Dusted off my topwater setup and was at the ramp before sunrise with intentions of scoring some topwater reds. Put two and a half shrimp in the livewell casting around the dock and pushed off. Started to head south to the first red spot, but the tide was just right for a trout spot close by. Audibled and caught 4 trout on shrimp before getting back to the game plan. Conditions were less than ideal for topwater with trying to work cross current, tide one way, and the already stiff breeze the other. Briefly hung a nice red that somersaulted out of the water. Fished some more with shrimp and got two nice hits both resulting in pulled hooks. Headed further South and saw Penny. Fished a dock that had some annoying small trout.
Moving further south I worked banks with the trolling motor until the bottom of the tide. Lost a nice red monkeying around trying to get the pin anchor down and only had one other small one on the outgoing; did pick up a nice trout for a total of 3 in the box. Ended my journey south past Metal Trades adding another trout to the catch list. Heading back into the Stono I spent a good hour working the spot were I caught the red waiting for what is typically a good bite…never happened. I went on to some docks and they were dead too. By now I am wondering again were have the reds gone this year in the Stono? On the way back to the ramp I pitched a few shrimp around and finally not willing to give up started down the bank towards where I had the red hit on the topwater only this time with a Z-man paddlerz. Tossed it into a cove getting flooded and got a good hit and reel tight…came off…then another hit. This time when I stuck the hook I thought I was hung on the bottom. A big ol’ red seemed glued to the bottom then came alive and ripped off 100 feet of line. Back to the boat and back the grass in a see-saw battle. I thought I had a personal best; turned out to be a 31.5 incher that fought with almost everything it had and took some time to revive. Kept tossing into the co
