So many methods- so little time! There are at least as many ways to catch a fish as there are to skin a cat, yet if you listen to all the fly fishermen, artificial only fishermen, and live baiters around the low country, you’re bound to hear their way is the only way. I proudly add my name to each category, but that wasn’t always the case. Nowadays, in an effort to provide my clients with their best day fishing ever, each method has its time and place aboard Superfly.
Let’s face it, we fish because its fun. What’s fun for you might bore somebody else and vice versa. I’ve found, through my own continuing evolution as a fisherman, there’s probably a lot more common ground than we all realize or want to confess. I must admit, before starting guiding I primarily used a fly rod or tossed artificials- rarely live bait. Coming from a freshwater bass fishing background, tossing plastic worms, jigs, spinnerbaits, and top-water plugs, I had very little experience with bait rigs. I was accustomed to just tying something on, flinging it, feeling for the bite, and setting the hook. Waiting patiently for fish to find my bait seemed boring to a bass fisherman who’d always liked to press the action and keep moving from cover to cover. So naturally, when I dove headlong into inshore saltwater fishing in early 90’s, I chose grubs and spoons for my spinning rods and baitcasters. Always looking for new toys and a better mousetrap, I soon caught the fly fishing bug and then got a job at a fly shop. In no time I was thinking the fly was the end all. I still enjoyed tossing grubs and plugs on windy days, but throw a cast net or cut up a mullet? I had a couple of friends who had grown up on the coast and were guiding at the time. It seemed to me they had to stoop to use bait to catch fish. I would see them with a boat load of float rigs or a bloody deck from cutting mullet and think to myself, “that’s cheating” or some other nonsense. In those days, I’d see an old codger tearing up the fish on bait and think, “he’s too old