Photographer Art Blank and I had never fished the coast of South Carolina: it's a big habitat composed of beaches, inlets, rivers, creeks, and marshlands. When we got an assignment to do a piece on the fall fishing there, we jumped on it! Due to other trips, I wasn't able to commit until mid- November, a time well after the fall mullet run. It's also a month for the advent of cold fronts.
The day Art and I arrived, a cold front moved through the Grand Stand and Myrtle Beach that night. We were cozy in our digs at the Island Vista, but we wondered what this would do to our fishing plans the next day with Captain Jonathan Stevens aboard Captain Tom Swatzel's 25-foot center console. We arrived at the dock and saw the sign for Capt. Dick's(www.captdicks.com). We spotted the vessel "Fish Finder", climbed aboard, and were soon fishing. The water was ice-cold, but we did miraculously manage two nice flounder thanks to Jonathan's tireless efforts.
The next day was much warmer, and prompted the old adage "what a difference a day makes" which proved so true when we fished with Captain Patrick Kelly the next day in the Little River area. He's also known as Captain Smiley because of his upbeat mood; indeed, his website is www.captsmileyfishingcharters.com. Patrick runs a 21-foot custom Carolina center console boat which draws only 12 inches of water.
In the improved conditions, we fished every imaginable habitat and caught fish whereever we went. I came close to a Grand Slam with a bunch of redfish (locally called spot tail), a few flounders, a black drum, and a bluefish. I could have caught the final "card" in the royal flush- which was a seatrout- but a late afternoon redfish bite was too hard to resist.
I'll be telling this story in full form in the coming months.
CONTACT DATA:
Captain Dicks- 866-557-3474
Captain Smiley (Patrick)- 843-361-7445
No comments:
Post a Comment