05/29/10 - Wando River Redfish Trip

Saturday May 29, 2010 - Wando River Redfish Trip

(Tide listing for Big Paradise Island on Wando River)

Low Tide: 4:30 PM (0.0 ft)

High Tide: 11:32 PM (7.6 ft)

We left the Claude M. Blanchard, Jr. Landing, (aka Paradise Island Landing) on the Wando River at 2:00 PM. There were less boats here today than 2 weeks ago. There were about 6 or 8 teenagers swimming from the boat ramp out to the sand bar nearby while their mother fished from the shore. We were able to put in our kayaks from the center of the boat ramp. It was a beautiful 87 degree day for a Memorial Day weekend fish-n-paddle.

There was a strong tail wind as we paddled with the ebbing tide. This made the paddling easy, but it created issues whenever we wanted to stop and fish the inlets of the tidal creeks dumping into the Wando River. Deanna brilliantly solved the problem when she whipped out her anchor and parked herself in the mouth of the creek inlet. The anchors proved to be the thing we were most happy to have brought along on this trip!!

There were a number of recreational boaters and jet skis based out of the docks on the opposing shore, but this was Memorial Day weekend. We were in the more shallow waters and this allowed us to get a great view of the dolphin that was feeding nearby. The dolphin swam right by us on his/her way back out to sea!!

We ended up near the mouth of the tidal creek marked on the map at low tide. We fished this area for about an hour. I tried brown jigs tipped with crawfish colored Zoom plastic baits and black jigs tipped with Gulp shrimp, but the redfish and sea trout were not biting either today. Deanna was using a silver RattleTrap. Deanna caught 2 flounder here with one coming in at 13", just one inch short of the legal minimum. He was a nice fish and looked yummy, but Deanna reluctantly released him back into the Wando.

The paddle back to the boat ramp was more work than we anticipated. The head wind was very strong and would push us down river if we stopped paddling. However, the rising tide was a beneficial thing and we did make the paddle back. We stopped at a few spots along the way back, but the baitfish weren't jumping much after the hour since low tide had elapsed. We did spot a redfish in the marsh grass when we neared the boat ramp. We were unsuccessful in getting him in our boats.

We arrived back at the landing around 7:30 PM. The boat ramp was deserted except for a few vehicles left with boat trailers attached. We were able to take out the kayaks in the center of the boat ramp with no company around. We packed up the gear and loaded the kayaks with plenty of daylight left. It was a beautiful day for a fish-n-paddle and we loved it!! In the future, we should always take the anchor on kayak fishing trips and we should recheck our lines after catching fish with teeth to avoid losing our tackle.