This coming weekend Nick and I will be heading to Beaufort, SC to practice fish for the upcoming Low Country Redfish Cup tournament that will be held on April 6th. We are looking forward to getting down there. The weather forecast looks great, a heck of a lot better than our last outing. During this trip we are going to be trying new areas, a new technique and new equipment!
We have never fished out of Beaufort before so this trip will definitely be a learning experience for us. We plan on fishing a variety of areas that range from the far backs of creeks to bays almost in the Atlantic Ocean. Hopefully somewhere along the way we will be able to find some slot fish. One thing that is posing a bit of a challenge for us is the vast amount of fishable areas that are around the Beaufort area. There are about 10 rivers, 2 massive sounds and hundreds of thousands of acres of marsh to fish. Obviously, there is no way to fish all of the areas that we think fish might be so we have to do a lot of looking at charts long before we ever get to the boat ramp. Preparation is key to fishing a new area when there is limited time. Another thing that helps Nick and I is that we practice fish with a different mindset. If we catch a few fish in the same area, using the same technique and the fish are slot fish or close to slot fish we will make a note of what stage the tide was at and we head to the next spot on our agenda. When you are practice fishing, as fun as it may be, there is no need to sit in an area and catch 20 fish. This allows for more spots to be fished in a day.
The new technique that I want to try is one for those low/slack tide fish that do not seem to want to hit anything. This weekend I am going to try throwing a very shiny/reflective suspending jerk bait. I want to try and get the jerk bait out in front of the schools as they cruise and when they are only a couple of feet from the lure, give it a few quick pops to see if I can get a reaction strike out of any fish in the school. It may be a complete waste of time but we'll see!
I also have a new rod and reel combo to test out this weekend. I will be fishing with Abu Garcia's newest spinning rod the Volatile. The rod is a 7.5 foot med action rod. Although it is a medium action it seems to feel more like a medium heavy action. The tip has great action in it and the rod also seems to have great backbone to it. This is something that we think is very important for a good redfish rod. It needs to have a very responsive tip and a lot of backbone and this rod seems to have it all. This weekend will hopefully put the rod to the test! The new reel is a Penn Battle 4000. It is a sweet feeling and smooth reeling and will be able to handle those reds without a problem. One neat feature of the reel is that it has a rubber ring on the middle of the spool that allows you to put braid directly onto the spool without using any backing. I can't wait to get some fish on this new combination!
Lastly, we will hopefully be getting some great video and photos and we look forward to sharing them with you! Hopefully our next post will be about all of the 23" reds that we caught!
- Thomas
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