April 4, 2020
Water Temp: 69.23 Degrees
Tides: 11:07AM LOW
06:43PM HIGH
With the recent Covid-19 pandemic, South Carolina has issued a stay at home order for all residents. After about a week of “quarantining” the significant other and I could not take it any longer and had to get out of the house but still needed to practice social distancing, so we decided going fishing with the dogs was probably best!
Had some leftover frozen mullet and whole blue crab in the freezer so we decided to see what that would do versus getting out there and fighting the crowd to catch deep hole shrimp. Typically this time of the year, the breeder redfish will move off the nearshore reef and slowly move into the harbor to feed on shrimp, blue crab and menhaden.
We decided to try our luck on seeing if the big redfish were showing up in the harbor yet so we set up on some underwater structure in about 32 feet of water. I cut a blue crab in half and set each side on a big 6/0 circle hook attached to a 4 ounce bank sinker and let her rip. I set two lines of crab out and one line with a piece of juicy cut mullet. I told my girlfriend that as soon as she sees the rod bend over and hears the drag screaming to go ahead and pick the rod up and start reeling it. Within 10 minutes we hooked up, and it was as stud! I coached her through how to steer the fish out of the structure to reduce our chances of being broken off and she did great! As I was landing the first fish, another rod with the mullet bends over and starts ripping line off the reel. Not much I could do so I got her fish in and took a few pictures then went back to start tugging on the second fish. After the complete chaos, we fished for another 30 minutes before we slow trolled it back to the dock while taking a beautiful Charleston Sunset in.
Now is obviously a hard time for all of us around the world with the Corona Virus spreading like wildfire but I do believe that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and we will be able to resume our normal everyday lives. We are hoping to be back on track by June. We are still running charters through the pandemic but are limited to only 2 anglers plus myself. We hope to serve you and your family very soon. Be safe and wash your hands!
Capt. Zachary Litchfield
