Banner Day Redfish

The sun was just breaking over the clouds and starting to light the world up as we pulled into Sewee Outpost for a brace of their world famous Country Ham Biscuits.  You say different?  Well if they aren’t then they dang well should be!  As we opened the door, the girls at the counter smiled and welcomed us as always and we made a bee-line for the sammiches.  With breakfast and some drinks in hand, it was off to the landing.  We splashed the boat and after a short run we made our way onto our hunting grounds.  Like a WWI fighter pilot on a dawn patrol, scanning the horizon for enemy planes, my fishin buddy and I were on a similar mission.  But for us there were no enemy planes, just schooled up redfish.  Our plane was a Maverick flats skiff and instead of machine guns we had 8wt fly rods locked and loaded.   

As I poled the Maverick down the bank we saw the water moving and knew we had found our quarry.   I pushed us within in casting distance and the water settled and there was no sign of the fish.  We waited a bit and saw the school further down the bank.  Every time we got close enough to cast they vanished.    We played keep away for a little bit longer and made our way down a small feeder creek and looked for our quarry.  The creek was empty of redfish but loaded with mullet.  I thought about better places we might fish.  I mentioned a few places and then Andy’s face lit up, we both knew there were gonna be fish there, so we hatched a new plan.  It was a longer run and it might rain on us but the pay off could be big.  We reeled up, poled out of the creek and made the run to the new hunting grounds. 

The rain came down very lightly and we barely noticed it as we turned down a creek.  We twisted and turned down the creek zipping past oyster beds and squawking birds, then the rain let up and the wind died down as well.  Besides the over cast sky everything was perfect.   The creek petered out and the expanse of one of my favorite fishing spots in all of SC opened up before us.  It had been a while since I had been here.  My mind was reeling with memories of all the fish I had caught here; the sights and smells were familiar and comforting and I knew if we were lucky there could be some good fish in the boat today.  As Andy climbed up on the poling platform I slowly stripped line from my reel onto the deck, closed my eyes and took a deep breath.  When I opened my eyes the entire world was in crystal clear, tack sharp focus.   Every sound was crisp and I felt at one with the world.  As a big silent grin crept over my face,  I looked to my right I saw the water in front of an oyster bar erupt with tails, backs and even a fish head coming out of the water briefly.   Andy expertly turned us and we made our way closer and closer. 

As we zeroed in on the target, I began my cast, back and forth, playing out line with each false cast, gauging the distance of my line to where I wanted my fly to fall.   I let the line shoot from my hand, through the guides and it laid out on the water with a soft plop.  The school was moving and my fly was about two-feet in front of them.  I stripped the line once, twice and I felt pressure.  A quick strip set and a low right hand sweep and the line was slipping though my fingers and onto my reel as the redfish ran and tried to keep up with the school.  My heart began to race with the anticipation of the fight and I felt he boat pitch a little as Andy jumped down to grab his own rod, a few quick expert strips of the line and he was hooked up too!  My first redfish of 2013 and it is a double hook up with my fishin buddy!  What a way to start the year and the morning off!   We landed our fish, took a quick picture, high fived and released our fish.

Andy got the boat turned around and I casted again towards where I thought the school may be.  After three casts, BAM number two was on the line.  This was a little bigger fish and ran pretty good.  I reeled in a little line, he ran twice as much out.  This back and forth went on for a few more minutes when I could sense the fish was not running as hard.  I quickly reeled the fish in, removed the fly from a perfect hook up right in the corner of the mouth and released that fish to fight another day.  Two fish on the fly in the boat for me.  This was shaping up to be a banner day.  Andy and I switched spots, he was up on the bow casting and I was on the platform poling the boat putting him in position.  We chased the school of fish, at this point they had joined up with a smaller school and were really working the area over.  We chased them around and then we both noticed they REALLY liked this one submerged oyster bar.  We poled our way over and set up on the back side and started working the fish over.  The school made a big triangle shaped pattern and they ran out and around but about every 5 minutes they would run along the oyster bar, hang out for a few minutes and get back to the circuit.  They decided the fly we had been using was no longer an acceptable food item and after a few more fish snubbing our offerings we switched up patterns. 

Redfish will do this.  The dinner bell will be ringing and they are eating well, then they shut down un-expectedly and don’t eat.  Usually the best way to get the dinner bell back on is to switch it up and give them something different to look at.  Most of the time this works and the bite is on again.   I grabbed a big rabbit stripped slider and Andy went full “Costanza” and broke out a fly we had never tried much less caught fish on.  We both casted at the moving school and the fish continued to snub us until I tied on a black and chartreuse Clouser.  First cast and BAM a pig was on.  We found the new dinner bell.  I fought hard to turn the fish and eventually he came into the boat.  To my happy surprise the fish was much bigger than I had expected.   After a quick snap shot, the fish was back in the water swimming away hard. 

Andy was on a fish and we got him in the boat as well as we both grinned ear to ear and jumped around like little kids.  We continued to beat the school up and noticed we had been surrounded by a group of kayak fishermen.   We snagged a few more fish and fought the water moving in and moving us off the spot we wanted to be on.  Eventually the water rose enough to cover the oyster bars and the telltale ripples showing us where the school was disappeared.   We called it a helluva day and made our way back to the landing.  As we ran down the river we talked about the day and I realized I had caught five big redfish on the fly in one day.  That is a personal record for me.  Another banner day on the water with a good buddy and in the best place in the world to fish.