There’s nothing like catching your first fish

The other day, Heather (Elliott’s significant other), told me that Nathan (her 10-year-old nephew) had never caught a fish. I inquired how such a thing could happen. She explained that Nathan lives in Columbia and has never really expressed an interest in fishing. 

 

A 10-year-old with no interest in fishing? Blasphemy! So, Brody and I invited him to fish on Sunday.

 

On the Friday before our fishing trip, Brody and I set out to locate a few schools of redfish. It was a nice afternoon, and we rode around more than we fished. However, we did observe several schools of redfish feeding on shrimp. Brody suggested that on Sunday we should cast net some shrimp and use them as live bait when fishing with Nathan. Since Brody is a fish-finding and stock-trading dog, I agreed with his plan.

 

Heather brought Nathan to the house around 10 a.m. on Sunday morning. It was an hour or so before dead low tide. Before their arrival, Brody and I caught several dozen shrimp for bait. We also rigged a couple of rods with Carolina rigs. Our rigs consisted of a 3/8-ounce barrel sinker, a barrel swivel, about 10 inches of fluorocarbon leader and a circle hook. Our plan was to relocate the redfish that were feeding on shrimp and to feed them shrimp.  

 

Heather and Nathan jumped on the skiff, and we set out to catch Nathan’s first fish. After a bit of looking, we found a school of redfish milling around an oyster bar. They were not actively feeding but I felt pretty sure they would eat a live shrimp if presented properly. 

 

I placed a shrimp on the circle hook then cast a few feet up current of the school and handed the rod to Nathan.  

 

He asked, “How will I know when I catch a fish?”

 

I replied, “Don’t worry you will know.”

 

About then, the rod bent over, and the fishing line peeled off the reel.  Nathan yelled, “I caught a fish!”

 

He did a great job of fighting the fish. It only took a couple of minutes to bring the redfish to the skiff. 

 

I laughed when Nathan asked to take a picture for SnapChat.

 

After a quick round of pictures, we released the redfish. Nathan looked at Heather, Brody and me and exclaimed that he loved fishing. Then quickly asked, “Can we fish some more?”

 

Contact Captain Greg Peralta at captgregp@gmail.com or call (843) 224-0099.