Saturday May 8, 2010 - Edisto River Trip - Springtown to Weeks Landing
Low Tide: 4:16 PM EDT (0.39 ft)
High Tide: 9:04 PM EDT (0.84 ft)
Sunset: 8:08 PM
Gage Height: 2.81 feet
Discharge: 735 ft3/sec
The tides don’t really affect your trip much this far up the Edisto River, so we decided to make this a one way trip down the river. Our friend Linda went with us on this trip. We staged her vehicle at Weeks Landing, our take out point, across the river from Colleton State Park. We left the boat landing in Springtown on the Edisto River at 3:30 PM. There were only two other vehicles parked there at the time. We launched our kayaks off the end of the ramp with no trouble at all. The river was low, but still flowing at a nice pace for a leisurely paddle down the river. A check of the USGS river gage at Givhans Ferry State Park showed the gage height at 2.81 feet and the flow at 735 ft3/sec. It was a balmy 90° F with a nice breeze cooling us on our trip.
We took our fishing gear and paddled (or floated) down the river in search of the mighty Sunfish. A short time down the river one of us got our fishing line tangled in the overhanging trees and the line would not break. We found out quickly that the line tension will pull you right up under the branches of the trees lining the banks of the Edisto. We managed to get the line to break and soon were on our way. We all ended up casting into a tree at some point along the trip. The yank hard and hope for the best method seemed to work best. We freed our fishing lure better than half the time this way. We did manage to catch the elusive Sunfish on this trip!
We stopped at a sandy bank along the way and ate the sandwiches that we brought with us. There were actually several sandy banks on this stretch of the river and we stopped to stretch on two of them. There were a few submerged logs and stumps to avoid since the river was low. The sweepers (low hanging tree branches) along the river banks could also be challenging if you end up under them and in swift current. Staying to the middle of the river was generally the best plan of attack.
Near the end of the trip, we passed by the SCE&G plant that was close to Colleton State Park. The river banks were a lovely rust color through this section of the Edisto. We stayed as far from the banks as possible. We also stopped fishing, because we didn’t want to catch any 3 eyed fish with feet.
We arrived at Weeks Landing around 8:00 PM. We paddled up to the dock on the upriver side and climbed out onto the dock. This was not an easy task. The dock was at least 2 -3 feet above the water level. We pulled the kayaks up onto the dock because the boat ramp was crowded with motorized boaters who might have had a beer or two. The light was beginning to fade as the ladies went back to get the other vehicle. We loaded up in the dark with the lights from Linda’s vehicle lighting the way. This was a very enjoyable trip with minimal effort expended in the water. In the future, we want to check the river gauges at Givhans Ferry again and to bring plenty of water. We might want to reconsider leaving the fishing gear at home if the river discharge level is higher, because it was challenging enough at 735 ft3/sec. We should also exit the boats on the ramp, instead of the dock.
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