Cooper River Report

[Buck Nasty]

Got into some action on the Cooper today. Schools of what were either Ladyfish or young Tarpon busting all over the place. It was fun catching them, although most jumped and threw the hook. There were some big ones jumping that I'd estimate were 15-25lbs, but I only hooked into ones that ranged from 5-10lbs. It also appeared as though some of the fish busting the surface were jacks, but I didn't hook up with any and couldn't say for sure. Caught a couple of small seatrout as well.

[clinder]

so were you catghing lady fish or tarpon? must of been tarpon cause lady fish dont get that big

[Buck Nasty]

I don't know. I figured they were Ladyfish, but they had large scales like that of a tarpon. I'm fairly new to the area and don't know much about either of those species. They were shredding my line and I had to switch to a 30lb steel leader and they even did some damage to that. Not sure if that is an indicator as to what fish it was or not.

[clinder]

go online to a fish species site with pictures type in tarpon look at the picture type in lady fish look at the picture see wich one it was and post your findings. i would like to no if it was tarpon or not. lady fish dont grow to 10 plus pounds especially not 15-25.

[Buck Nasty]

Tarpon.

[clinder]

cool. what were they hitting on. and were on the cooper river im pretty familier wit charleston i lived there 15 years???

[Buck Nasty]

They would've probably hit anything that was thrown. They were working schools of menhaden/mullet?? and I was throwing electric chicken jigs and just reeling them as fast as I could along the surface. A topwater bait would have been ideal, but I didn't have one. I was fishing near the confluence with Goose Creek at dead low tide. There must've been literally millions of minnows in the water as far as I could see in any direction. I just waited until the fish would move to within casting distance and threw my bait at the swirls and held on. If I would've had a boat it would have been incredible. Ironically, a few a**hole boaters came flying through right where I was casting, if only they knew what they were passing up. Serves them right.

[clinder]

right on brother..keep fishin!! :cool:

[johnnyleo11]

you know, you're allowed to open up your guns if they come within 100 yards of a military vessel. :D

I found out where the dock is at where you work. Some days I work where the CG boats are moored up in the boathouse and saw the signs to the dock. I don't think I can throw a line off of the dock there, but I can in the boathouse. I pulled in 5 dozen crabs in about 4 hours there. The majority of the blue crabs were over 6 inches from point to point. I have 20 crabcakes sitting in the fridge.

I don't know if you fish for flounder, but I pulled up one of them in a crab pot. I tried fishing for flounder for about an hour, but no luck. I didn't see anything breaking on the surface so I didn't try anything topwater. Threw a suspending Yo Zuri glass minnow with no takers. I think I may be a little too far up the creek to have the bigger fish come up there b/c of water temps.

[Buck Nasty]

Trust me, there are plenty of flounder around. I mostly catch undersized ones, but occasionally doormat ones make an appearance. The tarpon were schooling out in the mouth of the creek and did not go up in it.