Schooling Up

Triple Hook up on Reds

    The weather here in Beaufort, SC is starting to cool down, the leaves are starting to fall, and the fishing has been excellent! As a local to these gorgeous waters the fall is by far one of my favorite times of year to fish on the fly and also with bait. As the air tempature cools down so does the water, which causes the bait to die off, and the water to clear up. During this change of weather is when the Reds and Trout are at there best!
   Most of the Reds during the end of October are starting to steer away from the high tide grass flats because most of the crabs are going into hibernation. From the lack of crabs these reds are starting to feed on shrimp and minnows on the low tide mud flats, and also schooling up do to the clear and colder water. The reason they school up in the real shallow water is basiclly to stay safe from predators like the Dolphin. You can find these fish in schools anywhere from 20-200 fish at a time, which is quite an exciting feeling.



Caught out of a school of reds

   Targeting these schooled up redfish is a very exciting way to fly fish or spin fish, and also one of the most productive ways to have a great day. As I always tell customers, "once your in the fish, your in em". When your fly fishing for the schooled up reds your throwing a few different flys including the dupre spoon fly, Bay Street Bunny, or any kind of good shrimp pattern thats visible. Casting 8 or 9wt rods with a 9ft 20lb monofilament liter is preferable. If your using spinning tackle the redfish magic, any berkely gulp, or a golden spoon will work great.


Sight Casting to a school of reds

    If you look at the image above you see exacly what the schools of reds look like. They create a large V in the shallow water which shows you where and at what direction there moving. The school of fish above is a small school of about 30-40 reds. The key part to sight casting to the schools of fish is not spooking them with the boat, your cast, and loud noises. Since they are only in about 8-12 inches of water spooking them can be very easy to do, but the key is to be silent and quick with your cast. When casting to these schools we are focusing the fly or artificial either a long way in front of the school and moving the bait in front of them while they pass, or focusing on the outside of the school and getting those fish to move away and come after your lure. Sometimes more than one red will try and eat your fly which can cause a lot of comosion and an awesome sight of the fish.