Saturday September 8, 2012 will be one of those memorable days that we will talk about for years. The wife, son-in-law, nine year-old grandson, and myself enjoyed an absolute redfish bonanza on a beautiful lowcountry Saturday. Plans were made to fish the incoming tide (which is always good to us)and the advancing “cold” front must have triggered a feeding frenzy. From the first line in the water till we left, it was FISH ON!! The first spot produced an almost two hour window of catching redfish that I have never experienced. We were fishing with floats and live shrimp and nearly ever cast produced a fish or at least a missed strike.
I was the first to hook a fish but it spit the hook boatside. Off with the old hook and on with a new one. Granson brought a nice 15" red in for the first boated fish of the day and from then on, it was cast, catch, remove fish, cast again. I lost count at 15 personal fish with a 25" and 29" as the biggies. The 29" would take honors for the largest, but the wife’s 27" was heavier by a pound. Grandson boated a 24" red which was his biggest ever. His count soared to over 20 fish as he was receiving a little help from all on board. Wife stopped counting hers at around 15 as did the SIL. His best was 25" red which was accomplished with a tangle from his son’s line. The total count for the day was somewhere between 50-60 fish brought into the boat, three fish lost boatside, and several near misses. Grandson also caught three trout, which none of the adults managed to do. SIL also caught a very nice black drum.
All of the fish were caught on shrimp, live or otherwise under floats. The fish were not picky. My 29" red came out of the grass on a half of piece of dead shrimp coated in Gulp shrimp spray. We did not catch anything from the bottom using live finger mullet or using mullet on the floats. All they wanted was shrimp!
Water was clear to three feet and what a treat to see your float go under and watch its path under the water! Water temp was around 83 degrees, mild to moderat