Ahhhhh, its finally starting to feel like fall in the Lowcountry. The windows are open at the house, the boat is staying wet, and the tying vise is cranking out shrimp flies as fast as we can make them.
Gurglers, foam back shrimp flies that skip, pop, and blip on or very near the surface, are the most fun to fish. In fact, I would recommend a trip to your cardiologist to make sure you are healthy enough for top water activity. (Now that I’m legally covered), get ahold of a few gurglers and look for the gulls. The shallow water redfish chase shrimp literally out of the water and the seagulls and right there for the dive attack. Although they don’t always exhibit this behavior, it is common enough that you should be on the lookout for small flocks hovering and diving…. they are on top of redfish. Find the fish, figure out which direction they are traveling, and put a fly in their path. Start working the fly and continue to strip until you feel the pressure of the fish: they are notorious short strikers when fishing topwater.
Blind casting is simply casting to where you think and hope fish are and is generally associated with trout and warm water fishing. The saltwater fly caster often has the mentality of casting to only sighted fish, which is how we fish most of the year. During the fall however, blind casting can produce lots of redfish as well as large seatrout as they become very opportunistic feeders and will become remarkably aggressive to a gurgler or similar topwater fly stripped erratically across the dinner table.
Both the gurgler flies and the blind casting tactics are most effective during lower water and dead low tides. But until late December, the redfish will still be patrolling the grass flats on high tides, eating as aggressively as they do all year. They seem to know that winter food sources will be scarce and they’ll eat almost anything during the fall. We fish mainly EP Shrimp flies or local favorites tied in the fly shop. Crabs will continue to fish well into the late fall, early winter. Don’t have a shallow draft boat? Load up on Clouser minnows and other baitfish patterns in several colors and sizes and fish the edges of the grass flats. Sea trout, ladyfish, a few reds, and several other species patrol these edges, especially just as the water recedes. Focus on the areas where creeks or coves line the banks and fish just inside the grass while the water continues to drain.
You can feel the weather getting cooler and everyone in town is showing it. Rods are bent, smiles are big, and as always, Charleston is the place to be.
Stop in and see the guys for a tying class schedule if you’d like to learn to tie your own flies, schedule a charter, or just stop in to relax and talk fishing.
Scotty Davis
Lowcountry Fly Shop
