Fishin' away in Redfishville.
By Ken Bergman
Charleston
, SC
Nikonjedi@yahoo.com
As my headlights played
across the small feeder creek of the Copahee Sound, near CharlestonSouth Carolina,
I saw small schools of mullet and shrimp dancing along the waters surface. So
this was “Redfishville”.
I knew it was gonna be a good day. I started out
throwing the cast net and catching my bait for the day, medium sized finger
mullet, and waited for my fishing partners.
One by one they showed up in the predawn and began to ready their kayaks
for the day. With rods stored, paddles
leashed and bait secured we made our way down the creek to the sound.
As we came round
the bend the sight took my breath away.
The sun was just creeping up over the horizon and the water was glassy.Small channels and creeks wound through the spartina
grass and every once in a while a redfish tail would pop and wave good
morning.We paddled for about 20 minutes
and made our way to a flat that had produced for my partners before and since
this was my first trip to the Copahee they wanted to put me onto some
fish.
Slowly
we paddled onto the flat, pushing the grass before us we scanned for “tails”,
the un-mistakable fanning of a redfish’s tail out of the water as they root for
crabs and other food.Being new to flats
fishing I grabbed my camera instead of my fly rod until I was sure of what to
do.I had heard about how to fish the
flats and grass but I was so excited on seeing so many waving tails and the
sheer beauty of these marsh flats in the first minutes of the dawn I wanted to
capture it, to be able to show others who have never seen this beauty of our
world.
One
of my buddies, Scott, had his eye on a red and began casting. The grass was pretty high and his fly wasn’t
reaching the fish.He tried several
times before the fish spooked and almost ran into me.What a rush.My first time on these marsh flats and I was almost run over by a
fleeing redfish.
We stalked around a
while longer, Scott throwing flies and me shooting until I realized I had a
kayak floating off in the distance with my own fishing gear on it.I made my way back and grabbed my fly rod and
began my own stalk of these beautiful, coppery, spot-tailed redfish.
Clumsily I made my way to the other end of
the flat away from Scott, mainly to keep from spooking his fish and to keep my
rusty casting out of the eyes of the public.
I saw a few tails and before I could get my fly in the air they
disappeared. Gone. Not another sign of them.I was wondering if they were ghost
redfish.
Our
small group of 4 slowly broke up and we all headed around to different areas of
the flats.I found a small break in the
grass where a channel had formed and with all the surface action I figured
there must be fish in there.Live
shrimp, dead shrimp, live mullet, dead mullet, flies, grubs and even a jerkbait
couldn’t get their mouths open for me.So I got back in the yak and moved out.
As soon as my paddle hit the water three very large redfish gave up their
hiding spots not 5 feet from where I was, headed for deeper water. My heart was racing for about the
five-hundredth time that morning and I followed them to deeper water and the
edge of the grass.After a quick
reconsolidation, my team and I started working the grass edge with everything
in our arsenal.
Tim hooked up on a pig of
a red that was trying it’s best to get back into the grass and away from
us.An epic battled ensued and finally
Tim hoisted a gorgeous thirty-two inch redfish from the water for it’s close up
with Mr. Nikon.All of us were stoked.Just the sight of that monster made the
entire day worth it.At this time I had
one redfish under my belt, a 14-incher caught a few weeks earlier and I was
hungry for a bigger one.
I
paddled further down the grass edge and set up shop. There were a lot of ladyfish and I played
with them for a while and I noticed one of my lines was not as tight as it was
when I set it.There was a lot of slack
in the line and I tightened it up. As
the line came in it started to move to my left rather quickly and it took me
what seemed like an eternity to realize I had a fish on.Things like this really do happen in slow
motion.I was praying it was one of
those monster reds but would have been happy with just about anything outside
of a stingray.I reared back and started
reeling and when the circle hook rolled to the corner of her mouth and set it
was game on!I know, you’re not supposed
to “set” a circle hook, but after all the research I have done and the stories
I have heard I recently switched to the better-for-the-fish circle hooks and
old habits are hard to break.The fish
started peeling off line and running, the drag singing that sound we all live
for.The adrenaline started pumping and
there was nothing else going on in the world.Me, the fish and that fight was all.A 747 could have landed next to me and I wouldn’t have noticed.I hooked my fish and was determined to see it
in my kayak for a photo.I love to eat
fish, love it, but I would rather release a fish to fight another day sometimes
and knew this fish was going back but I still wanted to win this fight.One more long run and she was in the
grass.I panicked.I thought about all the horror stories of
monster reds breaking anglers off on the grass of the flats, then I looked down
and remembered the fish was on the right pole, braided line.Whew.
I
turned my attention back to the fight.I
quickly pulled up the anchor and dragged myself over to where she had wrapped
herself up.As I got closer I could see
this giant shiny penny lounging near the grass, then it hit me, that was my
fish.Once I got closer I realized my
other lines that were out had formed a cocoon around me and it was getting hard
to reach anything.I started biting through
the mono enshrouding me and trying to keep enough pressure on my fish so she
couldn’t spit the hook.Eventually I
released myself and I got her head in the net and she slipped into it.Man whatrush.I sat there hands shaking,
a monster red in my net and my buddy grabbing my camera to take my
picture.What a day.I got the red out of the net, hoisted all of
her 32” aloft for the photo and gingerly placed her back in the water.She rolled over once and looked at me with
those penny sized eyes and with a mighty kick of her tail was off, swimming
strongly and headed for the grass. I was
smoked.It hurt to paddle.It hurt to try and think about anything else
other then what just happened.
Slowly
I re-organized my other rods and sorted myself out. It took me a while but I got back up, paddled
further down the grass and set up, this time with only one rod out, and waited
for another oneMy face hurt.My cheeks were sore and on the verge of
getting a cramp.I couldn’t stop grinning.The clatter of my rod in it’s holder and drag
ripping out brought me back to task at hand of reeling in another fish.I couldn’t believe it.Another big red?Not two in one day.Instead of running for the grass this one
decided she would play Talladega
around my kayak. I was on the verge of
dizziness when she turned and ran down the grass.I pulled my anchor and pinned it down with my
foot and I was off.My first official
Redneck Sleigh ride!She dragged me
along and twisted back and forth and she eventually tired enough for me to get
her in the net.I sat there dazed.Not one, but two gorgeous reds inside an
hour.Could this day get any better?Same drill.My buddy paddled over and after I removed the perfectly set circle hook
from the corner of her mouth, she was made famous and released last seen
swimming strongly to the grass.I was
feeling cocky now.I wanted a
hat-trick.
I
re-baited my line and chucked it out. I
looked around me. The sound was
beautiful.The sun danced across the
water and squadrons of pelicans flew over head.It was so pristine and soothing.The calm and moment was broken by one of my buddies cry of
“FISHONWHOOHOO!!!”and when I looked
over to him he had not only one rod bent nearly in halfbut a second rod in his other hand bent
nearly as far with another fish online.
I grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots of the double and started to
move over to help him out.He handed off
one rod to me and I backed up and held on until he could get his other fish
squared away.His fight was short when
the red he had online broke him off on an oyster bar.
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