If you ever watch Olympic diving you know that one thing that can make or break a divers score is the amount, or lack of, splash as they enter the water and the bigger the splash, the lower the score. The same can be said for sight casting to redfish on the flats. Many times a big splash and disturbance with a cast that is not well placed will lower your score when it comes to landing fish. Most of the fish along the waterway and in the flats around the Charleston area get picked on much more than most of us realize. Many times you may pull up on a school of redfish that somebody else just left and the fish are very wary and gun shy.
When I first started sight casting redfish on the flats my first inclination was to grab a rod and cast, before they were gone. Much of my early years of redfish fishing were done in the years when redfish populations were much lower than they are today and sight casting in this area was only really being done by a few people. Most of my sight casting experience had been with Spanish mackerel and bluefish. As most of you know, there is not much of a stealth factor with Spanish and blues. As long as you don’t run over the schools you can throw pretty much anything you want and they will hit it and it generally does not faze the rest of the school. They move around quite rapidly and you need to get your cast right in the middle of them as quick as you can. Needless to say my early attempts at casting to reds with this mindset was met with little success. After several unsuccessful attempts I realized I needed to do something differently.
Redfish require a much stealthier approach. They will generally stay in an area as long as you do not spook them or someone else does not come along and spook them for you. Taking some time to watch the school and see what direction they are moving will tell you what you need to know as far a placement of your cast and by paying attention you will also generally be able to tell what they are feeding on, which help you to choose the righ