Sight Fishing for Shallow Water Redfish in Hilton Head, South Carolina
During the winter months we generally find huge schools of redfish around Hilton Head Island. Some of these schools will hold well over 1000 fish and when you come up on them they turn the bottom black. As you could imaging sight fishing means “seeing the fish” and having clear water makes this much easier. During our colder months the water temperature drops enough to kill off all of the algae and plankton that normally gives the water its dirty appearance. With gin clear waters and visibility to about 6 feet shallow water sight casting can fire off! I can tell you that it is pretty exciting to see a school of fish like that pushing a wake towards the boat… the only question is can we stay calm enough to get off a good cast! Given the excellent sight casting conditions of the winter I spend most of my time poling the flats using light tackle spinning rods rigged with artificial lures and of course we do a ton of fly fishing.
Check out this video. We got lucky on this trip as the winds dropped out to near zero and gave us some excellent sight fishing conditions. You can also see a monster school of redfish in front of the boat as we fish. Until next time, Catch em Up! Captain Charlie