Set out early Saturday morning looking for the low tide fish. Found a school right off the bat and pulled a little guy out, but then spooked the school and couldn’t find them again.
Worked hard for an overslot fish that we happened to see swirl on a bank as we were looking for a new spot to drown bait. He took a live shrimp like a jugbelly…nevermind.
Pulled up to a bank that had been holding fish the last few weeks and discovered that the predicted 5.5 tide was off. Plenty of water on the flat to hold fish on this day…normally requires a 5.8 or better. We proceed to roll up our pants and venture off onto the flat…in November. A fair mix of cruisers and tailers, we probably saw a total of a dozen fish. The ones that were tailing were happy and hungry. We were also lucky enough to get Rob on his first redfish on the fly. He only had to throw at three or four fish before he found one that was willing to play.
After the catch and we were heading home successful, I educated him on just exactly how long it took me to land my first redfish OTF and that what he encountered was rare…or perhaps skill, I don’t know. Some guys are lucky or good and Rob was both on this day. Had a fantastic time with a couple of great guys chasing some fish in conditions that probably we shouldn’t have been able to. You gotta love living in Charleston…
most things about this post inflame and anger peapod. esp the OTF thing.
next thing you’ll tell us the water’s clear and the giggin has been off the chain.
This is why I’ll never live anywhere but Charleston.
In all fairness, Rob is a skilled flyfisherman, just not in the salt. All he needed was a little coaching and a few tricks I’ve learned over the years and he was at it like an old salt. We did make comparisons to the typical fight he’s used to, Montana trout…but other than both fish eating the fly, there wasn’t much comparison he said. He might just be hooked now. Already talking about coming back down to Charleston in April/May when the bite starts to pick back up on the flats.
And I went two weeks ago…and there’s more flounder in my freezer than I know what to do with right now…we were passing up 17/18" flatties for the “quality” fish… also had to stop myself from sticking some fat trout that were just begging for the gig too.
Its been a tough year. I fished offshore once this year…I was lucky enough to be able to fish inshore a few times, but with the move from summerville to WA and family stuff going on, fishing was a last priority. It sure feels good to get out there and get my feet wet though…I actually missed snails in my shoes.
Maybe we can go throw some artificials sometime. Give me a shout.
I will never wade flats and will never fish that area. Could say the same of 99% of the areas reported from. Thanks for not photoshopping up such cool pictures.
It’s not a flat I usually fish to be honest with you. It just happened to look really fishy when we pulled up there. I’ve been driving by before and seen as many as five people walking around that one at once…I likely won’t go back again, besides, there are other smaller less known flats around that never have people near them. I keep those to myself.
