I’m coming in to Charleston with my girlfriend at the end of Sept. Mom and Dad are gonna drive in from Columbia for a day and Dad and I are going to try and do some fishing for a half a day. I’m an experienced fisherman and chase smallmouth, Stripers, crappie, and walleye in TN at least 100 days a year. I really want to catch some redfish and would love some suggestions for guides. Ideally, I’d like to fish with artificial but I’m not opposed to using live bait. My question is about who I should select as a guide. What I would prefer is an opportunity to fish with light tackle and artificial bait. I understand that many guides are set up for beginner fisherman with somewhat heavy tackle and live bait rigs. We’ll be staying at Wild Dunes so Isle of Palms area would be best.
Also, if Dad brings some rods down do we have any shot of catching fish on our own by wading in the marsh? Not knowing the area, the tides, or even fished for redfish before I feel the deck would be stacked against us. The problem is that I am one of those stubborn fisherman who enjoys the challenge of learning the water myself and doing it the hard way. I’m just afraid with a limited amount of time I should probably go the route of hiring a guide.
Thank you in advance for your responses, and if anybody wants to come to TN and fish for smallmouth just let me know.
Tom
I fished w/ J.R. Waits about 3 or 4 times many years ago. He’s a great guide w/ tons of experience and local knowledge. Also, he keeps his boat at the IOP marina just outside the Wild Dunes gate.
His web page is http://www.fishcall.com/
Good luck!
What area of Charleston are you staying. Water is everywhere and there’s a few good redfish guides on every body of water. That will help your decision. September and October are prime redfish times so your in the money
Lots of good tides for wading for reds in September Tom and you’ll be in the right area. What dates are you looking at specifically? Feel free to pm me or post here. I’ll be glad top help out.
Thanks for the ■■■■■■■■, I’m staying at the Wild Dunes resport and from what I understand there is some areas to wade fish very close by. I won’t be bringing any tackle so my next question is there a decent place I can get some equipment while I am down there?
J.R. Waits is supposed to be the man. Book soon with whoever though, the best guides get quite booked up
Capt. Richard Stoughton is the man captrichard.com
“When i was young they tried to flush me down the toilet because they already knew is was the ****!”
“Run run run as fast as you can you cant catch me im the prodrive man!”
I’ve used Capt. Richard as well. Great guy. Knows his stuff.
17.5 Searay
JR and Ben Alderman are two of the most friendly and knowledgeable guides I know…that being said, if they are booked I’m sure you can find another quality guide to take you out. Good luck, let us know how it works out!
'a stranger is just a friend i havent met yet’jt
Thanks for all the help, I booked with Capt Richard yesterday. He assured me that we can get on the flats and chase them. I’m really looking forward to coming down and hooking up with my first red!