My son and I launched The Red Cross boat about 0600 yesterday morning. Neither of us had ever seen The Wando River. One of his co workers had given him a little information, and directions to a spot that had been productive for him. So, off we went. It was about a 2 mile run down the river to the spot. I saw about 30 places along the way that looked fishy, but we went to the spot we had been told about.
Let me interject here, the low tide, at .52, was at 0530 yesterday morning. The high tide was at 1140 yesterday morning, at 6.88 feet. That's right, over 6 feet of tide movement.
We started up current of "The Spot", and worked our way into a small creek. As soon as we got into the creek mouth I saw a small oyster bar, and 2 small patches of grass sticking up out of the water. I threw my skitterwalk past one of the grass patches and started working it back. When I got my bait to the point of the grass patch, I said to my son "He should be right...". Thats as far as I got with the statement before the red came out of the edge of the grass and inhaled my skitterwalk. First red of the day was 26". That would be wonderful around here, but the slot in SC is 15" to 24". It took a couple of minutes to re position the boat in the current. I got the boat back close to the mouth of the creek and sailed my skitterwalk back out past a grass point on the up current side of the creek mouth and started working it back. The bait was attacked again when it got to the point. As soon as I hooked up I told my son "This is a smaller red". Even though it felt like a smaller fish, it fought hard and was pulling drag. Got it to the boat to find out it wasn't a red at all. I had a fat 24" trout.
Let me intergect some information, again. My son and I have been to several fishing stores in the Charleston area, and talked to a lot of fishermen. When they find out where I'm from, they all say the same thing. "I want to go down there and catch trout." Seems they only have trout 2 months a year, in the fall. And 18" is a big one.
I'll also interject that my son was NOT throwing a skitterwalk. I asked him if he wanted one, and he said "No, I'll use what I have".
We work our way on to another little bay area in the creek, and I run my skitterwalk beside another grass point. Red number 2 was 25.5".
By this time the water had risen quite a bit. The obvious places you would expect to find a red were submerged. So, we decided to go exploring. We found a flats area along the side of the river with standing grass in about a foot of water. I told my son the reds should move onto this flat during the high tide. We worked the grass for about 45 minutes. Luke had one roll on a spinnerbait. But the grass was thick enough I was having a hard time getting a spoon through it. So I switched to a weightless soft jerk bait. The tide was still rising and the water in this grass was getting deeper and deeper. We rounded a point, and there, in about 8" of water, was a large bronze tail, with a black spot, stuck up out of the water. I carefully placed my cast. When I started working the bait back I pulled it over the fish's tail. I was sure I had spooked the fish. But it turned around and inhaled my bait. The next few minutes were exciting. It was me and the red in the grass. I won. another 24" fish.
My son had not been too lucky at this point. We rigged him a jerk bait and I got the pole out. I eased him around until we saw another tailing fish. His first cast got caught in the wind and landed 10' behind the fish. He brought it in quickly and landed a cast 5 feet beyond and 3 feet in front of the fish. When he brought the bait in front of the fish, the fish fell right in behind it and followed it for about 5 feet. Then my son gave it a good twitch and the fish couldn't stand it. FISH ON! Now it's my son and the fish, in the grass. Several minutes later I netted his 26.5" red. After 2 fish in the same area we had spooked all of the fish. They were gone. So, we went looking for more water. By this time it was a little after 11, and the water had stopped moving. When the water stopped moving the fish dissappeared. We fished for a couple more hours. Then the wind picked up to a steady 25 mph. And the river acted like a wind funnel. With 4 nice reds landed, we were content to put it on the trailer.
I sure do miss fishing with my son regularly. When we do get to go, it's special. When we catch a few fish, it's icing on the cake. I'll take a day like yesterday any time.
