds are calm you better find somewhere to hide. We finally had a couple of days with light winds. Yesterday the water was as slick as a baby's behind, thus we could spot schools of Redfish pushing water as far away as the naked eye could see. The best part is this time of year you don't have to be a pin point caster to hook up. We caught too many fish to have an accurate count and if you were looking for groceries you were out of luck because most of the fish were way over the slot. We landed fish of 31" and 33" to finish the day. The bait of choice was a 1/4 ounce jig head rigged with a 3" Gulp Shrimp. Now until the water gets too cold in January and February the schooling fish are eager to eat even though they get moving when you get near with the boat.
As for the jumbo's we fished an area in the sound we call Red'ville a couple of days ago with no success. The Bull Red's are now found just offshore on the wrecks and reefs or sandbars where you see feeding birds.
In the low country now we have a bad fishing deli ma, fish the inshore flats for slot up to 33" Reds or run just offshore and battle some bonified whoppers up to 47". Both can be sight fished and and will put a sever kink in your rod.

Weather getting Cooler

The weather may be getting cooler but the fishing is getting better each day. If you like fishing for Redfish now is the time. You have a big choice to make, fish nearshore for the big Adults schooling under the birds or fishing the inshore flats for schools of the slot to just over the slot Reds cruising the shallow waters. If you want the big boys and girls then you need some calm winds so you can venture out the sound and look for birds working over the sand bars that are on each side of the Port Royal shipping channel. When you find the birds just drive into the middle of the action and drop some cut bait to the bottom or cast a heavy bucktail and bounce it off the bottom, the bite will not take long. Inshore pick a flat out of the wind and cruise the shallows until you spot a school pushing water, get into position and cast ahead of the school. The Redfish are aggressive now and will eat most any bait that looks like food. If you like the cast and hope program, casting spinner baits and 1/4 ounce jigs rigged with a Gulp bait around oyster beds and points making rips will produce Redfish and an occasional Flounder as well. The bite will be great until it gets cold in January.

Glad the big Boys and Girls are still around

Good weather but slow business meant not much fishing this week. However, the trip we made today could last some folks a week. The Adult Reds were willing to eat out in the sound and the year old Reds in the creeks had an appetite to match.

One extreme to the Other

Only had the opportunity to fish three times this past week. The catching was not great but we did manage a few bites. The big tides made low water fishing tough because the water was muddy. The extra high water only gives you a small window for the Tailing fish so I chose to fish the low to in coming tides. If you were looking for eating fish then my clients were out of luck this week, we either caught the below the slot "Rat" Reds or the good ole big'uns above the slot. We had to work hard fishing several locations but when the fish were located the bite was good. The bait of choice was the New Penny 3" Shrimp rigged on a 1/4 ounce jig head. The highlight of the trips was Rick catching a 28" whopper on the first cast on our first stop Tuesday. His wife was not to be out done later catching a 33" whopper. The best news is the Mullet Run is on with a few Tarpon still being sighted and boats from our docks are landing at least 1 of the Bull Reds a trip while fishing for Tarpon this past week. The Tarpon fishing will go from slow to gone but the Bull Reds will get better and peak in shore during October.

Bad News Good News

The bad news first, the Tarpon bite is real slow again this week. A few fish were spotted on the Full Moon phase, but no hook ups that I know of. Some nice Kings were caught out near the ocean in Port Royal Sound. Plenty of bait in the area so the Tarpon bite could light up at any time. I had the good fortune of fishing the creeks again this week and the Redfish and Trout not in great numbers but some decent action. We also completed another Inshore Slam. The Trout are eating Gulp Shrimp as well as live Shrimp. We caught the Redfish on the same rattling cork rig just fishing in very shallow water. In some areas we fished in less than 6 inches of water letting the Gulp Shrimp just sit on the bottom as the water moved into the grass. Another good technique on the bottom of the tide was to go into a small creek and use the trolling motor to ease up the creek casting to the base of the oyster beds. The Redfish were holding around the beds and were eager to take our baits. We caught the flounder in the same places especially if there was moving water. The Shrimp are getting larger and more plentiful and the fish sure are hungry. This has also been a good summer for Tailing Redfish. We have some good tailing tides coming soon let's go fishin!

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.