Live shrimp are ticket; grubs will come into play soon.
Rob Bennett of Lowcountry Charters waits all year for October to roll around, and after two weeks, he’s feeling like the wait has been worth it.
“October is the month to catch speckled trout here,” said Bennett, who lives on Johns Island south of Charleston and targets the creeks, rivers and marshes arouind Wadmalaw Island: Bohicket Creek, the Wadmalaw River and sound, Leadenwah Creek and the North Edisto River. “We still have the shrimp around here, and if you fish a live shrimp under a cork or on a split-shot rig, you can get anywhere from 20 to 30 fish a trip.”
Bennett cast-nets his shrimp about an hour before low tide, then gets in position to fish the rising tide, moving from spot to spot around his home waters as the tide rises and fish put on their feed bags in different areas.
“I kind of konw where they should from tide to tide,” said Bennett (843-367-3777). “You want to fish the outgoing tide in the Bohicket; that’s where the bait is. But I want to be on the North Edisto on an incoming tide. There are so many spots to hit in the North Edisto. You just jump around from spot to spot until you find ’em. When you find ’em, you stay on ’em.”
Bennett split a half-day trip this past Thursday between low-tide redfish and rising tide specks. His five biggest specks all weighed between 2 and 2-1/2 pounds; three hit live shrimp and two hit Saltwater Assassin grubs in the popular electric chicken color.
“November is the grubbing month; you can catch ’em on grubs now, but you’ll catch a lot more on live shrimp,” he said.
When he fishes live shrimp, Bennett uses a standard popping cork or a clip-on cork — or he fishes a bare split-shot rig. “Nothing needs to be complicated about fishing,” he said. “It’s an easy rig to tie. You need 30 inches of 50-pound test leader, a swivel, a 1/0 Kahle hook and a split shot a ways above the hook. When you’re grubbing, you just tie on a quarter-ounce red jighead and an electric chicken grub.”
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