Hot temperatures and minimal tides made fishing this week a bit challenging. Weak tidal flow has not been creating the current seams which concentrate bait and attract predators. Trout, Redfish and Flounder are in the rivers and creeks, but without the current seams they are not holding in the usual places. Given the challenging conditions, I was a bit concerned when guiding fellow Daniel Island resident, Scott Lake. My apprehensions were eased upon meeting Scott (who is a very nice guy) at the boat landing. He was genuinely happy just to go fishing and catching fish would be a bonus.
Earlier in the week, moving from spot to spot was the key to catching decent numbers. So the plan for the morning was to run and gun. My first stop is usually a high confidence location. One where I know we will catch a few fish and get the skunk off the boat. Unfortunately, someone was fishing near the first location and we did not want to crowd them. Plan B was a submerged shell bar off the Wando. Pulling up, we spooked a Redfish off the top of the bar and watched it slowly swim into deeper water. As the fish swam away, I caught a slight whiff of a skunk in the boat. Holding the skiff off the shell bar with the trolling motor, we slowly bounced GULP swimming minnows down the ledge. After working the area without any bites (and the smell of skunk ever increasing), I called last cast and began preparing the skiff to move. Scott (being a good angler) made a cast to the deepest area of the creek. As he set the hook on a Trout, the smell of skunk began to dissipate. We decided to stay a bit longer. It turned out that the fish were holding deeper than usual and somewhat off the structure. After the cracking the code, we quickly added another 5 or 6 fish to our catch and release count. Using the newly established pattern, we ran from spot to spot and picked at fish the rest of morning. Scott caught an inshore slam, highlighted by 3 quality Redfish. All in all, it was a fun and enjoyable morning. And yes, catching fish was a bonus.
