Fighting the wind has been a chore for Charleston-area fishermen over the past two weeks, but when the wind loses, it’s a win-win situation for anglers targeting redfish.
“It’s windy one day, and the next day, it’s absolutely calm; that’s when we’ve been able to get out and sight-cast to reds,” said Pratt-Thomas, who has been fishing the Hamlin Sound, Gray Bay and Bulls Bay areas. “There are schools of fish in the ICW, but they’re shell-shocked from being pressured so much.”
Pratt-Thomas (843-834-1061) said fish have been extremely spooky at dead low tide. The best tide cycles have been from mid-low to mid-high – “half-way up or down,” he said. “You want to be fishing after low tide on the way up.”
Fish have been along marsh banks and back in creeks – in most of the same places they’ve been all winter. Pratt-Thomas said fish haven’t really started to break out of big schools, or to move back toward more open water.
“We’re still fishing in the same spots,” he said. “You may find one back with a lot of fish, or they’ll be all over one point. They’ve haven’t broken up their schools yet, but that should be starting in two or three weeks.”
Pratt-Thomas said the water temperature has been around 52 to 53 degrees. “It will heat up in the next three weeks; that will be here before you know it.”
Cut mullet fished on the bottom has been fairly productive, but many of Pratt-Thomas’ guide parties have been doing a lot of damage with fly-fishing equipment. Clousers have been fairly good flies, but more fish have been falling to a pattern that’s basically black and gold, with a flash tail.
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