Fished the Wando on a low and a high tide this past week and found some fish. Stayed between the 526 bridge and the 41 bridge and fished with artificials (trout trick and topwater) and live/cut mullet and shrimp. Water temperature was around 75 and the winds were varied. Water was relatively clear on both trips. For the low tide fishing I poled several of the big flats right on the Wando and found several big schools of fish. I knew I had been getting lazy and not fishing shallow enough and using my trolling motor too much this summer. Poling made a big difference as I was able to see some tailers and pushing fish that I probably would have run over with the trolling motor on. We were able to pick several nice reds out of the low tide schools on the flats. Fish were caught with mostly cut mullet on a jig or very light carolina rig. When the tide started to move, we went up a creek and fished the downstream side of an oyster bar with shrimp for a quick inshore slam.
On the high tide I started by poling on one of the grassy islands that floods on the high tide up near the 41 bridge. Fish were tougher to find because there was a little wind ripple but did manage one nice red and a stingray in the grass. As the bait started to empty out of the grass (about 3 hours after high tide) I moved into a creek and fished a bend/deep hole for trout. Managed several nice trout and a few trash fish on the TT and a nice red on a live mullet. I didn’t find many shrimp in the creeks but a few hours before low tide the big flat at the south end of Juba Island was covered in shrimp. I netted a quart of nice bait shrimp in just a few casts by the grass. Not really any size, but if you like little shrimp might be worth setting up some poles.