Breaking In New Gear

12.4.13

My new gear that Santa was bringing me didn't arrive in time to get brutalized in Beaufort, but I did get out for a couple of hours Wednesday and christened both reels.

One is a Shimano Caenan bait caster that I can use to keep the pressure off my poor old fishing elbow.

I was throwing a Rapala twitching shad and this nice 20" trout nailed it.

The reel throws sweet and supposedly will withstand the saltwater environment, but time will tell if that is true.

I must have been really good this year, because Santa also got me this Stradic cl4+ spinning reel.

Wow!  Carbon fiber and light.  Again, hoping that it will take the pressure off my elbow.

It got broken in by a keeper trout that ate a new penny Gulp shrimp.  You can see the Gulp jig head peaking out of his mouth.

Caught one other trout on the jighead and called it a day after the huge incoming tide was trashing the water.

All of the fish went back to be caught another day!  That was their Christmas present.

Black Friday Beaufort Redfish Bonanza

11.29.13

I've been fishing a long time, but this trip to visit Hunter over Thanksgiving is in the epic category.

We drove down to Beaufort, SC early on Black Friday from Charleston.  It was cold, frost was on all the cars and rooftops so thick it looked like it had snowed.

We were meeting Hunter's buddies, Jeff and Brian.  They fish out of a 22' Nitro and know the area extremely well.

Brian said we were gonna try a stretch of bank that holds reds after the first cold spell.  We were to find out his was correct on that memory!

It was a stretch of hill that had 4 creeks running out of a island in the Broad River.

We hit the tides right as the bottom was falling out.  A brisk 15 minute run had me thinking I was happy I had on long johns and a jumpsuit.

We started banging the hill and started picking up reds and few trout.  The last creek was coming up, and when we arrived, the bite was on.

We caught many, many over slot reds with a bunch of double hook ups, 3 triple hook ups and an unbelievable quad hook up.

We figured we caught well over 40 over slot reds.

The fish were hitting all soft plastics rigged on a jig head.  Gulp shrimp, Gulp jerk bait, DOA shad, ZOOM Fat alberts were all getting smashed.

One of us would hook up and the rest would follow up with a cast behind the hooked fish and then hang on.

These fish in extremely shallow water put on quite a show as all the could do is swim sideways and pull like a freight train.

When the sun got up and the tide got low enough, we could see the tidal wave of fish running down the creek mouth.  The water would bow up as 20, 30, 50 fish schools would be cruising the oyster laden bank.

Hunter and I banged this double.  Hunter's fish had an odd spot up front.  These fish are more of a silver instead of gold like here on our coast.

Brian, Jeff and Hunter with one of the triples that came boat side in the morning.

Jeff caught a multi-spotted red.

Thanksgiving always have you thinking about family and friends.  This trip was a memory that will last forever for me, as it was shared with my son, Hunter, and his two good buddies and the great outdoors.

Another reason to give thanks on Thanksgiving!

The next post shows the quad hook up courtesy of Brian's Go Pro Hero Cam he had mounted on the T Top of his boat.  Hope you enjoy it!

Black Friday Sale 50% Off All Redfish