Redfish are aggressive this month
Guide Stephen Fields of Charleston (S.C.) Fishing Company said June means blind-casting for aggressive redfish searching for swarms of bait that have moved into the Lowcountry, and lipless crankbaits that can grab a fish’s attention shine.
“I like to fish in and off the (ICW) from Isle of Palms up to Cape Romain that time of year,” said Fields (843-412-6811). “There are a lot of spots on the ICW to hit early in the morning before the boat traffic gets up. Then, you can move up towards the Cape Romain part of the waterway and hit the deeper creeks and backwater flats later in the day.”
Fields’ favorite search bait is a lipless crankbait, a LIVETARGET Rattlebait. He will fish baits with either a black back and white or gray bottom bait or an all-white or gold bait.
“I’ll fish it on a higher-water tide, a mid-incoming or a high-outgoing,” he said. “You need to have enough water to effectively fish it. I look for a lot of heavy cover like oysters and flooded grass. I’m not throwing it up in the grass, but in the sparse grass at the edge that has oysters in 2 to 4 feet of water. I’m making good, parallel casts across a lot of cover. Every once in a while, I like making contact and ripping it through it. That really attracts a lot of bites.
“This is a good time to cover a lot of water. The fish are not going to be in schools like fall and winter. They’re going to be more spread out. A lot of the smaller slot reds will be around. They’re less educated and very aggressive. They’ll eat those rattlebaits up.”
Click here to see how Fields also targets docks for redfish in the summer months.