Ed Owens and I just got back from a 4-day fishing trip to the Charleston SC area to fish for red drum up in the grass.
We drove down last Friday, leaving at about 6 am and we pulled into the Mount Pleasant KOA at around 2 pm. I pulled my 13' Whaler down so that we could do it DIY. I pulled my Yamaha 25 hp engine off the jackplate and laid it in the box and foam insert that it came in and then placed that in the well of the boat for transport and I think that helped us make such good time. It definately made me feel more confortable trailering it on I95 with the high speeds and some rough sections of road.
We rented an air-conditioned cabin for about $50/night (total). It had one large bed and a set of bunk beds so it would hypothetically sleep 3. But when we spread out all out gear and drying clothes, it was better we had only two in the cabin. Here's what it looked like....
Since we got in early in the afternoon, we drove to the Remley's Point ramp and put the boat in the water. I was totally stoked (!) because the three places we went and looked I saw at least one tailing red at each ! We didn’t get any real shots at fish, but I was full of anticipation at the next four full days of fishing to come.
Yup, you guessed it, the kiss of death! The locals started pumping quarters into the wind machine.
Saturday, we got up and had a leisurely breakfast since the tide was relatively low and wouldn’t be high until late afternoon. We headed to the ramp around 10 am and found the wind blowing SSW 10 – 15 mph – right up the throat of the river! It was fine heading up river, but the theme of the rest of our time became readily apparent – a soaking wind against tide run home.
Here’s Hokie Ed checking the surf….
We motored around to look at a few spots and settled on the shoreline between Foster Creek and Horlbeck Creek to wait while the tide rose.
Casting horizontally along the marsh edge with a size 2 mummichog clouser we picked up a few specks that looked like this…
The 5.9’ tide did not get deep enough in the high short marsh grass and the wind was blowing hard. We could see what the reds would be after though. These crabs were all over the marsh as their "chimneys" flooded..
These little crabs, also sensing the onslaught of redfish, sought the highest ground they could....
We plodded home with the hope of a new day.
As we were heading out Saturday, we ran into a gregarious local who said he had cleaned up on redfish and trout at the mouth of Nowell Creek on the falling tide. So Sunday we got an early 6 am start to catch the falling tide. We found a draining creek at the mouth of Nowell Creek and caught some specks on both sinking and floating lines with clousers. We also caught one drum drifting north along the shoreline of the Nowell creek flats. This little guy must’ve been a fish egg a couple of weeks ago!
We had also gotten some intel from Richard Stuhr, an exceptional Charleston guide, about a Spanish bite so after the action slowed at Nowell Creek, we cranked up the Yamaha 25 and ran first to Drum Island to look for jacks. Seeing nothing and getting no response to a slow trolled popper, we headed out to Charleston Harbor, past the Yorktown and Patriot’s Point, to Castle Pickney (Shutes Folly Island on the NOAA chart). We found Spanish busting the surface in a tight space. We anchored up and had some exciting action, but only got one in the cooler. We had lots of strikes, but missed hookups, I suspect, from not stripping fast enough! Without any surf candies or small albie flies, we threw small clousers and deceivers.
After the Spanish bite stopped, we went in and got lunch, had a nap, and then headed back to the ramp at 3 pm to catch the rising tide predicted to reach 6.2 feet. We found lots of perfectly flooded marsh, ankle deep and still rising, but the wind was again blowing hard in the teens with gusts over 20 mph from the WSW. We’ve been told reds don’t like to tail when it’s windy. We could not find a lee and we did not spot any fish. Poor Hokie Ed got bounced and soaked as the little Whaler lumbered back to the ramp before dark.
Monday, I got up at 5 am to check the weather channel. It was forecast 10-20 with steadily rising winds throughout the day! Well, we were there to fish damn it so off we went. We stuck to the same plan. We fished the feeder creeks that fell off into Nowell Creek up past the Rt. 526 bridge and picked up somemore specks. It was too windy to look for jacks or make the run for Spanish so we headed in, had lunch, braced for the evening blow, and headed back to the ramp at 3 pm. We seached the shoreline on the rising tide for specks but found none. The high marsh was beautifully flooded by the predicted 6.5’ tide, but the wind was howling. On a WSW blow, as illogical as it seemed, we motored north across the Wando River to look at the flats on the other side. That’s when I spotted a tail. We circled around and landed the boat. The fish was still happy, tailing, and cruising slowly. I got out, waded over thinking, “I am a heron, a graceful, silent, and stealthy heron…. I got off two or three casts with my size 2 shrabster (TLT’s excellent tie). Fourth cast was a charmer and the red pounced. I hooted and hollered as he ran around the small flat and then he bolted for the flat’s flood channel and the wrack line of dry grass that would slice my tippet (Whaler 13, I remember). I did my best to keep him away from that stuff and got him in my grasp. Here’s the result, a 25” 7 lb-er…
After much celebration and high fives, we went in search of a fish for Hokie Ed. Within 5 minutes we spotted another tail. We got out and started the heron walk, when the fish submerged never to be seen again. It was getting late and we knew based on the heavy wind, it would be a long and wet ride back to the dock. We took a few waves over the bow and made it back to the dock with about 50 gallons of water sloshing around in the stern.
Captain Stuhr met us at the dock, we changed clothes, and we had a nice Mexican dinner to catch up and recount the day’s events. Richard’s clients did better than us with one 3.5 lb speck on a topwater plug and three red drum 6-9 lbs caught on live shrimp dangling from popping corks.
Holy smokes, Tuesday’s report was for ENE winds 4-7 mph! Today was the day! Wrong! In the morning, we easily navigated the 13’ Whaler anywhere we wanted. No jacks or Spanish around Drum Island, no Spanish around Castle Pcikney. Back to Drum Island – nothing. Lunch, nap, bask to the ramp at 3 pm for the predicted 6.6’ tide. We flew out to the Juba Island flats and cast around likely water but got nothing. We weren’t too concerned because we were wasting time waiting for the marsh flooding tides. I dropped Hokie Ed off on the flat where I’d caught my fish the night before and I went to find the submarine on the flat upstream. Sure enough, I found a tailing fish, but by the time I got the anchor over, he dove and was gone. I rejoined Hokie Ed who also saw a big bruiser crashing bait, but he was across an impassible flood channel so all he could do was watch and wait and hope the fish would move closer. It didn’t. The tide was so strong and big and fast that there was actually a small window to see the fish on the flat before it got too deep. There was water everywhere and it was deep. Too deep for seeing tailing fish. We moved around, marveled at all the water and flew home uncharacteristically dry, but fishless.
It was a typical but fun DIY trip. We didn’t slay the fish, but picked at them almost every day and learned a lot to make the next trip a lot more effective. I fell in love with my 13’ Whaler (“Simpli-Fly”) all over again and had a new found respect for her reliability in rough weather. Catching a redfish in the grass has been a dream for me and one that I finally realized. I was just sorry we couldn’t get Ed more shots. Next time – for sure!
Kevin
