Spadefish don’t show on top, but still cover up Capers Reef

Catching spadefish around Capers Reef off Charleston has been easy the past six weeks for Capt. Tom Siwarski of Carolina Aero Marine Adventures.

It wasn’t easy on Thursday, but it was still awesome.

Filming a segment for the World Fishing Network’s “Reel Road Trips” television show, Siwarski had just about guaranteed host Mark Melnyk his first spadefish – and dozens more like it.

“I’ve had trips this year that were so good, we caught so many fish, my fishermen were worn out after two hours and wanted to do something else,” said Siwarski (843-327-3434).

But on the tail end of a thunderstorm that lashed the area just after daylight, the spadefish that hang around the artificial reef only stayed on the surface for a few minutes – in time for a couple of hook-ups and break-offs.

Then, for three hours, they vanished.

But Siwarski pulled a little-used tactic out of his bag of tricks and saved the day. Instead of cruising and fruitlessly looking for spades finning at the surface, he started looking for them on his depthfinder, then ordering his crew to drop down little chunks of shrimp.

For the next two hours, it was at least one spadefish per drift, with fishermen often getting double hookups and at least one triple-header on fish that pulled so hard trying to get down to the reef that rods were bent so severely that the tips were often in the water.

Even Melnyk’s cameraman got in the act, hooking up and catching a 2-pound fish on the last drift of the day after finishing his filming duties.

The biggest fish pushed eight pounds, and most were in the 3- to 5-pound class.

“Usually, they’ve been out here, cruising around, finning at the surface, and you’re sight-casting to ‘em,” said Siwarski. “You can actually see ‘em come up and eat the shrimp.

“And this time, we had amberjack cruising close to the surface, and they’d hit menhaden (pitch baits). They haven’t even paid attention to ’em before. And the spadefish stayed down. I have to think those two things had something to do with each other.

“And this time, being able to see those fish on the depthfinder really did it.”