Live or fake, shrimp are costing lots of specks their lives

Can fishing really be this easy?
Just hook up a live shrimp, flick it toward the edge of the marsh grass and hang on?

It has seemed that way to the fishermen who have jumped in Capt. Jeff Yates’ boat this week, but the big jump from going fishing to catching lots of speckled trout is bridged by Yates, who knows which stretches of grass around the Charleston area to fish.

“We’re fishing out away from the mouth of gutters in the marsh. They won’t be right at the gutter; they’ll be 20 to 40 yards downcurrent,” said Yates (843-270-8956) of TyJo Knot Charters. “The absolute best time to fish them is the last two hours of the falling tide.”

“Gutters” have nothing to do with pouring rainwater off the roof of your house. They’re the little creeks and ditches that drain the marshes that line much of the harbor and surrounding rivers. When the tide starts to fall out of the marsh grass, specks and other gamefish congregate in those areas, waiting for the current to flush baitfish, shrimp and crabs out of the grass.

When the flush is on, so is the bite.

Yates worked on particular stretch of bank this past Wednesday, seining it for around 40 trout. The first dozen or so hit live shrimp fished under a cork; the rest hit the realistic DOA imitations.

“For the average fishermen, it’s easier to fish live shrimp than anything else, but we’re catching a lot of fish in DOA shrimp right now,” Yates said. “I’ll fish a DOA from spring to fall; you can fish them during the summer, but the bluefish will bite off the tail.

“The hardest thing for most people is how slow you have to fish it. You just cast it out, let it sink and reel it back reel slow across the bottom. They’ll really crush it,” he said.