Tagging redfish with Capt. Tucker Blythe

Capt. Tucker Blythe put me on this NICE redfish

Tagging and releasing a redfish with the SCDNR program

Tucker and Ashley are a fishing team

Rat redfish, tagged and released

Captain Tucker Blythe of James Island is an avid fisherman who will work hard for his clients to put them on some fish. When not actively fishing, Blythe is on the water probing the coastal tidelands for fish hangouts. He often makes interesting photos of other wildlife that he encounters during his Grey Ghost Charters. Meeting at the Folly Beach boat ramp at dawn on Sunday October 7, Capt. Blythe steered us into the Folly River to cast topwater plugs for redfish and trout. The bait was thick and the fish took a few stabs at my topwater lure, and while Blythe says that the topwater bite can last until 9 a.m., we eventually made a move to fish nearer the march. Blythe poled us into position as a small fish was feeding on shrimp right next to an oyster rake. The fish was tight to the shells, requiring a really good cast. While I was casting just fine before, I air-mailed the plug into the oysters and it immediately became snagged. Blythe said no problem, that's part of fishing, hopped off the poling platform, rigged up another plug and dared me to try that cast again. By now the redfish was heading the other way, but when he turned back I picked a likely location, and cast the plug to within one-foot of that spot. The rat redfish did the rest, closing the ground and inhaling that plug. Since the SCDNR tagging program relaunched on October 4, we went ahead an placed a dart tag in the redfish and let him swim away. Deciding to take advantage of all the bait in the river, Blythe used a cast net to load the baitwell with mullet and then we fished along some structure to entice more redfish strikes. I landed, tagged and released a 27-inch redfish, and lost two more to break offs before it was time to head for the boat ramp. Blythe fishes out of an East Cape Vantage 19-foot flats boat powered by an Evinrude E-tec motor. He keeps plenty of Shimano reels and St. Croix rods for customers to use. To view a video of Blythe fishing the oyster flats in November click here.

To read my feature article on tagging redfish with Gre Ghost Charters click Colletonian.

To view a past blog entry about the SCDNR tagging program click here.