9/17 CHS

Yesterday I spent the majority of daylight hours on the water. I got up and fished the low tide in the morning, mostly for trout. It was slick calm on the harbor and a great ride all the way out to Ft. Sumter. I poled around a flat out there looking for pushing reds, but did not find any. Instead, we ran into a bunch of finger mullet and large shrimp, which we caught in the cast net and filled the livewell with. Once the tide started coming back in, we moved over to a now-submerged oyster bed at a creek mouth and caught a ton of medium sized trout.

In the afternoon, we put the boat in at about 4:30 and ran to a new area that I scouted out Friday afternoon. Just like Friday, the reds were coming onto the grass flats with the tide, and were tailing around in just inches of water. I managed to catch one smaller fish on my 6 wt, on a fly I tied Saturday night during the football games. I broke out the video camera as well and filmed a few other fish tailing around for their evening meal. The weather was nice and cool, and the calmest I can remember it being in a long time. The ride back to the boat ramp was very pleasant with the setting sun and glassy water. Not a bad way to end a good weekend. Was able to log 4 trips in 3 days, and look forward to getting out the next three as well if the weather lets me.

9/10/06 Tails

Went out again this morning for another big tide of nearly 6.7 feet. Conditions were just as good or better as yesterday morning, only an hour later. We poled up to the edge of the flat as the tide was just beginning to cover it with water and watched as the reds began to move into the submerged grass. It was still skinny, and the fish were crawling around again. Against my better judgement, I opted for the camera this morning rather than starting off throwing casts at the happy fish.I also shot some video footage of the 10 or so reds working the flat. I will be putting that into some edited work along with some additional footage and hopefully be posting that on the site soon.

Eventually, I couldn't take it any longer and picked up the fly rod. I cast at 3 fish before geeting one to eat, and after setting the hook I failed to keep tension on the line and the hook pulled as the fish was making its first run. Bucky cast at a few as well and got some good follows but no eats. We saw some more scattered fish throughout the morning, but the high sun and slack tide had them edgy and less active.

9/9/06 Charleston, SC flood tide

This morning was textbook. Bucky and I were up at 7:00, a Bojangles biscuit, and on the road to my favorite spot for big tailing reds. We were not disappointed. Today's tide was about 6.6 feet, enough to flood even the highest points of the marsh and provide us with plenty of time to search the flooded grass for reds rooting around for an early morning meal. We poled into an area just flooded by the incoming tide and were greeted by a family of otters swimming around. Just as they passed, we spotted the day's first tail. As we were poling towards it, a much larger fish surfaced at about 100 yds and at one oclock off the bow. This fish was in water so skinny it was literally crawling along as it looked for something to eat. It put on a show for us, flipping around, throwing water 3 feet in the air, and arching its back to expose its undulating rear dorsal fin. After watching and filming it for a few moments, Bucky put a cast out that landed not 8 inches from the fish's head. Without even a strip, the red ate the fly and was into the backing on Bucky's 6 wt reel. After an impressive fight, the fish was boatside and measured out at 30 inches and 11 lbs.

While Bucky was fighting the fish, I was watching the other 10-15 fish on the flat tail aggressively - trying to pick out which one I wanted to cast at as soon as the first fish was released. I hopped down from the platform and traded Bucky the push pole for his 6 wt rod, and kept my eyes steady on my targeted fish. After about 2 pushes, the boat was into position, and I made a cast well in front and beyond the slowly feeding fish. I waited until the fish nearly intersected my line and gave the fly a strip. This fish made a huge boil as he ate and took off in search of deeper water. I landed him shortly thereafter and taped him off at 28 inches.

Most of the tailing fish had scattered after picking two fish out of the group, and we had a few more unsuccessful shots at suspicious fish before poling off the flat and jumping on plane to another productive area. By now the tide had turned and the fish were beginning to follow the ebbing tide out of the grass. We found a few fish suspended in some thick spartina, but didn't see them in time for a good shot. I managed to spot one more tailer just before heading back to the ramp, and this fish was rooting around in some short grass not far from being dry. We had no difficulty following his path, but getting him to see a fly amidst all the grass stalks was a different story. He literally swam over Bucky's fly twice before coming head on to a Gulp crab I had flipped out on the spinning rod from the poling platform. We watched as he ate the sinking crab without missing a step - much like PacMan on the video game. I gave it a moment to let the circle hook do its trick, and then set into what turned out to be a nice 26 inch red.

All in all it was a great day - big tide, good sunlight, winds that for once managed to remain under 10 mph, and hungry fish. We brought 3 reds and a total of 84 inches into, and out of, the boat - released strong and healthy for another day.

9/5/06 Charleston, SC flood tide

Made it out tonight to fish the flood tide here in Charleston with my friend Dave Dalu. With the approaching full moon, the tide was big and way up into the Spartina grass that is normally high and dry. There was a steady breeze blowing and it was overcast, just enough to cool things down a bit and get the fish active and hungry. Upon coming off plane and poling onto the flat we were immediately welcomed by a group of 6 tailing reds, their fins and tails popping in and out of the water as they searched with their mouths in the grass and mud for shrimp, crabs, and other bait that used the thick cover for refuge. We got quite a few decent shots at some very hungry fish, and we able to make connections with 3 fish. Two fish made it to the boat, both in the 24-25 inch range. Interestingly they were both tagged by the South Carolina DNR and from their tag numbers, seemed to be from the same batch of fish. We fished until sunset, which was very pleasant as the amber glow shone through the lingering cloud cover. Another great night in the Carolina coastal lowcountry.

Dave w/ ~25" reda healthy blue-tipped tail Me with a 24" red, taken on a rootbeer copperhead pattern