Jake and Kim booked me again almost exactly on the same date as last year. They knew to expect some great Fall fishing. As it turns out, that’s exactly what they got! Tons of smaller reds, trout and ladyfish with the occasional bruiser in between. Kim’s red was the biggest of the day and it fought so hard it pulled us off anchor! A truly beautiful ten pound red…….hopefully the duo will be back next year!
Started as the tide began to fall and had some luck around docks. Once the tide started rolling the popping corks started dropping! Trout ate both live shrimp and mud minnows with our biggest trout at 3lbs. Headed to the flats where reds were happy to hit cut mullet. Things went so well that Jake even let his dad catch a few. Make Charleston family fishing a part of your next vacation!
Fall has arrived bringing with it shorter days and cooler weather. Don’t put your rods and reels away just yet because we’re about to experience the best fishing of the year! Fishermen will continue to find success with live bait but artificial lures should become increasingly productive. Make time to get out on the water, you will have a great time!
Redfish, including bull reds, have been hungrily eating cut and live bait fished on the bottom. Mullet especially have filled our waters and can be easily netted. We’ll rig the bait on a size 3/0 circle hook paired with a carolina rig. Use enough weight to keep the bait from swinging around and getting stuck. You can use this setup on the flats as well as under docks. Just put your rod in the holder and wait for the reel to start screaming as the fish hook themselves.
Artificial lures have started to really perform for trout and the traditional paddle tail design has been awesome. I’ll use a 1/4oz. Trout Eye jighead and tie a loop knot to give more action to the lure. Vary your rate of retrieve as you prospect different spots for pockets of fish. To make your offering even more attractive, try putting a piece of shrimp on the hook. You can use pieces of frozen or live shrimp and it will put a scent trail on your lure that fish find hard to ignore.
Even as artificial lures become more effective, keep throwing those popping corks. Live shrimp, artificial shrimp and mud minnows have been working great when suspended about 18″-24″ below the cork on a fluorocarbon leader and a size 1 circle hook. Redfish, trout and flounder alike will eat these baits as they pass by suspended in the water column. Corks have been working best fished along grassy banks at mid and high tide.
See you on the water!
Well, it’s that time of year where fishing becomes as pleasant as the weather. The Rudkowski clan joined me again and we steadily caught fish for eight hours. Redfish, trout and flounder made the lowcountry slam and a silly amount of ladyfish added to that total. Mud minnows and corks were the ticket. Highlight of the charter were multiple 7-9lb reds that would smoke our corks as they floated along grass lines.
We fit the whole rotation into today’s six hour charter! Slack high tide found us catching bull reds and sharks with live large menhaden while we also snared bluefish with gotcha plugs off the bow. As the water fell, we hooked up with trout and a rouge flounder using mud minnows under popping corks. To finish, we went onto the flats at low tide and landed slot reds using blue crab for bait. Fall is a great time to be on the water!
Started at first light to try to catch the last bit of outgoing tide. We were hoping to fish the same smoking hot ladyfish bite we found yesterday. Unfortunately, there was no bait to be found along the grass edges and the ladyfish were absent. Moved into the inlet around slack low and spent the next three hours fighting sharks and cow nosed rays one after the other. Sharks were eating anything thrown at them but seemed to prefer cut bait fish. Great action for most of the morning!
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