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opportunity to try to figure out what they’re willing to hit if they’re being picky or really mop up if they aren’t.”


MICRO SHRIMP BITE The early spring in South Carolina


sees redfish starting to break out of their tightly grouped winter pattern while speckled trout become more aggressive as the waters warm and the early food sources begin to emerge in the marsh. It’s a time when smaller baits and more precise presentations catch more fish than trying to power fish an entire area.


that would otherwise be inaccessible.


“One of our most productive pat-


terns during the spring, with redfish in particular, is they get on what I call a ‘micro shrimp bite.’ Basically, we have large amounts of juvenile shrimp in our waters that are somewhere around a quarter of an inch long. There’s not a lot of food in the area other than that and that’s what the red fish key on,” said Carter. “They’ll swim around in the shallows with their backs out of the water, running the banks and it’s very hard to get them to eat anything bigger than that.” Following the push of the tides far


up into the marsh, Carter uses a locally made push pole to propel his boat in just inches of water while standing and casting to reds along the bank. While he admits he may not have the range of a power boat, he thinks he can more than make up for that by getting into schools of fish that would otherwise be inaccessible. “Getting up on those grass flats


before a boat can, with only a few inches of water, it’s amazing to see redfish stalking your bait in only 4 or 5 inches of water,” he said. “On certain tide levels, that’s all the water that’s on the flat and some days that’s all the redfish want. I love those days when you get the reds


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with half their backs coming out of the water, pushing through that grass, aggressively feeding. What more could you ask for?” Carter also pursues speckled trout


and flounder from his kayak during the spring and states there can be great


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spring patterns in South Carolina waters for both of these fish. The South Carolina terrain creates two distinct habitats for flounder, with a dividing line about center of the state’s coastline. The dis- tinction is a rich, earthy, slippery, brown-gray, mud, with a distinctive


TIDE


up for that by getting into schools of fish


While he admits he may not have the range of a power boat, he thinks he can more than make


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