Post by mwardncsu on Oct 14, 2016 20:59:14 GMT -5
One of my SML buddies has been making a trip to Charleston with some of his long-time friends now for a few years and have pretty well dialed in the Bull Red / Old Drum bite - and he invited me to join the trip this year- group of 7 guys and two boats to enable the ability to run to the reed 8 miles out if weather permitted. I was able to get out there for Wed - 1/2 of Friday and we fished hard on Wed & Thur, an not so hard today till I had to leave - mostly due to the wind preventing us from doing much. Hurricane Matthew threatened to mess up the whole trip, and I think it did affect the bite as the water was apparently a good bit dirtier than normal and the temps had dropped about 10 degrees from the week before - down to the low 70's while we were there.
Lots of options there and we fished it all..... some inshore for puppy drum, some back water for a variety of sized red & black drum, some bigger water for the bull reds and we made a run out to one of the reefs on Thurs AM when the winds finally laid down. The reef didn't produce well as the water was so dirty, and the bull red bite was not as good as years past but we caught fish. Pretty much all our fishing was done with cut mullet on the bottom - with the occasional live finger mullet dangling on a hook - and frozen squid for the reef. We fished inshore or the reef in the morning, then hit the bull reds in the afternoon and then some back water stuff to close out the day.... made the most of our time. Caught bull reds, sharks, skates, puppy drum, back drum, flounder, red snapper, black bass, hogfish, toadfish, and I think a few others I'm forgetting...
While the bite wasn't what they had experienced in the past, and the wind on Wed made it tough and really limited options on Friday, it was a great trip and I got my 1st taste of a bull red / old drum and the power pull with...... mine went 38" and it was the largest our boat got this week - happy camper here!
Lots of options there and we fished it all..... some inshore for puppy drum, some back water for a variety of sized red & black drum, some bigger water for the bull reds and we made a run out to one of the reefs on Thurs AM when the winds finally laid down. The reef didn't produce well as the water was so dirty, and the bull red bite was not as good as years past but we caught fish. Pretty much all our fishing was done with cut mullet on the bottom - with the occasional live finger mullet dangling on a hook - and frozen squid for the reef. We fished inshore or the reef in the morning, then hit the bull reds in the afternoon and then some back water stuff to close out the day.... made the most of our time. Caught bull reds, sharks, skates, puppy drum, back drum, flounder, red snapper, black bass, hogfish, toadfish, and I think a few others I'm forgetting...
While the bite wasn't what they had experienced in the past, and the wind on Wed made it tough and really limited options on Friday, it was a great trip and I got my 1st taste of a bull red / old drum and the power pull with...... mine went 38" and it was the largest our boat got this week - happy camper here!
