Panfish Assault at the Beach

During the last week in June, my family made the annual migration to the SC coast for a family vacation.  We started staying at a community called Oceanside Village in Surfside several years ago.  The community sits right across the road from the Atlantic Ocean and has a series of ponds and canals located on the property.  Early on, I didn't know what to expect from fishing the ponds but was pleasantly surprised almost immediately.  There were strong populations of bass and sunfish, including both coppernose bluegill and redear sunfish.  The bass, while I have caught a few nice specimens, get pressured hard by the community guests.  The panfish, on the other hand, seem to be almost pressure-free and are present in both quality numbers and size.

I left Ohio prepared for all I could anticipate.  Along for the trip was a 9' 6wt for bass (which I expected to get minimal use), as well as a glass 3wt for windier days and my trusty 1wt for calmer days.  Wind can be an issue down there due to the proximity to the ocean.  The first two days I fished the 3wt glass rod primarily due to that wind, but luckily it calmed down for the rest of the week and I fished the 1wt almost exclusively.  The 9' 6wt did not come out of the rod tube all week, as I presumed.  Faced with the decision of whacking panfish for two hours or scratching out a bass or two in the same time frame, I choose to chase the panfish.

The fish did not disappoint, as usual.  Water in the ponds down there is very dark, taking on a tannic look, which makes spotting fish more difficult in most circumstances.  I actually did spot a few fish hanging over spawning beds, which seems very odd.  The spawn has long been over here in Ohio but seemed to be still going on (to some degree) in South Carolina.  Roughly 80% of the fish I caught were near beds, located off the deep edges near them within 4-5', with the remaining fish coming directly from beds.  I fished a dry/dropper rig virtually the entire trip.  The dry was a Foam Dragon of Fly Fish Food design (Tutorial) but the dropper changed daily.  I fished these sunfish 5 straight days and the bite slowed on a particular fly from day to day.  Popular offerings were the Nothin' Special (Tutorial), the infamous Squirminator, and Steve Gibson's Myakka Minnow.

Coppernose bluegills are simply gorgeous.  The markings on their heads are very unique and often the first thing I would see as a fish moved towards a fly.  The "copper" patch is usually lighter in color so as the fish would come up from the depths you could see the lighter color patch heading towards your fly.  They also run very dark down there, with some fish having very distinct dark barring.

I picked up a few "bonus bass" as bycatch while I was catching panfish.  They were typically smaller bass, but still good fun on light fly gear.  Another interesting tidbit about the dry/dropper fishing was that very few fish were caught on the dry.  In 5 days, roughly 2-3 fish per day would eat the dry with dozens eating the dropper.  I did fish a size 10 deer hair diver on the 1wt for a while just because it's fun to fish tiny deer hair bugs on light gear.

While I caught a lot of really solid bluegill throughout the week, the fish of the trip came on the last day I could fish.  I had only caught a handful of redears (I believe they call them shellcrackers down south) and none were terribly big.  Then, fishing a spot popular for guests to feed waterfowl and turtles, I set the hook on a fish that ate my Squirminator and my 1wt doubled over.  The fish quickly came to the surface, allowing me to see how large it was, then went berserk.  After a few strong runs, I got the fish to hand.  I still haven't measured the rod, but I don't have to measure to know it was my personal best redear sunfish.

That fish capped off another fun week of whacking panfish within sight of the Atlantic Ocean.  It's odd to be within sight of the ocean and smell the salt in the air while catching freshwater fish, but it's a real blast on the light rods.  I saw a lot of other anglers, but as usual, they were all bass fishermen.  The fish in these ponds probably only see flies one week per year, and I'm happy to be the one to do it.