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.
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