Low Country Redfish Cup

[gottaflylee]

When the clock rang at 0400 Wednesday, all I wanted was another 30 minuets sleep but I needed to be at Mikes to leave at 0500 for Charleston, so I slid out of bed and headed out for a cup of coffee and then to Mikes. We arrived at the ramp in Isle of Palms around 0930 and put in the boat.



Soon we were heading down the waterway, trying to decided where we would start...thats the biggest problem with going to a new place is deciding where to start. Both of us had been studying Google Earth, but it is not the same when you see it in person, all of it looks good, so we made a turn into a inland bay and droped the trolling motor and started casting. If you cover water, one thing is a fact, you either find the or not...
Soon we found one...





Gottafly love Goldilocks for covering water and catching fish...



One thing that Mike and I do when prefishing is neither of us use the same plug to see what works the best and today, it was Goldilocks...



Soon another pup comes to the boat, someone had ripped the lip on this guy...



Mike was throwing both topwaters and a Ripple Mullet gulp. Two nice Drum fell for his top water baits but fishing over the Oyster mounds, it is easy to get cut off and both Drum went to the bar smoking his top water baits. With another one tied on, this very nice Speckle Trout fell for it and came to the boat to have his picture taken.





Soon another one of these came to the boat...



Picture taken and sent back home...













The rest of the day was a slow pick at best but the puppy Trout ate the spoon some and were sent back home...



Another Drum camr for a picture...







The next day, we were on the water at 0 dark thirty and to another spot, this is the sunrise we were greated with, seeing mornings like this makes me feel alive...





We pulled into the cove and saw fish at the end of our cast but would not eat any of our offerings. We change up to other lures but still no love. As we worked down the bank Snowie and Great Egerts were hunting the shallow mud banks in the early morning light for breakfast. The Drum were also there, swimming through the Egerts legs and bumping them to get them out of the way, it was a sight to see...

Snowy and Greats together with Drum swimming in-between the birds...



The little Snowy on the left was just bumped by a Drum...



14" pup, one of 4 that we caught in that area...



Many boats came in on us in that area and we made the run to another area that looked good on the map but once we got there, not what we thought and we moved again. Being that neither of us had ever fished Bulls Bay and only a few miles from there, we made the run only to find that the water was a gray mud color. Fished there and caught a couple of pups, a large Sea Mullet, Flounder and a couple of smaller fish, time to move and we head back. We pull into another area and the wind was howling, head for the bank to get out of some of the wind and start down the bank. We head fish exploding up into the mash where we can't get to and we continue to work the out side edge with no love. Mikes sees a flash next to the boat and pitches a bait 3' from the boat and lets it fall and comes tight with this little guy...



After a great fight, Mike lands the fish of the trip, over 30 inches...



We fished out that bank with out another bite and then another are on the falling tide before heading to the ramp.
The next day, we head to another area that neither of us had fished, this also was the coldest morning of the trip so far.



The bridge going into Charleston is a work of art...



We worked a deep water bank first with no bites and moved across to the flat on the other side, again when you found the birds, you found the Drum...









God I love shooting in early low light...



Soon Mike finds this sweet fish, it fell for a Ripple Mullet...



We find many more fish on that flat but getting them to bite...no chance for us on artificial bait. We work more flats and find some small pups and call it a early day so we can clean up for the captains meeting. Mike pulls boat 8 and an early start is slated for us on tournament day, life is good. We make a plan as to where we will fish and how we will fish it and it is off the bed for a 0430 wake up call.
Launch the boat and ready ourselves for a 10+ mile run in the cold. The sun comes up and the fishing begins...
and yes, it was cold when the sun came up...



Mike has the first fish in the boat, nice 16" pup, time to upgrade. The only fish I found in the morning was this pig, to big to keep, yep, Goldilocks again...





After lunch, we managed to catch a couple of fish and upgrade what we had, sorry, no pictures and finished in the middle of about 35 boats all from that area, not bad for a couple of NC boys fishing against the SC crowd in water we didn't know...

[scattered_grass]

nice pics as usual Lee. I had the opportunity to spend a summer on IOP and enjoyed the abundant Drum population

[bigfish4me]

Great report lee....and great pics! It looks like one very enjoyable journey you have embarked on.....the smile's say it all.

[Bird Dog]

awesome pictures Lee

[clt_capt]

great photos and some nice fish.

[blackbeard]

Great trip and awesome report. Thanks Captain.

[HurricaneD]

Love the play by play. Thanks for taking the time to pick up the camera and sharing.