I wouldn’t say I’m becoming a threat to them, but I have had back to back trips catching seatrout since Dorian. I was fishing grass edges and oysters on the Wando.
I always fall victim to baitfish runs that look like they are being driven down the bank by larger fish, yet can’t say that casting into or ahead of them has ever produced a fish for me. What I saw was different this time though. From 30 yds, I spotted a repeat of surface splashes against the bank. Getting closer, it was clear that there were multiple wakes chasing bait around a small clump of grass.
5 casts later, I had netted 4 trout and a ladyfish. On vudu shrimp under a popping cork, but I doubt the cork was needed. When they wouldn’t hit that anymore, I threw a topwater, even though I suspected the school of 14-18 inchers had moved. Then took a breath.
The next trip, I tried the grass again, but eventually dead ended at a long oyster bank just about to get covered up by the incoming tide. It had big water access on one side, and mud flat on the other. I had live finger mullet under popping cork and on a carolina rig and waited it out. The right cast drifted over the submerged oysters and then made a large circle in the eddy. After a few pops it was game on. I caught a heavy 18" trout, but missed a few others and started to wonder about the hook-up ratio of the circle hooks I was using. So I switched to a zman shrimpz on a jig head. It got rode hard immediately, caught another trout, and then was bit in half, by something that just missed the hook. I kept throwing zmans and topwater lures, but I’m guessing again that the fish had moved on.
Absolutely content, yet have 2 things to improve. Rigging bait for better hook ups and finding multiple spots in one boat trip. Seems like as soon as I get into some fish they are in a hurry to leave.
[img]http://old.charlestonfishing.com/forum/uploaded/feitonthefly/20199