As the last couple weeks of my residency in South Carolina draw down I anxiously wait the last shad run I will likely every get to fully enjoy.   Today (Feb 12) I got out on the tailwaters of the Santee Dam to see if any of the early birds had shown up.   Weather was much more characteristic of February than in weeks past, as it was in the mid 40′s with a nice breeze.  I did not hit the water until mid afternoon unfortunately.   It has been my experience with American Shad that the bite comes primarily in the earlier part of the morning and begins to slow post afternoon.  Nevertheless,  me and a friend of mine took to the water and probed around a rocky drop off adjacent to a large eddy pool where I have had the best luck catching big numbers of shad.  He and I were only able to bring in a single fish each, and those were the only bites of the day.   It was still a good sign, and fishing can only get better from here.   I do intend to hit the area a few more times before my move to South Texas, and be a little more prepared for the morning bite.

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Both fish were caught on small chartreuse curly tail grubs on led jigheads.   For more information of American Shad, check out the article I did on the species at the following link

***  http://www.fishing-headquarters.com/boundlesspursuit/category/american-shad/    ***

On February 5th the Charleston area of South Carolina saw nearly 80 degree temperatures and calm skies.   Conditions were great to venture into unfamiliar territory, for a relatively unfamiliar species of fish.   I traveled to Edisto Island to visit a tide fed ‘pond’  which I had heard kept decent populations of redfish.   A friend of mine, Chris Lawrimore, and I packed up several rods, the bite alarms, and a mini cooler full of calamari for a day looking for spottails.

I am by no means any sort of saltwater connoisseur, and rarely venture to the coast for anything other than land based shark fishing.   Redfish, never the less, are a formidable saltwater species as they are well accustomed to inland shallow water territory easily accessible to those who lack proper off shore gear…  Nevertheless, Chris and I were not trying to fool these fish with artificials or really do any extensive searching… we just assumed sit along a stretch of easy to reach bank and hope for the best.

Having done a little bowfin fishing the day before, I didn’t even change out rigs.  We used sliding floats above a carolina rig with circle hooks clamped to small steel leaders… and baited up with calamari.

Action was pretty consistant, and I landed the first fish within 30 seconds of putting baits in the water.  For the next two hours or so the bite alarms were steadily beeping between the smaller croakers, pinfish, and crabs that fooled with our baits, and the 5 additional redfish we landed.   None of the reds were trophy class fish, with the best being around 30 inches or so, but redfish have superior power, strength, and speed to the freshwater species I more often pursue, so even the smaller fish offered a welcomed tug.

As the sun set over the glassy waters  I knew this type of fishing would not last long because winter… which should have arrived some time ago, was steady approaching.  Today of course it was 35 degrees colder than last week!