During scouting for the Low Country Redfish Cup Championship out of Beaufort last week, conditions were perfect for mid to high tide topwater action. Cloudy skies, light winds and CLEAR water made for some explosive action even during midday. We caught a few oversized reds before the water got in the grass, then the trout bite turned on. We had about an hour of insane blow-ups on the main river flats of Port Royal Sound. These 2 were netted at the same time. The larger one (24.5") inhaled a Strike King Sexy Dawg while the other (21.5") missed Caleb’s Skitter Walk but immediately hit the TroutTrick on the follow up cast. We had about 20 blow-ups in an hour, and if the fish missed, they would take the TroutTrick on the follow-up. As the tide topped out, we went to searching for reds in the grass because the sun appeared and the topwater bite died. Fun day of fishing even though the tournament did not go as we hoped.
yest wind was bad so went deep trolling big lip clown color rapala in river against current, found decent grade of fish -
Kept a 6lb and a 5. 6 was long/skinny (26) w no belly fat, kept her cause no eggs, and both tore up w hooks. 14-17 ft of water seemed key and was marking them on soundr.
released a few bigger and a pile of 3’s and 4’s, kept a couple 4’s after seeing how many were there
winter trout - sorry! didn’t think to id species…
great flounder day couple wks ago on deep structure in harbr, mm and gulp pogys on long leaders. 8, 6, couple 5’s and on down - good grade though have had better days on it. found the spot by accident just a big rockpile or something, can only fish it good when tide slows down, 20 ft.
The Port Royal Sound is full of main river flats that are less than 1 foot deep up to 100 yards off the bank at low tide. The reds will hold 30-50 yards off the bank at low water in many places, but there are multiple oyster bars and live bottom areas on those flats. During high water, everything moves toward structure on the grass line, and that’s where the trout were staging. It’s not very complicated. Chunk and wind until you find something, then slow down and dissect the area. Port Royal and Calibogue Sounds are full of places with water clarity more than 3 feet which doesn’t exist around Edisto. It’s a joy to fish these places where you’re not constantly running to find good water, and the size of trout on average is much larger.
quote:Originally posted by mhebbard
great trout! never fished down that way - what kind of structure are the main river flats?
The Port Royal Sound is full of main river flats that are less than 1 foot deep up to 100 yards off the bank at low tide. The reds will hold 30-50 yards off the bank at low water in many places, but there are multiple oyster bars and live bottom areas on those flats. During high water, everything moves toward structure on the grass line, and that’s where the trout were staging. It’s not very complicated. Chunk and wind until you find something, then slow down and dissect the area. Port Royal and Calibogue Sounds are full of places with water clarity more than 3 feet which doesn’t exist around Edisto. It’s a joy to fish these places where you’re not constantly running to find good water, and the size of trout on average is much larger.
quote:Originally posted by mhebbard
great trout! never fished down that way - what kind of structure are the main river flats?
