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9/17 & 9/18 Morris Island/South Beach

2K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  juro 
#1 ·
The good news: I finally pried that Chatham skunk off of my back.

The bad news: I only caught one schoolie while blind casting and LDR'd another schoolie while sight fishing.

The highlights: Standing (briefly) amidst marauding albies at the entrance to Stage Harbor. Spotting numerous fish on the flats and having some of them follow my fly almost to my feet before turning tail. Meeting fellow Forum member JimS and crew.

The details:

Tuesday: I decided not to take the shuttle to South Beach because of the cloudy & windy conditions. Instead, I fished Morris Island down to the entrance to Stage Harbor. I saw several fish along the way but they were not interested in my offerings. I arrived at the sand bar at the entrance to Stage Harbor about an hour or two after high tide. The bar was still submerged and the water was spilling over the bar and into the channel. Fish started breaking out towards the end of the bar, so I began wading out along the edge of the bar to intercept them. Suddenly there were green torpedos zooming around in front of me, slashing through the bait fish and tearing up the water. A couple of them even went right past me and up onto the bar to chase down their meals :eyecrazy: . I got a few casts into the melee but didn't manage to hook up. They moved down along the beach and I tried to give chase, but run & gun while on foot just doesn't work well when the water is up to your knees so the fish quickly outdistanced me. I went back out onto the bar just in time to get a few more unsuccessful casts at another pod of albies that was chasing bait along the edge of the bar. That was the end of the show.

Wednesday: I started at Morris Island just before sunrise and made my way down to Stage Harbor again. Along the way I caught a schoolie while blind casting but that was it. The albies didn't show up for breakfast so I headed back to Rip Ryder and planned to take the 8:00 shuttle to South Beach, not knowing that the shuttle now runs from only 10:00 to 2:00 on weekdays.

While I waited for the van to arrive I met JimS and three of his friends who had also planned to take the 8:00 shuttle. We waited. Still no van. Jim called Rip Ryder and spoke with Ed, who said someone would be there at 9:00. We waited some more. At 10:00 the boat operator showed up and we boarded the shuttle. Then we learned that the last pickup would be at 2:00 and not 4:00. Great :rolleyes: . Now, after wasting 2 hours of fishing time waiting for the first shuttle, we find out that we have to leave early as well. Grrrrr . . . Better planning would have eliminated much of the aggravation. Just have to make the best of it I suppose.

We arrived at South Beach shortly before high tide. The wind created some chop but the sun was bright and the visibility was superb. We headed down the beach and spread out along the flats. I saw plenty of fish cruising the flats in pairs and small pods, and I was able to elicit follows from many of them but they wouldn't commit. The faster I stripped my fly the faster they followed it, but they just wouldn't hit. My olive/chartreuse/white deceiver must not be very deceptive. Other flies were ignored or even spooked the fish. The one fish that I did hook hit the fly immediately after it landed practically on the fish's head. I suspect that the fish was simply turning to flee in terror and accidentally got the fly snagged in its mouth for a few moments :hehe: . The other guys didn't fare much better. After we caught the return shuttle we tried Morris Island for a while but only saw a few fish and didn't hook any.

I won't be doing much (if any) fishing until October. I hope things improve for me then!

Q
 
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#2 ·
Great Report Q... and I am glad the Albies were at stage harbor...That has been a great place historically for Albeis and bonito in the fall...landed my first Albie there a couple years ago...right at the flat on the hardings beach side of stage harbor entrance.
 
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