 | ||||
Copyright 2006 Brandon W. Smith. All rights reserved.
Click here for the old website. www.thereelestatefishingteam.com
Fishing Team
2007 Reports
December 20, 2007
Lovick and I traveled from Beaufort to Edisto to head out for a bottom fishing trip. The weather looked good, but a late night led to a late start in the morning. After arriving at Edisto, we picked up Newton and the boat and headed to the gas station before launching the boat.
After adding some fuel, I encountered a problem as I tried to re-enter my truck. The doors were locked, and my keys were still in the ignition. Newton had accidentally locked the doors when he exited the vehicle.
Mary Coleman was still in Beaufort, and there were no extra keys in Edisto, so we were stuck. My first thought was to call On Star. I had tried to set up an account when I first got the truck, but lost reception on during the process and thought that was a sign it might not be worth the cost.
I have never locked my keys in my car before, however, just a month or so before, Mary Coleman and I were locked out by the dogs, and were only able to get back in by getting the dogs to roll down the window. At that time, I thought about calling On Star, but did not. I did not think they would open the doors, but it was worth a try. After a few minutes on hold, I was informed they could not open the doors, but provided me with GM’s phone number for roadside assistance. They could only send someone from Beaufort, so our final resolution was a local mechanic who happened to be able to jimmy the lock.
It was comforting to know that he viewed the Yukon as a difficult lock to pick, but it still only took him five minutes. Overall, this delay coupled with the late start limited our trip to the Edisto 60.
We dropped lines and weeded through the small BSBs to keep some nice ones, including Newton’s 18 incher. The total catch was probably around 50 pounds.
December 9, 2007
Lovick, Newton and I headed out to the Black Booty Hole for some bottom fish. We immediately loaded up on Silver Snapper, BSBs, and some Triggers. We pushed out to 90’ to find a few Beeliners, but could only located one small Grouper and a few undersized ARS. We then pushed further out to try the Long Hurl but did not find many fish. We then moved over closer to the North Hole area, but with little luck headed back to where we started.
December 8, 2007
I joined Mike Havird and Ray Ackerman aboard Mike’s Four Suns, a 23’ Sailfish to do a little bottom fishing.
I met them at the Edisto Marina in a thick fog. I introduced myself, we loaded the boat, and Mike threw me behind the wheel to make our way out to some bottom numbers he had in 90’.
The ocean was nice and the boat rode well, powered with two Yamaha 115s. His electronics were Lowrance, so there was little adjustment for me (I was even able to set up his Radar which he had not done since it was installed).
The first hole we dropped to find a mixed bag of BSBs, some small ARS and random trash fish. I switched to the Butterfly jig and quickly had a nice strike, but lost the rig due to a snap swivel failure. The sharks then moved and we moved on to the next hole.
The next few spots produced similar catches until we reached the Trigger-happy Hole. There we were elbow deep in as many nice triggers as anyone could want.
We ended the day a little shallower for the BSBs that did not cooperate and then made a comfortable ride back to the dock.
December 2, 2007
Mary Coleman and I took the Jon Boat and fished the incoming tide at Cypress Trees and enjoyed a nice picnic lunch and some nice Trout, keeping six for our dinner. All fish were taken on white grubs with a red tail.
November 22, 2007
Lovick, Newton and I went out for some Thanksgiving Trout. We fished the Low tide off St. Pierre to no avail. Other than one small Trout, we left empty handed.
November 22, 2007
Lovick, Newton and I went out for some Thanksgiving Trout. We fished the Low tide off St. Pierre to no avail. Other than one small Trout, we left empty handed.
November 19, 2007
I jumped aboard Twombley’s Key West with his buddy Patrick for some bottom fishing. We started at the Betsy Ross, but did not find any quality fish. We pushed out to the R7, but again, no good fish. We tried some of Twombley’s bottom spots around the R7 but the fish did not cooperate.
November 14, 2007
Newton and I took the Jon Boat out for some Trout, but quickly found out we had a problem with the motor when we could not get on plane. Nonetheless, we shortened our expected destination and choose to fish a little closer to the dock. We still managed several nice Trout, keeping a few to fry for lunch.
November 10, 2007
Uncle Ray, Newton and I went Shrimping for my final trip of the season. Our first drag pulled in a half basket in the first 45 minutes. The next two drags held a basket each of large shrimp. With this final pull, Mary Coleman and I will have plenty of shrimp for the winter.
October 27, 2007
Mary Coleman, Newton and I took the Contractor 3.5 out for some shrimp. One late evening drag and our cooler was full and it was time for us to head in.
FLW Kingfish Series Championship, Orange Beach, AL
October 4-6, 2007
Lovick and I packed our things, loaded the boat, and pulled out of Edisto on Tuesday night to make our way south to Orange Beach, Alabama. We plugged in the address for Orange Beach in the Garmin and began our overnight journey.
The plan was to drive through the night, arrive at Orange Beach in the morning, gather bait and pre-fish that Wednesday and be ready for competition Thursday and Friday. We quickly made our way through South Carolina and Georgia. Refueling just over the GA/FL line, the trip seemed to be going well. Then we merged onto I-10, and the Garmin gave us the large number of miles to cross Florida. It took forever.
We made our way down the Interstate, and decided to augment our plan during the route. Originally, we were going to launch the boat, fish, then meet the guy with the condo we had rented, but due to our better than expected travel time, we decided to get the keys to the condo first, then head to the beach.
We were to meet in Loxley, just north of Orange Beach. After arriving at Loxley around 4:30 a.m., we pulled into a truck stop and grabbed a short nap before meeting for the keys.
We made our journey to Orange Beach, passing The Wharf on the way in. When we arrived at the Mariner Pass condo, it was amazing, especially considering the price. We quickly unloaded the car and made our way to the boat ramp.
After launching the boat beside my old neighbor from Lumberton, Wayne Hewitt on the Germinator, we made our way to Perdido Pass and out into the Gulf for the first time. The Gulf was a little rough, and the expected forecast was no better. We ran SW to a pipe rig about 15 miles offshore. There we found a couple of boats also looking for bait. There seemed to be a little on the sounder, but no one seemed to be able to jig any up.
After a few attempts we picked out another rig 8 miles further offshore and made our way there. Again, this rig held a couple of boats looking for bait, but the only boat having any luck catching nice Blue Runners was another McKee, the 28’ Force 10.
After unsuccessfully switching Sabiki rigs, trying various sizes, Lovick could only manage to get bites or straightened hooks. After Force 10 had loaded there well, they were kind enough to tell us to switch to the white Sabiki…it made all the difference.
We loaded the well, but with the deteriorating seas, expected bad weather for the tournament, and need to register, we made the call to head back to the hill by way of Mobile Bay to learn a little more about the water we were fishing in.
The run to Mobile Bay was much easier with the seas than heading back to Perdido Pass, plus, this allowed us to learn the waterway back to The Wharf. The Wharf, which is the host Marina for the tournament is a new establishment that was very nice, but several miles from the nearest Pass, though it did allow a choice running from Perdido Pass or Mobile Bay.
After reaching Mariner Pass, we penned our bait, settled the boat, cleaned ourselves up, and headed to the tournament registration.
We were able to meet some nice people and enjoyed a good dinner before the Captain’s meeting where we learned that Thursday’s fishing was cancelled. The FLW opted to shorten the fishing days to just Friday for the full field, and Saturday for the top 5, citing the window of “decent” weather was Friday and Saturday, with Sunday’s forecast looking even worse. As it would turn out, the weather was terrible, period.
At the Captain’s meeting, there was plenty of discussion regarding finding good sized bait, where the fish were etc., but I knew the controlling factor would likely be the weather.
Lovick and I took the opportunity Thursday to catch up on some sleep. We awoke to a windy morning and decided to check our baits and check out Orange Beach. It is a cool town with some good tackle stores, some nice restaurants and shops. With all of the condos, the beach seemed like a modern Myrtle, with better looking condos and less crappy shops. We passed the day and prepared the boat for fishing tomorrow, and enjoyed a nice dinner with several friends on the Germinator and Play’n Hookie.
Friday’s weather was not much better than Thursday. We made our way in the dark to The Wharf and check out with the majority of the fleet heading to the west, and a handful of us heading to the east. Of those choosing east, several boats made their way toward Tampa Bay. Included in these boats were a few that did fish the calmer waters Thursday such as the Wild Wings boat from Charleston, and hoped to find their winning kingfish without battling the rougher Gulf. Others, like us, headed to Perdido Pass, including Kwazar, to take advantage of the trough.
The Gulf was rough, and without the trough, we would have faced a severe challenge. Even running the trough, plan A was out. We just could not run as far as I would have liked. We settled into Plan B and ran about 40 miles to our first rig.
Deploying our baits was a challenge. Luckily they were still very frisky, but the sporty 6-8 foot seas made maneuvering the boat a full time job, leaving Lovick alone in the cockpit. It took its toll on him. The first rig was slow. We then moved five miles to the east and quickly hooked a decent fish. A decent fish (25-30#) that was sliced in half as we quickly brought it to the boat by a large Barracuda.
Several boats moved in with us on this small rig, and the bite shut down. Or next stop was slow, so we decided to try closer to the beach in about 65’ of water. We were alone when we landed a teenager. Then we were joined by another boat. As we made our way to check out who had joined us, they landed a nice fish. It turned out to be Scott Jennings on Team Old School, also from Beaufort. Their fish was a top five fish and put them into the final day of fishing.
We stuck it out for a while longer, but our ticket was not called. We made our way to Mobile Bay, finishing in the Channel and making our way to the scales with only a small fish.
We enjoyed the FLW Championship, hoping for a better finish, but confident we did as much as we could have to get us there.
Saturday we pulled the boat and loaded the truck for the long ride back to South Carolina.
September 21, 2007
Tripp Presnell and I took his 19’ McKee for my second trip of the season to Lands End. Tripp thought he had brought along a premix of meal and clay, however when we started making some balls, we realized we only had meal aboard.
The weather was not great back towards Beaufort, so heading back home was not the best option. Luckily, there was a homeowner on their dock at Lands End who had an extra bag of clay they were willing to part with.
Armed with the ability to make some bait, we were able to catch ¾ of a cooler within a couple of hours before calling it a night when the water got too low. Opting to head home instead of moving our poles we ended up heading some nice large shrimp.
September 15, 2007
Worth Liipfert and I took his 17’ McKee for the first bait shrimping trip of the season. We joined the flotilla of other excited shrimpers at Lands End and set our poles with great excitement.
The shrimping was fantastic! We coolered out in just an hour!!!
FLW Kingfish Series, North Myrtle Beach, SC
September 8, 2007
Fishing For Miracles, Charleston, SC
August 17-18, 2007
FLW Kingfish Series, Beaufort, SC
August 4, 2007
Charleston King Classic, Charleston SC
July 28, 2007
FLW Kingfish Series, Brunswick, GA
July 14, 2007
The first tournament of the 2007 FLW Kingfish Series SC/GA Division was held in Brunswick, GA. This one-day format tournament began with checkout at 6:30. We had drawn boat number 27, and after preparing the boat and visiting Eric the "Bait Man" we idled our way toward the beginning of our 2007 season.
After checking out we opened the TortTeaser up and managed to stay ahead of the pack unlike the years past (well almost unlike years past, we still could not hang with the triples). After running the north cut by St. Simons we (along with most of the fleet) quickly found the Pelicans working a large area of slightly scattered bait.
After battling a twisted net, we loaded the well and were off to fish the Downrigger Hole in 70' near the R2. The weather was nice, with a 2-3 foot swell and a following slight wind chop.
We deployed our spread, including a precious Blue Runner that was immediately devoured by a Shark. I was not happy about feeding a Shark one of our $10 baits. As we reset our lines, we soon had to deal with several Cobia that were very interested in our next Blue Runner. As Lovick tried to keep our Blue Runner from the Cobia, another nailed the double Pogy in the prop wash.
We locked down on the drag and within two minutes had the fish boat side. I had always been told not to gaff a "green" Cobia, but not wanting to waste precious fishing time, I decided I would have to learn the hard way.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Cobia was very cooperative on the gaff. While Lovick worked to clear the deck, the Cobia quietly waited on the end of my gaff for over a minute before I deposited him into the fish box.
It was the fish box that severely pissed off the Cobia, but after shutting the lid, we were back to fishing. Our next fish was a small King, and we managed a few more small Kings along with the fish we weighed in the tournament.
Unfortunately, my gaffing job on this fish led to quite the blood bath. I was not too upset at the time, hoping to find a bigger fish. The next fish was considerable larger and we were excited to land it, but it was the wrong species, a nice Sailfish. Luck was not on our side, and we could not best the King we already had in the box.
The first two hours were a hot bite, and with different sized fish, though small, Lovick and I made the decision to stick it out in the same place. This did not work out, and at 2:30 we began to make our 46-mile journey back to the St. Simon's inlet. The seas were not too bad, but as we got closer to Brunswick, we encountered higher seas and storms. We arrived at the check in boat around 4:40 and our fished weighed in at 17.15#, good for 24th place.
July 1, 2007
Lovick, Newton and I ran out to do a little fun fishing for Kings. To find bait we had to run north past the North Edisto, but quickly managed a well full and were off to the Newtonator.
We stop to fish a few miles short of the Newtonator in about 65' around some busting Spanish schools. We quickly had a couple of short strikes followed by a broken knot. Then we landed a small Amberjack and a couple of small Kings.
Our next stop had us heading out to the Black Booty Hole, but halfway there we stopped after spotting some schools of Spanish and three Sails on the surface. With no success we tried to lure the Sailfish to our baits, before we continued on.
After deploying our spread in 90' we quickly found some Dolphin; however, our fishing time was shortened due to several storms on the horizon. Our plan was to run closer in and fish the Dirty Spaniard, but with the gray skyline we decided to head in.
June 23, 2007
Lovick, Newton, Johnny (Lovick's friend) and I left the dock at Edisto around 6:30 with plans for the first King fishing trip of the season. The weather report looked great during the week for both Saturday and Sunday, but we were greeted with a little more of a breeze than expected as we loaded the boat and made our way down the creek.
This was Johnny's first trip offshore, and from the conversation in the house that morning, I could tell he had already convinced himself he would be sick out on the great pond.
My intentions were to run about 23 miles off, but after quickly baiting up off Edisto, the larger than expected seas and the green rookie had me point the bow toward the Dirty Spaniard hole.
We progressed around 25 mph for the next 14 miles until we arrived and quickly deployed our baits, and Johnny deployed his own mixture of chum. Within five minutes we had our first strike and Johnny was on the rod for his first Kingfish.
After shaking off a little rust, we landed a small 10-12# King. Johnny quickly resumed his effective chumming technique, and within fifteen minutes we had our second fish. We again put Johnny on the rod, and though he wanted to continue his chumming efforts, he brought in another small fish.
During this whole process, Lovick had been battling a bird that was determined to kill and eat our baits. After several choice words, yelling, flailing arms, and wishing we had a shotgun, Lovick managed to hook the bird. After bringing it to the boat, Lovick was attached by the bird's claws as I took photo documentation of the event. The single treble was removed from the bird's beak and it was released with no harm.
There have been numerous reports on CharlestonFishing.com of dead Shearwaters as a result of starvation and their annual migration. I guess this bird was really hungry, thus the relentless pursuit of our baits.
Lovick pulled in another small King before Johnny called mercy and we took him back to the dock after one hour of fishing.
Total for the trip was three kings, one bird, and a sick Johnny.
June 16, 2007
We fished the Edisto Banks on the Contractor 4 with a crew of Lovick, Newton, Roy (Cabinet Man), Russell (Cabinet Man's son), Chris (Cabinet Man's son's friend, who happens to be an attorney from Columbia), and myself.
We left the dock shortly after 4:00 and made the uneventful ride out to 220'. We quickly boated a Dolphin sandwich, followed by a nice strike that made a nice run but then spit the hook. The bite was not hot, but we did manage a few more Dolphin and a couple of missed fish before we worked our way inshore.
We followed the missed fish with several missed strikes until we had a nice run off a weed line in 190'. After a small battle, Roy pulled the fish to the boat and Lovick stuck the gaff in a 40+# Wahoo.
The rest of the day was slow, and we finished by trolling shallow with no additional strikes.
May 27, 2007
I pulled the boat up to Holden hoping to take my parents offshore to load their freezer with the awesome Dolphin bite going on up and down the coast, however, with 20 more miles to go my mother made the call to stop short and fish the Tower.
There had been some reports of small Dolphin having already moved into the Tower, but after 45 minutes of trolling, we had only one strike to show for our efforts.
I decided that we would do a little bottom fishing to put some fish in the box, and to my surprise, you could clearly see the bottom in over 60 feet of water.
We caught plenty of bottom dwellers while my dad was able to land 3/4 of a small King he jigged with a Crippled Hearing spoon. Watching the Barracuda slash the King and the Amberjack underneath him was like watching a big fish tank with the clarity of the water.
We headed back to the hill after lunch.
May 20, 2007
Lovick, Worth Liipfert (another attorney in Beaufort) and I went offshore to the Deli. After getting a late start due to my inability to set the alarm, we made good time and set our lines around 8:45 just short of the Deli.
I pulled the throttles back in 150' of water after finding large patches of weeds and several boats working them. There were not in a line as much, as they sporadically meandered but were loaded with bait and looked very "fishy." We dragged up and down both sides, but with no strikes I decided we had to push farther offshore.
We worked a few other rips and patches of weed until we found a beautiful rip and line in 160' to 170' of water. Working both sides of the one degree break we picked up several Dolphin. More and more boats began working this line, making it more difficult to troll, but the fish were everywhere.
As the day progressed, the weed line slowly broke apart and we picked up some False Albacore and a Barracuda.
With these catches we pushed offshore hoping to find Wahoo or Tuna, but only managed more Dolphin.
Edisto Marina Billfish Tournament, Edisto Beach, South Carolina
We fished aboard the Contractor 4 for the Edisto Billfish Tournament. This tournament held quite a bit of contention with regard to the Circle Hook requirements for all Billfish Tournaments mandated by the National Marine Fisheries Service effective January 1, 2007. The contention was a result of the proposed suspension of this ruling by NMFS. The board had met, held a public hearing and taken public comments and made the decision to suspend the Circle Hook Requirement Ruling until January 1, 2008. This decision was desired by most anglers; however, it was not official until published in the Code of Federal Regulations. It was this publication date that was not know by the anglers, tournament rules committee or even NMFS.
At the Captains Meeting, the tournament stance (which I felt was in poor judgment) was that they did not care whether circle hooks were used, and they presumed the ruling would be published by Friday morning (the second day of fishing) by 8:30. Without positively knowing the ruling was suspended, it would be difficult for anyone offshore fishing on Friday without a satellite phone to determine if it would be legal to switch to all “J” hooks. The Edisto Tournament Committee’s lack of an official stance (my suggestion would have been that since the rule was still official as of the Captain’s Meeting, then the Circle Hook Requirement would stand for the entire tournament) opened the tournament up for a great potential for contention if a winning fish were caught on a “J” hook.
Fortunately, I have not heard of any backlash from this decision, and our crew decided that it was better to fish Circle Hooks for the entire tournament as not to jeopardize any potential catch.
May 11, 2007 Day 1
Having sat out the first fishing day with the entire fleet due to poor weather conditions, day 1 of the Edisto Billfish Tournament brings surprisingly nice weather. We left the inlet and set our course towards the 380 Hole. The crew included Newton (father-in-law and Captain), Lovick (brother-in-law), Tuck (First Mate), Darren (owner of Buck’s Pizza on the island), Brett (our Junior Angler), and myself.
We fished the entire day a man down, as Tuck (our First Mate who chartered for years in Charleston) could not manage to get off the couch as he was plagued by sea-sickness.
We start fishing and work our way offshore looking for a temp break that the satellites show several miles from the 380. Newton wanted to fish a little shallower and brings our course more toward the 226. During most of the day we are surrounded by tournament boats and encounter a steady bite of Dolphin.
Overall the bite was consistent, but the only billfish we saw was one that smacked our way back American Express Lure.
On the way home, approximately 16 miles from the “A” can and 21 miles from the beach we came across a capsized boat. After calling the Coast Guard and looking for anyone in the water, we examined the vessel, a 16-18 foot semi-V McKee Craft and could see its numbers were from North Carolina. We later learned from the Coast Guard that it had been reported stolen from North Carolina. It was an eerie sited seeing the abandoned capsized vessel floating there, and also caused me some concern for the trip back out the next morning, knowing it would be there waiting for us on the way out.
May 12, 2007 Day 2
We make our way back out to where we had found a nice weed line the day before, but it was a different ocean today. The weather was great, but we did not have a good bite of fish.
Other than one sailfish in our spread, we suffer a very slow day. Our crew did not include the Pizza Man, but Mary Coleman and Uncle Will joined us on the boat. I blame Uncle Will for the slowdown on the bite, as I believe he pulled the same trick on us last year.
April 29, 2007
Ashley Twombley, Pete Kelley and I took the inaugural trip offshore on the TortTeaser from Lady’s Island to the Deli Ledge. The forecast was for calm seas, but after launching the boat and heading out of Port Royal Sound we found there to be a little offshore breeze. Running with the wind chop we cruised out the 65+ miles just under 30 mph and had our lines in at 9:00 a.m.
We stopped just short of the ledge in about 150 feet and 72-73 degree water where some birds were working and the first line out was immediately jumped by a small Dolphin. Twombley quickly brought the fish to the boat where Pete decided to release it boat side. We continued to redeploy the spread and ten minutes later had another Dolphin on (slightly larger than the first). Twombley again made easy work of bringing the fish boat side, where Pete again, after several poor attempts with the gaff, released the fish unscathed boat side.
Pete was now off the gaff, as I worked by the ledge and the group of boats further offshore into deeper and warmer water. We hooked another Dolphin in 250 feet and 74 degree water and Pete brought the fish to the boat and Twombley put the fish in the box. It was not a huge fish, but no peanut either.
I pushed offshore out to 300 feet and 75 degree water, where we picked up another Dolphin and began to work back inshore. The final excitement of the day was the last fish which Twombley brought to the boat and Pete promised to redeem his poor gaffing from earlier. I warned him that it might just be better to leave it alone, but he was convinced to do better. This time he managed to hit the fish, but when he lifted to bring it in the boat the fish got off the gaff and landed in the splash well. Twombley, who apparently did not wish to watch another fish get off at the boat quickly jumped over the transom and began to wrestle the 15-20# Dolphin on the back of the boat. Blood was everywhere, the fish made several good attempts to escape, but it was no match for Twombley. After a hysterical three or four minutes Twombley had the fish in the box.
Another interesting note for the day was that after fishing for about an hour, we had a banded Pigeon land on the T-Top, 65 miles offshore. The little guy stayed up there four hours. We put some food in case it was hungry, and as I worried about if we should try to help it get closer to land, it took a dump on my T-Top and flew off. Son of a B****!
We picked up the lines and headed in at 2:00 p.m. The winds had picked up a little during the day, and the first few miles we ran a smooth 25 mph, but picked up the speed after 15 miles or so and came in at 40 mph. Overall we ran just over 200 miles and burned 100 gallons.
April 28, 2007
John Payne, Pete Kelley and myself headed to the Broad River to try and find some early season Cobia. We looked for some Pogies, but with no luck headed to the Turtle with our eels and cut bait. After fishing until the slack tide with only a Sea Robin and a couple of lost Greenies to show for our efforts, we pulled the anchor and tried a little sight fishing. We did no see anything other than two turtles, and finished the day anchored off Joiner Bank having caught only a couple sharks.
The word on the river is there have been some Cobia caught from the buoys to the bridge, and Ashley Twombley who was fishing at the bridge noted that DNR did say they had seen three fish in the boxes of other boats. A 32# Cobia was also weighed at Lowcountry Marine Supply.
February 10, 2007
Started the day at the Edisto 60, with temps in the low 50s and then ran out to 100'. Found only BSBs and Silver Snapper (Red Porgy). Finished the day in 80' and temps in the upper 50s and still looking for some Grouper.
