Fishing Report for Last Week from David Peralta:

I launched the skiff from Wappoo cut on Tuesday afternoon and fished the high tide until dark. Hooked three Redfish. Biggest one shook off the hook but the other two were 23 and 25 inches long.  I fooled them with a black-back and white belly Z-Man Swimming Minnow rigged on the 1/16 oz Trigger Hook which is a good combination for swimming thru the Spartina Grass without fouling.

I woke up Saturday morning hoping to see a light Southwest Breeze- as advertised by the weatherman- but unfortunately it was already a gusty 10-15 knots. Hmm, too windy for fly fishing -what to do now?  I went to the West Ashley store and picked up some Fiddler crabs to try around some docks for an early season Sheepshead. By the time I launched the skiff, it was too windy to cross the open water to my preferred spot so I dropped some fiddlers on a few inshore docks. I didn’t catch any Sheepshead – maybe it is a few weeks too early for that spot- or maybe there were just too many Redfish. I immediately broke off two on a light spinning rod before switching over to a St. Croix Premier MH rod with the drag locked down on a Shimano Calcutta Baitcasting reel. Finally managed to get a 32 inch redfish with an almost 19 inch girth around the shoulders and decided to leave the rest alone. Moved to another dock and caught some slot sized Reds on the fiddlers and called it a day as the wind had really picked up in the afternoon.

I was running up the Cooper River on Sunday morning as the sun was coming over the Horizon. It was a long cold run up to tree line with some logs and fallen trees down in a small creek. It was a lot like Largemouth Bass fishing and I was so far up the Copper River, that I had caught a Largemouth in that spot a few years ago. I rigged a Z-Man Swim Bait Texas style with a worm hook and bullet weight and pitched it up into the log jams and downed trees. Caught about 8 or 10 Reds with a couple of the biggest about 25 and 27 inches long. The Bite quit after the tide got to High-slack so we headed back to the hill for a late lunch and some pond fishing using 3wt fly rods. If you haven’t tried fishing in a local pond, give it a shot because the brim and bass are really active now. We used Clouser Minnows tied with bead chain eyes on number 6 hooks.

Forecast for this coming week-warm weather and less wind……