02-08-2019 Charleston, SC by Lawson Builder
Here in Charleston, SC the Winter weather can be more like an angsty teenager than anything else. High and low swings ranging from a mild mid-70º to below 40º which is pretty darn cold with the windchill and humidity! This Winter hasn't been particularly cold, but it has been windy and rainy. We finally got a week of good weather which meant fishing for many of us!
Darrell shot me a text Thursday afternoon looking to fish. After checking the weather and seeing mid-70º and calm winds, I had to oblige. We hopped on the water Friday around 2PM, about two hours before low. Remley's Point was, as expected on a nice day, filled to the brim with people that had no clue how to run a boat. (Quick gripe: if you're going to get on the water, that's great! But, PLEASE, learn to back your boat down the ramp before taking it to one of the busiest ramps in the area.) We were in the water and on our way to the first spot quickly. Darrell had just bought a new Hardy Zepherus 7wt so it was time to break it in!
Photo by Lawson Builder
The water was slick calm when we started out, with a mostly cloud-free sky. Unfortunately, the water just doesn't seem to want to stay very clear in most areas. We had about 8 inches of visibility down. We stayed shallow and after about ten minutes of polling, we popped up on a medium sized school. A . handful of casts to the group and we were hooked up! A short fight later, we brought the first fish on Darrell's new rod to the skiff. While it wasn't a monster, it was a perfect sized fish for the 7wt.
Photo by Darrell Connelly
The wind picked up at this point, so we decided to make a move down the Wando and find a more protected flat. The next edge we hit was a bust as the wind switched on us and left it windblown and dirty. We head further down the river and stopped on an edge against a tree line. We slow polled the edge and stopped at a small oyster-filled edge where we knew some fish normally held. After about a minute of waiting we saw the school boil up 50 yards down the bank and head in our direction. A few casts at the school later, we had another hook up that ran straight to the deep end and came unbuttoned.
Find Lawson & Darrell on Instagram below:
Lawson - @lawsonbuilder
Darrell - @theconnellys
1 comment
Great sounding fishing for Redfish on the fly ! I need to get out in My local St. Augustine marsh area’s .I like your fishing reports . Thank you !