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.