It looks like this summer is gonna be a good one! The fishing is "Wide open" now.
Both the inshore and the offshore fishing has been picking up steady now for weeks.
Lets start with the inshore,,,,,,,,,, Ill start with my favorite. The Giant Red Drum. They have started to show up with good size fish being caught in the deep water and also in the surf using 1/2 a blue crab,live or cut menhaden, and cut mullett. I have had quite a few charters with the fish in the 40" range.
The Trout are doing very good. Most of the anglers here in Charleston were worried that the winter would take its toll again with the water being so cold but it appears that there are plenty around for everyone. My cliants have boated lots of them over three pounds so far this season. Live bait chumming with small menhaden makes a world of difference for the big Trout while fishing on the bottom or with a float.
Lots of Flounder have also been showing up recently with some six and seven pounders showing up at the dock, with most of the fish being caught on small mullett and menhaden.
The Blues and the Ladyfish just showed up,,,That means that the Jack Crevalle is not far behind. The fly rod world record (20lb tippet) Jack Crevalle was caught here in Charleston a few years ago by a friend of mine Mr Ron Silverman. It weighed in at 39lbs!
The Sheepshead are plentiful inshore around the docks and offshore on the reefs with most of the fish being caught on fiddler crabs.
How about offshore,,,The Spanish Mackerel have shown up, and so far this season they have been larger than last year.
The King Mackerel,,,,well that has been a mystery. The larger fish have been hard to find here lately with most of the fish on the small side. This should improve as the season progresses.
The Marlin,Tuna,Dolphin,and the Wahoo have had the big boats busy outside the ledge in the deep water when the seas are calm enough to get out there.
The Cobia have slowly worked there way up the coast with good numbers showing up so far. I have been able to put quite a few in the boat.
I had a day off last week so I took my wife and a friend with his his teenage son offshore for some bottom fishing. We had put a few Grouper in the cooler and had another one on the teenagers line when I herd my wife say "I'm hung up on the bottom","I had a fish on but he ran me in the reef". I told her to wait a minute and I would come over and give her a hand after I gaffed this other Grouper. Well I took the rod from her and tightened the drag even more to try and pull the fish out of the reef or pop it off. The fish came out off the reef,,,man this thing felt like it was a good fish. I thought it was a Amberjack. Once it came to the top I saw it was about a 40lb Cobia that was on the bottom hook of a two hook bottom rig. It swam about ten feet from the boat with the live menhaden still on the top hook. Then, here he comes, this big Amberjack going for the menhaden. I thought to myself, when this AJ hits the top bait the Cobia will be gone. POW!,,, The AJ cut off the top hook and I still had the Cobia on. Thank God, we got another chance to get this thing in the boat. While all this was going on my buddy (I cant tell you his name) grabbed the gaff and was ready for the fish to come back to the boat. Didn't take long,,, BAM! He put the gaff right behind the head. The only bad thing about this is that when he stuck the fish it rolled in a circle causing the handle of the gaff to roll up in his T-shirt right under his arm pit. He couldn't pull the fish in the boat. It was kind of funny watching him try to figure out what to do next. Well before he could make the next move (You know what happens here) The fish got off the gaff and the hook..................Thats why the call it fishing and not catching! Needless to say my wife Eve was not happy!
