....to relax with the winds and the torturous hot weather. Finally after two weeks of southerly winds it finally went north something. Things down in Hilton Head haven't been bad, temps in the low 90's, but it has a different feel than the low 90's in New Jersey. We've had a slow do-nothing, which means very
relaxing start to the week. After the 11 hour drive which wasn't all that bad we caught up on some rest. But, of course, open the first day I had to break out my new Orvis Christmas Island wading booties and
give things a lot out in from of the place. It was a full moon so at high tide the water is up in the grass where the redfish and sheepshead come to search for fiddler crabs. By today I had only seen a few fish
tailing in or near the thick grass on the top of the tide. I did get to to tour a couple of spots that looked promising but had the tides all wrong. Below is Fish Haul Beach and there's grass and oyster beds that
could easily slice open someone walking without foot protection. Below are some good shots of the tide on Mackay Creek. Those mounds are oyster beds which is a great place for fish to patrol. The problem
is getting out there without a boat. Last year we took a trip with LoCo Fly Charters guide Mark Nutting but this year it's a walk and wade only thing. It's not easy to just plop down into a place and try and find the best places to sight fish. I talked to a local guide last night on a sunset booze cruise and he said the
winds have been brutal for two weeks and most of the trips consist of soaking bait for bonnethead, black tip, and hammerhead sharks. I will say the incoming tides does bring much cooler water up on the flats way different then the 90 degree bathwater we had the end of last July. Hopefully over the next few days I'll find a tail or two to cast to, although the waning gibbous moon phase brings less water up onto the flats.