One of the great fishing turnarounds in my lifetime has been the healthy return of redfish to our local waters. I can remember when I was young having schools of redfish come through the surf and the excitement it created as everyone was suddenly hooked up and fighting big fish. Catching 10-15 redfish in the creeks was not uncommon and this was all done by average people that only got to fish on the weekends if the weather permitted. I also remember later years where redfish were hard to come by and catching one or two fish in the surf or in the creeks was considered a successful trip.
Now some 20 years later this fishery has rebounded possibly even exceeding the days of old. This has been accomplished with regulations being set, based on studies conducted by the Department of Natural Resources, combined with the efforts of the Coastal Conservation Association, helping to educate anglers on their impact of this fishery. It is a great success story of how anglers and scientist can work together to bring a fishery back from dismal to exciting.
Over time many new people have moved to the lowcountry and the number of people fishing has increased dramatically. Many of the people fishing now were not around during the tough times and they see a resource that appears to be endless. I recently spoke with a gentleman that was fairly new to the area and he was actually complaining about the number of redfish. His problem was that he was not able to catch many other types of fish because those “■■■■” redfish kept eating his bait. I’ve also had people that were here during the tough times say they believe it is time to raise the limit because there are so many fish.
For those of us that have seen both sides of the spectrum, we should continue to be involved in helping educate the people that are not aware of where the redfish populations have been compared with today, teach our children what we know and create a healthy fishery for future generations. The Sea Island Chapter of the CCA is holding their