February 23, 2010

[beaufortonthefly]

Fog with 5-7 mph NW changing to sunny with 1-3 mph S winds. Dawn start to fish two hours either side of a mid-morning low tide on a flat with oyster rake ‘hedgerows’ bounded by a large creek and a smaller creek with shell mounds. Used the prevailing wind and falling tide to drift the entire length of the flat searching for redfish movement. With no activity sighted, your guide moved back to the starting point off the creek with shell mounds with the intended strategy of staking off every 30-40 feet of drift and fan casting the area downwind. The second cast with a brown/white clouser produced a strike and a fight was on! This spot tail had no interest in being reeled in and made two extended runs across the bow of the boat before finally pulling up alongside – a nice 24” fish that smiled for the camera and was on its way. A few casts later another strong strike led to the first red’s twin putting on a similar show. After a dry spell we pulled stakes and drifted forty feet in hopes of finding the school with our next casts. Small mushroom clouds of mud told us the sorry facts – we had over run them. Seeing no surface movement, we staked out immediately in the hopes that the school would not travel far. Five minutes later, we landed a fish that was either a straggler or not easily spooked, which suggested that the school might not have left the county. After an extended period without any action, we drifted a little further and picked up another fish grazing near an oyster rake. Dissipating fog, increasing sunshine, and diminishing winds foretold good conditions for sight fishing. However, we ended up drifting the entire flat over the rising tide without seeing any surface wakes or strikes from blind casting. The fish were apparently moving slowly in deep enough water not to transmit their presence – and definitely preferred the creek mouth over the rest of the flat! Four reds on the clouser was a respectable morning for the fly rodder.