9/30 Cast and Blast

**803** · 10-02-2011, 08:33 AM

Headed to some great marsh hen and redfish marshes around Edisto Island for the 7.5 high tide. Because it was a Friday and most were at work, I decided to hunt solo with only my dog, shotgun, shells, and fishrods in the boat. It didnt take long to realize that poling around the marsh and attempting to do the shooting as well was very difficult, and caused me to not get a shot off on several marsh hens.

I found a nice area with several parallel feeder creeks and hunted about 50 to 75 yards of each one. The "laughter" of the marsh hens could be heard in every direction. I jumped up 10 or 11 during the course of the hour that I hunted, and do to my position on the back of the boat and not being able to keep my hand on the shotgun, I was only able to shoot at 6 of them. I watched the first land in some thick grass about 50 yards away, and my dog Dawhoo had a perfect mark on the location, so I sent her and she went right to the location of where I thought the bird was. Needless to say, it pulled a Houdini on us, and was never found. The next 4 were hit better, and folded up when hit. The dog marked the next 3 perfectly. The next one, Dawhoo did not see land, so she had to be handled and did very well and got it back to the boat. I had one more shot, but missed... and got the most disappointed look from the dog.

After I missed, I poled a little further and saw one of the msot beautiful sights in nature, a redfish tailing in the marsh. I tried to grab the fly rod, but somehow it was tangled and caught under something, so I grabbed the spinning rod instead. Two cast later, I had a 16in fish back in the boat. (Forgot to get the camera out). About 10 minutes later, I found another fish with its nose in the mud. This time I had the flyrod out. I made a cast with a crab fly, but wasnt interested. As I was throwing the second time, my dog jumped down to the floor of my boat and the fish took off. I search for a few more minutes but did not find anymore fish.

By this time, the water was leaving the marsh, and the marsh hens began spreading back out....so I called it a day. I would have enjoyed the day just as much if I would have killed 15 instead of 4. I just enjoy getting out and enjoying my favorite place, and watching the fruits of my labor with my dog pay off.

*** the teal were still thick, but sadly was not prepared to hunt them that day. Probably saw 5 or 6 groups with 20 to 50 within 200 yards.

**sprigdog** · 10-02-2011, 08:38 AM

nice..i did the same friday. pass shot 1 teal, ran to a flat, caught 5 tailers and shot 5 hens. spent close to 4 1/2 hours on the flat, still sore from poling my jon boat from the bow.