Ever had “one of those days” when Murphy’s Law (“If it can go wrong, it will go wrong”) prevails?

Yesterday, I had the good fortune to fish again with Ralph and Danny (Ralph’s brother).  Last time I fished with Danny was nearly two years ago, and it was a memorable one, with 100+ solid trout caught.  Danny hadn’t wet a line since January and had a small window to get out.  Danny is the only person I have ever met who has the natural “feel” of a trout bite like Ralph.  I guess its genetic.  Ralph always says that when you grow up poor and hungry, and you only have one cricket, you learn not to lose a fish…

Anyway, we started out chunking plugs and had one mishap after another.  Braided line caught in split rings (multiple times), fish missed at the boat (big one), line wrapped around the reel handle (lost fish and plug), fish dragging lure into structure (break off), minor electrical problems, etc!  I’m probably forgetting a few but you get the picture.  But, you might notice the common theme was fish mishaps.  Yes, we were on a bite – the best one we have had since last spring, and what a feeling!  It was nice catching some heavy trout again.  We landed about 7 trout over 2.5 lbs and Ralph had the daymaker with one a little over 3.5 lbs.

After the sun came up, we switched to a rig that has been working really well for us in the post-flood tannic stained water:  A Z-Man 3 in MinnowZ in rootbeer with a chartreuse tail.  Anything with a chartreuse tail has been working well, but especially the MinnowZ.  This is always a hot Fall lure, but I think the water color really makes this one stand out right now.

We found about 7 redfish and a couple flounder during the rest of the morning, and just really enjoyed the perfect weather and each other’s company.  If you can swing it, get off the couch and get on the water – it’s prime time!

 

Visit our Online Store for the best deals in TroutEye jigheads anywhere, and pick up a few TroutEye hand towels.  They are priced inexpensively and really help improve your catching experience.

See you on the water!

Hit the ponds 🙂

Last week we had supermoon tides pretty much all week, so Ralph and I decided to fish some sandpit ponds for bass for a change.  It was a real nice change of pace and an awful lot of fun.  There was a lot of vegetation in the pond and it is hard to work a jerk shad without catching weeds, so we experimented around and found the best way to make a presentation.

The first deadly combo was a Z-Man 3″ MinnowZ on a TroutEye jighead.  With this combo its easy to swim the lure just above the weeds, and the amazing action of the Z-Man ElaZtech made it a very effective offering.  Many big bucketmouths fell to this combo.  We also had a few crappie unable to resist.

 

Our bucktails are also a good choice since they are light weight you can keep them up in the water column a bit easier.  Bucktails are a classic largemouth bait and you can see why.

Lastly we used some floating diver plugs.  Crank them and they swim just under the surface, and on the pause they will float back up.  The biggest fish were all over these.  Ralph hooked the fish of the day (looked to be 5+ lbs) and lost it on a jump.

While our flood waters recede, your best bet for something to pull on your line might be freshwater bass fishing in a local pond (or backyard!).  As always, look for structure, such as fire pits, Azalea bushes, barbeque grills, etc 🙂  We are just kidding, many in our area are in bad shape and our thoughts are with you, but sometimes you gotta step back and have a laugh.

 

Fisher-people in Tennessee, you can now get TroutEye jigheads at Sexton’s Marine in Bristol, TN.  Stop in and ask for them, they are sure to whack the walleye in South Holston Lake!

If you have ever fished the “super-moon” tides, you know it can be very frustrating. For argument’s sake, let’s say a tidal range of around 7 feet. That’s a big tide for Charleston, but we see them maybe 10 times a year, more or less. When the tide turns to go out, it can seem like someone pulled the plug out of the bathtub! Almost whitewater… Chances are, the luck you had was probably near slack low or high when the water flow was manageable.

Well, yesterday’s “blood-moon” was one of those days, and yes, the struggle was real! But, you can still catch fish if you know a little about where fish will be and why. With the exception of Striper, who it seems the faster the water the happier they are, most inshore fish won’t, or more likely can’t, waste their energy fighting that kind of current. They will hide somewhere in a current break when the tide is really rushing. That doesn’t mean they won’t feed.

We found a place yesterday where the current was so fast that my trolling motor, while on full speed, still couldn’t hold steady. Yet, we landed two big reds in this rushing current. How? They were hiding behind a submerged fallen tree trunk that broke the current. They were waiting for baitfish to be swept by and they would come out to get them. In this case, it was our jerk shad on a TroutEye jig instead.  My high school friend Scott was the happy angler for a couple very nice overslot reds.

So, as Ralph likes to say in his seminars, go out at negative low tides and make note of the bottom contour. If you know of any fallen trees or submerged structure, it might be a good place to try on one of those screaming tide days.

Tight lines!

Now that the water temperature has dipped below 80F, it’s nice to finally have a good artificial bait bite back, and it’s only getting better.  Our observation is that water temps in the 70’s seem to be the optimum temperature range for redfish.  They seem to have lots of stamina and a smaller fish will seem like a bigger fish as a result – they pull like a freight train for several runs.  It’s really fun to catch reds in this water temperature window in the Fall and Spring.

Trout have begun to feed well and catches of double-digit numbers of schooly trout will be the norm.  You won’t often catch a lot of big girls but the small males will be abundant.  That being said, we should have an exceptional bite of big fish this Fall given a couple fairly mild winters we have had.  Can’t wait!

Flounder make a move out of the creeks to the ocean around mid-October, and building up to that time the numbers of catches should steadily improve.  We have been catching a few each trip with sizes mixed.

One of my personal favorite things to target in the Fall is the Margarita Slam (redfish, trout, flounder, striper, largemouth).  We call it this because it’s a brackish water slam and is both salty and sweet water.  This slam can be achieved in any of our rivers that is fed by fresh water.  Maybe the most difficult would be to catch a largemouth in the Wando as it is the most salty.  But there are abundant stocked striper in the upper Wando above Paradise landing.

I was lucky to get my first Margarita Slam of the season last week, and while the average size of the fish taken was on the smallish side, it was remarkable in that 4 of the 5 fish were caught on a single rig:  A gold TroutEye jig with a Z-Man PaddlerZ in Bad Shad color.  This is leaving out the other 4 redfish and 2 striper caught on it.  Only a Z-Man can stand up to that abuse.  My one remaining fish was a trout, which is the easiest fish to catch in the slam.  I was determined to complete the slam on the one rig but unfortunately broke the rig off on a submerged tree.  I did not have any more PaddlerZ left so I had to count on an earlier topwater trout catch to complete the slam .  I don’t think there is a better testimony to the effectiveness of a rig than that… 4 (fresh and saltwater) species  – that’s a combo that works.

Get off the couch and go fishing – it’s the best time of year!

And don’t forget to enjoy some “laydowns” at snack time 🙂

As usual, if you catch a fish on one of our jigs, tag it on social media with #TroutEye and we will repost it.  See you on the water.

Visit our store for the best value in jigs.  It’s artificial time…  Most orders ship same or the next day with 2 day delivery

Here is our latest product.  It’s very simple, but its one of those things that after you try it, you never want to fish without it.  Kinda like a trolling motor…

We had a little fun with this video.  Warning:  High cheese-factor 🙂

They are available now on our Online Store

The towel hangs from your belt loop and is always right there, right when you need it.  No more fumbling around for a towel or wiping your slimy hands on your pants or shirt.

TroutEye Hand-Towels – Check em out!

  

 

We are so fortunate in the lowcountry of South Carolina to take for granted fresh seafood.  We have friends and relatives from states not near the coast, and we are always a little taken aback when they say they don’t like fish.  That’s because they probably have never had fresh fish.

Now that Fall is here, it’s a great opportunity to enjoy some of our local bounty.  Local guide Tucker Blythe has been posting some fantastic meals on Instagram under the tag #CreekToTable   This inspired me this Labor Day weekend to have a meal made up almost entirely from our creek at Edisto Island.  We actually had two CreekToTable meals and they were superb.

Blue crab – They are abundant in the creeks and are most easily caught around low tide.  Keeper crabs are 5″ from point to point on the carapace.  We drop them in a bucket with ice to cool them down.  Some like to cook them whole, but I prefer to clean them first.  To clean them, simply open the flap on the underside of the carapace.  If you can’t get under the flap, just use one of their legs as a tool to get under it and lift it up.  Then just separate the top and bottom halves using a little effort to split it.  Then remove the lungs and mouth parts, followed by a strong jet of water to clear out the remnants.  You will then be left with just the legs and carapace where most of the meat lies.  To cook, boil some water with Old Bay or Zatarain’s crab boil and drop them in for 10-ish minutes.  From here we prefer to either pick them as-is, or make them into crab cakes or dip.  For the latter, get a few friends and some beer or wine and carefully remove the lump meat in a pile.  Then go through the pile a second time to separate the little shell bits that inevitably will be remaining.

 

Shrimp – There were an unbelievable number of shrimp in the creek, however they were still pretty small.  We cast netted many and shook them into a shrimp bucket and then picked out the larger ones.  We head them on the spot and drop into a cooler with ice.  Where we are, we are at the very end of a creek and it is the nursery for inshore fish.  We netted several of this year’s litter of trout and carefully returned them to the water.  We also regularly catch very tiny flounder and redfish.  It didn’t take long to get about  3/4 lb of creek shrimp.  Simply throw them in the crab water for about 1 minute to cook.  It’s very easy and common to overcook shrimp.  These creek shrimp are best by simply peeling and eating.  You will not find sweeter, better tasting shrimp than little creek shrimp!

Fish – We don’t catch many significant predator fish at our dock but every so often we get  a nice one.  I was pleasantly surprised to catch this very nice flounder which really rounded out the meal!  We don’t eat a lot of deep fried food.  Instead, we pan fry them by cleaning and cutting into pieces around 2″.  We dust them with garlic powder, salt and pepper (both sides) then shake in a bag of panko.  We heat a small amount of olive oil with a dollup of butter and fry in the pan this way.  It’s very good and healthy this way.

Nothing better than a Creek To Table meal in the Low Country!

 

 

This weekend we had the good fortune to be granted permission to fish a salt pond – a once a year or so treat for us.  Going to this pond makes us excited like little boys because the catching is so good.  It is strictly catch and release fishing and that makes for some big fish.  We invited along Daniel from Z-Man Fishing along with some good friends, Martin and George.  We fished only Z-Man soft plastics and Trout Eye jigs.  This day, the pond did not disappoint, and some of the highlights included a couple true gator trout, topped off with witnessing Daniel catch 11 redfish on 11 consecutive casts.  That was pretty cool!  As usual for ponds, the fishing is best near the water flow – in this case “trunks” which were an ingenious way to flood rice fields back in the day, but still of great use in controlling the level of salt ponds.  Until next year…

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In Other News:

keep an eye out for the next issue of the Post & Courier’s Tideline magazine, that will feature an article by Tommy Braswell on Fall fishing by three of our legendary fishermen in Charleston:  O. C. Polk, Sandy Stuhr and Ralph Phillips.  It is always a pleasure to sit and just listen to these three talk.  There is 150 years saltwater fishing experience between them.  Can’t wait to see the article.  We also have some video to supplement the article.

Some updates on Trout Eye jigs:

• Our Z-Man branded jigs have had a warm reception after ICAST.  You might have seen them featured in Saltwater Sportsman magazine.  They have been picked up by most of the major fishing tackle distributors, such as Tackle Warehouse, Bass Pro, Cabelas, Academy Sports, etc.  We want to thank Z-Man for believing in our product, and the Charleston fishing community for your support of our local company with American made products.
• There will be some great full page ads this fall in many  fishing magazines promoting the Trout Trick / Trout Eye “system”.
• It’s now Fall, and time to fish artificial baits.  Purchasing Trout Eye jigs online is the best value you can get, bulk jigs are at a 20% discount.  Orders of $50 and up also get free shipping.

Bucktails:

Bucktails have been making a comeback among tournament bass fishermen.  We now have retail packaged bucktails that are available online and at select retail shops.  They sell for $6.95 for a 2-pack and come in several color combos, including CAROLINA and  CLEMSON – just for fun.  They catch fish too…  Currently they can be purchased at Berkeley Outdoors Marine on 17A.

 

 

Phillips Custom Rods

Our rods have been gaining a loyal following, with some great feedback, such as the following:

I’m loving my Phillips Custom rod.  This is a 2lb smallmouth I caught a week ago on the Shenandoah River. The smallmouth are just starting to get active again, and their bite is very subtle right now.  I was using a Carolina rigged 6″ worm and I could feel him from the second he bumped the bait.  He was about 10′ deep and did not want to come into the boat, but the rod was more than he could handle.  I use my Phillips custom rod exclusively now when fishing soft plastics off the bottom. The sensitivity is outstanding.  I can feel every rock and twig. When I set the hook, its lights out and they have no chance against the backbone of the rod. They are coming to the boat for a picture.  Perfect combination.

Thanks and hope to see you on the water.  Send us your catch pics!

Ralph and I were very fortunate to be invited by Z-Man Fishing to attend ICAST 2015 in Orlando for the first time.  It was an eye-opening experience and if you are every given a chance to go, it’s worth it!   The best way to describe it is: the entire fishing industry of the whole world – in one room.  Z-Man has included our TroutEye jigs as part of a trout “system”, paired with their TroutTrick product.  Our jigs were prominently displayed in the Z-Man booth as one of their new products for the year.  They were even included in the New Product Showcase.

 

The New Product Showcase is a must-see, because it includes only the latest-greatest new products and from these the Best of Show products are chosen by a team of industry folks.  There were some really cool new products and some that make you scratch you head and think “huh???”.

Going to a show like this is very inspiring, because you can see some real inventive and creative ideas come to life.  It really got our gears cranking while dreaming up new product ideas.

I thought I’d compile a list of impressions of the show.

• The show is not open to the public.  It is only for industry people such as vendors, shop owners, “pro-staff” guides, etc.  For that reason there was not much “swag” that you would expect to see at a trade show.  It has more to do with large purchasers and distributors inking deals with vendors.
• There are a staggering number of people manufacturing hard baits.  Hard baits in every conceivable shape, size, color, pattern, jointed, etc etc etc.  Some of you may have seen the 13+” fish pattern that looks so realistic swimming that it’s hard to tell it’s not real.  Crazy.  I’m not really sure what it’s supposed to catch, and for the cost I’m pretty sure I’d start to cry when I broke it off on something. It must be a hard nut to crack to get into that product space.   I think we will stay out of that one!
• We were most impressed with the lowcountry businesses at the show.  I’m not just saying that because we are biased to homegrown businesses, but truly some of the best products and businesses are coming straight from the lowcountry.
  • EZ Waves – This company is owned and started by Vickie Waller (Capt. Mike Waller’s better half).  She has a concept that I predict will revolutionize the guiding industry.  EZ Waves makes it easy for customers to book a guide and easier for a guide to do what they do – guide.  To be fair, it’s not a unique idea, however, EZ Waves has really got their act together, and Miss Vickie really knows how to start and run a business.  The devil is in the details, and she is really doing it right.  I know a few guides that have already signed up and they are raving about this company.  I think it’s a sure-win.  www.ezwaves.com
  • Jig Skinz – This product, invented by Courtland Babcock, is a great idea for reconditioning old plugs and jigs.  I had known about this product for a while, but got to see it demonstrated for the first time and really, you have to see it to believe it.  It’s amazing!  He has new bait fish patterns for this year and they look like the real thing.  Very, very cool product.  www.jigskinz.com
  • Flood Tide Co – We stopped and spoke to Paul Puckett of Flood Tide Co.  They have a line of apparel for fly fishing that is just cool.  They are powered by the creative mind and artistry of Paul and Doug Roland (who won a videography award).  In the apparel industry, you need to rise above the noise with some really cool designs and Flood Tide is the real deal.  www.floodtideco.com
  • Z-Man Fishing – Well, it’s hardly a surprise that we are lucky to have one of the premier fishing vendors in the world right here in our back yard.  Z-Man has a ton of new stuff including the TT/TE combo, but also some 10″ long jerk shads for striper, cobia and tarpon that are sure to work really well.  www.zmanfishing.com
• Neither Ralph nor I are too impressed by “celebrities” but they were everywhere.  The only two that I got a little star-struck by was Flip Pallot and Lefty Kreh.  Those guys are the real deal and so down to earth.  We spoke to Z-Man pro David Walker and he was so laid back and cool.  He gave us some insight into jig hooks for pro bass fishermen.

No doubt, much of the products there are meant to catch fishermen, and I don’t know if I will change my favorite hard plugs for something new but you never know.  But if you have a keen eye, you can find the few truly promising new products.

We hope to go back in the future – maybe we can win “Best in Show” for a future product…

Angelfish on Steroids from RalphPhillipsInshore on Vimeo.