With all the activity going on around the Rockville Regatta this past weekend, we decided to aim our bow in the other direction and head out to the Jetties for a little early morning bull red action. With winds coming out of the South West at about 5-10mph, cutting across the harbor was calmer than usual. Because of the flatter waters we figured finding bait would be a piece of cake… we were wrong. We typically look for menhaden jumping right past Fort Sumter, but struggled to find any bait balls or birds to point us in the right direction. We had to ride almost all the way back into Wappoo Cut before we got the welcoming sight of flashes of Menhaden cutting flips out of the water. After tossing the net a few times we filled the live well and headed back out to our destination.
There were only a handful of anglers out around dynamite hole when we arrived, so anchoring up where we wanted wasn’t a huge deal. We tossed out four lines on the bottom, two with live bait and the other two with cut bait and then sat back to enjoy some biscuits and wait for the reels to start screaming. I got a couple of bites into my breakfast before my buddy yells FISH ON! Like any generous angler should, we handed the rod to the only lady aboard and laughed hysterically as she winched in a five foot Sharpnose.
After landing a few good sized sharks and one fat 37 inch redfish, we decided to move back into the channel and fish the Grillage on the outgoing tide. We met up with a few other boats with the same idea, anchored up in about 55 feet of water, and pitched out our rods right on the ledge. Even though we didn’t break the 40 inch mark, we landed five nice reds all on live bait.
After getting some good photos we decided to end the day when we had a rod holder fail on us after a huge strike. We’ll never know what hit that rod, but whatever it was is now swimming around the Charleston Harbor with a full stomach and a $300 Penn outfit trailing behind. What can you do?
– Shane Clevenger, The Charleston Angler
