Popping-cork rigs are doing the trick for Charleston-area fish
Speckled trout and big redfish are biting on the Cooper River, and Capt. Dave Yates of Yates Sea Charters is catching them on live shrimp – and the shrimp don’t have to be big to entice a strike.
“We’ve had an east or south-east wind the last few days, and it mixes the fishing up a little bit. It makes it difficult to fish the jetties and some other areas that are normally go-to spots this time of year,” Yates said earlier this week as he pulled into the mouth of the River, within sight of Patriot’s Point and the US 17 Bridge. “I don’t fish the Cooper often, but it’s worth a try when the fishing is tough elsewhere.”
Tiny shrimp – so tiny that they almost split into two pieces when impaled by the hook – are drawing strikes as often as the bigger shrimp. They can catch anything from rat reds to gator trout and bull reds, according to Yates (843-568-2521), who said that, for whatever reason, the fish sometimes prefer the smaller ones.
Casting toward a rock pile, Yates’ client, Richie Boykin, hooked a 20-inch trout on his first cast, fishing a tiny shrimp on a No. 3 circle hook under a popping cork. His buddy, Morgan Watt, hooked a similar-sized shrimp on his rig and caught a 27-inch redfish. As Yates worked up and down the banks of the river, they found reds and trout scattered all along them.
Working grass lines, shell banks and riprap – especially close to a deep dropoff – Yates showed that popping corks are safe bets for Cooper River reds and trout. He said that chunks of crab meat fished on the bottom are also producing reds, especially around docks and in deep holes near wooden structure.
“These fish are biting really quickly, so anglers need to watch their corks closely and keep slack out of their lines,” Yates said, adding that anglers need to fight these fish with finesse rather than brute power. “You can’t set the hook like you do on a largemouth bass and expect to keep these fish hooked.
“Let the fishing tackle do its job, and don’t pump the rod. Use the rod to guide the fish, and reel them in,” he said.
