Kayak Fish SC is Charleston's kayak fishing guide service. We do kayak fishing like no one else. The owner, Tommy Samuels, is on the Pro Staff of Wilderness Systems Kayaks and Kayak Bass Fishing as well as an accomplished tournament angler.
Tommy has teamed up with two very successful fishing guides, Ken Bergmann and Justin Carter, to create a team of kayak fishing guides who can teach you more about kayaks, kayak fishing, and photographing your catch than any other service in the area.
Kayak Fish SC will guide you on a kayak fishing trip that you'll never forget. The creeks and marshes around Charleston, SC have some of the best fishing on the East Coast. A kayak is THE vessel for stalking redfish, trout, and flounder in waters too shallow for powerboats. We'll guide you to some of the most productive and most beautiful places in the Lowcountry.
This 4 hour guided trip starts with instruction at the landing covering a variety of topics including: kayak rigging, using the tools of a fishing kayak, popular fishing rigs, catching bait, throwing a cast net, fishing techniques for live bait or artificials, paddling techniques, boat handling, and kayaking safety.
We follow the classroom instruction with a guided kayak fishing trip centered around low tide where we will discuss fish habitat, fish behavior, types of struture, and how to fish the carious types of structure.
We offer trips for a variety of skill levels from the absolute beginner to the experienced paddler or seasoned fly fisherman. The many creeks, rivers and shallow bays around Charleston, SC allow me to tailor trips to your specific requests. The more information you can provide on your paddling and fishing skills the better. We will tailor a guided trip to fit your needs.
Come see Tommy Samuels at the East Coast Canoe and Kayak Festival April 15-17, 2011. He's doing a kayak rigging class and two levels of kayak fishing.
 TooBusy@KayakFishSC.com
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Reports listed below
Kayak fishing reports from Charleston, SC given below. We don't report on every trip, but we do try to provide accurate and up to date fishing reports every week.
August
Storms on Friday messed up plans for night fishing. The plan was a little top water trout action followed y sticking flounder when the tide got low. Weather had other plans; maybe next time. Just got one trout before the storm sent us packing
July
I finished out the month trying to stay cool in the North Carolina mountains. If you ever get up to Bone, NC, I'd suggest taking a rafting trip with River and Earth Adventures. You can find them on the web at RaftCaveHike.com The owner / operator Grant Seldomridge is a great guy and his river guides are first class. The trip on the French Broad with a break for lunch makes for the perfect way to spend a day.
Carter took a 3 some out on the 27th. Jim Elder, his son Brian, and a 3rd name that I apologize, but I can't read on the waiver. Another tough day fishing with a lot of heat and not nearly enough fish brought to hand. Jim did catch his first red, an over slot copper colored beauty.
The heat and wind have really taken a toll on the fishing this month. I took Jim Roman and Dave Liu out on the 23rd and we roasted. Jim and I hit the upper Wando about 10 am where I picked up a nice 23" red, aka a "money fish" during a tournament and Jim picked up a pair of mid slotties. Jim paddles a really nice looking mango colored Tarpon 140
After a great lunch at Jack's Cosmic Dog we headed to Copahee sound to fish the incoming. Unfortunately the water in Copahee felt like a hot bath. Based on feel of the foot I'd say the water temp was WELL INTO the 90's. We hit a few of the more popular staging spots and saw reds CRUSHING shrimp. I picked up 2 on dead sticked Gulp shrimp. Dave got a blue at the grass edge just before the flat flooded.
I spent 30 minutes scoping the flats looking for tailers or cruisers, but none to be found. Called it feeling really beat up from the wind.
Plans for an offshore kayak trip have fallen through a couple of times in a row due to wind and waves. Sooner or later the weather WILL cooperate. Stay tuned...
The redfish bite has been offthe charts for the past few days with the best bite coming early and late in the day. After dark as the Moon gets closer to full is going to be the hot ticket this week.
Carter took Merrit Brady out for a kayak fishing 101 trip. The goal of the trip was to learn what to look for when scouting water, boat handling, rod management, and hopefully to catch a fish or two along the way.
I headed out for a late afternoon solo high tide trip to go wading in the grass looking for tailers. The wind was up and so was the water making it nearly impossible to spot tailing fish. I got lucky and managed to pull one blind casting to a known hot spot on the flat.
I wound up hanging around until after dark to wait for the fish to come out of the grass. Once the sun went down I started throwing a topwater bait at the grass edge and caught a nice fat 28 inch red.
Fun times on the water this weekend if you enjoy being blown all over creation by incessant wind and the never ending power boat parade. Fished Saturday, Sunday and Monday with a few fish brought to hand each day. Saturday inshore slam with lots of little sharks as a bonus. Sunday, flounder flounder everywhere, but not a red in sight. Monday - a few trout at last, sadly no size to them.
June
Lots of sun and wind, but not a lot of fish lately. The flounder bite is getting better. Redfish seem to be getting scarce, can find them VERY early in the morning and late in the day, that's about it. Trout are still few and far between.
Met up with Carter, Gordon, Dolphin Dave, and Jordan for 2 different yakking for kings trips. Paddled lots of miles dragging baits. Carter and Gordon each got nice 4 foot sharks on the first trip and I got a 3 pound blue. Hit it again 2 days later and the only fish was an itty bitty blue that Dolphin Dave landed. Still, you can't ask for a better way to spend time on the water than paddling and fishing with friends.
Off to a bit of a slow start. Carter took a threesome out to Copahee. One client nailed a nice 29 inch red. Other than that, the fish were hard to come by. I met up with 2 of the three for a Stono river trip only to experience more of the same. It's frustrating seeing fish and them not biting, but it's far more frustrating to not even see a fish.
May
I guess timing is everything. The week after Jim and Tina were down the fishing decided to turn back on. I hit the Wando for the early morning bite and caught a couple of nice reds, shots a few minutes of video and generally had a nice time fishing by myself. The water started getting kind of crowded by 10 am so I bugged out to fish the incoming tide a Copahee...all I can say is that I made the right choice. Fishing was fast and furious for a couple of hours as the water climbed higher and higher up the oyster mounds, then "click" turn off in a flash. Boated 5 reds in 5 casts using ZMan Ultra Shrimp under a popping cork. Stopped counting and just grinned. All but 1 fish over the slot with most in the upper 20's and low 30's
Had the pleasure of fishing with Jim and Tina Shank who drove down from Virginia to donate THEIR SECOND Commander 120 to the Charleston Heroes on the Water chapter. Weather was BEAUTIFUL... fish didn't want to cooperate. I boated 3 slot reds, Jim caught a slottie, and Tina caught an itty bitty trout. Garret Jones CHSbound fished with us and landed his FIRST EVER red. Congrats Garrett!
Off to a good start. After spending a week in Italy, I flew home and headed straight to Jacksonville for the JAX Kayak Classic. Fished with Carter on Friday to work on our Tournament plan. The plan came together with a 20" trout for a 4th place finish out of 430 anglers. I'm ONE HAPPY CAMPER!!!!
Opened the month with a solo trip on the Wando and put a few nice reds in the kayak. Nothing special, but nice over the slot fish
April
Put the month to bed with a short trip on the Stono with a couple of friends. Caught a few mid sized reds and some dink trout. Where are the nice trout when there's a challenge series going on???
Worked the ECCKF and had a blast except for the bit of sun and wind burn from spending 3 straight days outside. I had a chance to put some names with faces, so it was great to spend time talking with everyone that stopped by the Wilderness Systems booth and the folks who came to the fishing classes.
April was a good month overall. Started with monster redfish, early in the month then struggled a bit as every fishing day was close to a blow out with 15 to 20 mph winds. Fished April 15th (GREAT WAY TO SPEND TAX DAY!!!) with Gary Hampton, Shawn Hampton and Tony Schell while Justin Carter worked with us as his shakedown trip as a new guide. Shawn landed a nice 18" flounder, shown below, Gary nabbed a FAT 20" flounder, and Tony was tortured by short strikes and fish that would come unbuttoned after a short run.
Fished 4 days during the long Easter weekend. Friday 2 good reds, Saturday 10 reds, Sunday 8 reds, Monday 5 reds. Now for the good part.25 fish in 4 days... 20 of them were over the slot,.. 7 were over 30 inches with the biggest being a tad over 36 inches. That makes 9 fish over 30 inches since I got back on the water after wrist surgery
March 27
Fished with Jordan Stewart today. We went prospecting for trout and reds on the Stono. No trout to be found , but there were some pretty redfish brouht to the yaks. We each brought a fish over 30 inches to hand then got into a school of small slot fish and caught at least 30 in the hour when the bite was on.
March 26 -Fished with Andros
Total blowout on the Wando. We tried to make the most of it, but nothing doing. Wind was blowing 20-25 and the river was shipped into a froth. We had to play the wind on every cast, couldn't stay anchored, and couldn't find any fish. Pulled the plug after 2 hours on a 4 hour trip and went home whipped and smelling of SKUNK
Sunday March 21 - IFA Kayak Tournament
Met up with the other competitors at the landing to exchange best wishes before the launch. My plan was pretty simple; jump a redfish as soon as the sun came up and work the redfish schools until I boated a fish that would get me near or above the 27" upper limit. Thankfully I put a 24 in the yak in the first 10 minutes of fishing, then upgraded to a 26 before 8 am. Now it's all about the trout. So I fished every dock, point, oyster bar, and channel you can think of and caught PLENTY of undersized trout. I finally put a legal fish in the boat at about 10 am and upgraded to a slightly better fish with just 10 minutes to go before I planned to leave the launch. The 40 1/8 inch combo put me in 2nd place and I left the weigh in with a brand new Hobie Outback and some decoration for my wall.
A word of thanks to my sponsors and supporters who have made this possible. Chad Hoover and KayakBassFishing.com, Wilderness Systems Kayaks, Okuma Fishing, Pure Fishing, and Yak Attack. I wouldn't have that silly grin on my face if it were not for your support.
Saturday March 20 Spent all day Saturday scouting and pre fishing for the IFA Kayak Tournament. Launched at first light and picked up a couple of nice redfish right where I expected them to be, so that part of the plan was all set. I spent the rest of Saturday paddling miles and miles and miles searching for the trout without any luck. I talked it over and decided on a game plan; win or lose I was placing my faith in the Wando.
Hit the water on Saturday with Jordan Stewart to go scouting for trout. We fished the ususal places without success. Wind was brutal with the lower Wando whipped into a froth.
March is here at last. Wrist surgery is over and done with; thankfully not much damage, so only a few weeks of rehab before I'm back to normal. Fished on Saturday 3-6 at Copahee Sound with 3 friends. 8 fish between us, all over the slot, 3 fish over 30 inches. GREAT DAY ON THE WATER!!!
February
Feb 15th - Still off the water due to injury. I got back to the Ortho tomorrow to talk about surgical options. I'm hoping for one good day before surgery takes me out of th egame for a few more weeks. The good news is fish are being caught. Reds have been cooperating at low tide. The bad news is I'm not in the thick of it. Tight lines to all.
January
Wow, January pretty much beat me up. I haven't been able to fish since January 18th. The longest I've been off the water in almost 3 years. It's a good news bad news situation. Bad news - I tore a ligament in my left wrist, so I'm wearing a brace and praying that surgery isn't needed. Good news - a couple of new kayaks for 2010 season have arrived. The KayakFishSC fleet right now consists of a Tarpon 160, a Tarpon 140 , and a Ride 135. I haven't decided what to add next - another Ride 135 or a Commander - most likely another Ride 1351/19-1/24 Didn't get to fish at all. The real job kept me off the water on the nice days during the week. the weekend rolled around like so many recently. WIND and RAIN. I turned down 2 clients this weekend because of bad conditons. Hopefully the weather will start to cooperate. Until then I'm just working on gear for the new season.
1/17 & 1/18 Were both decent fishing days. I fished solo both afternoons on the Wando River.Sunday I was trolling for trout while I scouted new locations for redfish. Caught and released a couple of fish and talked to a couple of people that "wore em out'. Monday I managed to squeeze in an hour close to low tide. Trolled a new penny paddle tail and broke off not one, but two NICE reds when the hooks on brand new DOA jig heads snapped. No more DOAs for me. KayakFishSC is changing to a brand from Florida.
1/16/10 TOUGH DAY TODAY! I met with Simon Walters today for a trip on the Stono. The plan was to work the submerged oyster bars on a falling tide to scoop up a few redfish after 3 days of bright sunshine. The reality was overcast skies, rain, cold stained water, and NO FISH! We did manage to jump two schools of reds that had a serious case of lockjaw. Gulp, DOA, paddle tail grubs, curly tail grubs; nothing.
1/8/10 It's been a tough start to the month. Water temps are approaching critical lows so lot's of us are concerned about a fish kill. Thankfully no kills are reported in Charleston yet, so if you read this, say prayers for warmer weather.
1/1/10 Happy New Year from KayakFishSC.com I fished by myself today on the Stono River. Not much to report. No trout in any of the usual places. I did manage to spook a school of over the slot redfish that were sunning on the sandbar across from Elliott's Cut. I fished the bar and mud flat for about 2 hours near dead low without a single bite. Hoping for warmer weather and less wind soon.
December
All in all an outstnading month of kayak fishing in Charleston, SC. Lots of good redfish, a few decnt trout and plenty of time on the water kayak fishing with friends.
12/30/09 Headed out for one more day of kayak fishing before the extreme cold comes our way. Fished the Upper Wando river on the falling tide and first hour of incoming. I missed 3 really good knockdowns where the rod was bowed to the grip, drag singing, and then ... nothing. I guess that's part of fishing with circle hooks, you will miss a few fish. I set up in a feeder creek at dead low and waited for the reds to come to me. Ended the day with two nice over the slot reds; one 24" the other 30".
12/19 Merry Christmas from Kayak Fish SC. Too Busy is taking a little break this week and will be back in town 12/28. I've been sledding and building snowmen instead of fishing. Planning to hit Chesapeake Bay for a little striper fishing this week if the weather cooperates.
12/12 lousy weather. Rain, wind, and cold. Water temp dropped to the low 50's overnight and fishing temporarily shut down.
12/13 Not as cold today. Water temp back up to the upper 50's. I got reports from a few friends that the redfish bite was very good on Sunday morning. Trout are still hitting anything that moves. Jerk shad, Gulp swimming shad, DOA shrimp are producing fish at creek mouths and oyster rakes on a falling tide.
It's trout time in the Lowcountry. I went out with Jordan Stewart Saturday morning 12/5. Windy, cold, rainy, whitecaps on the Stono River. None of that mattered because the trout were hungry today. Caught about 12-15 and missed just as many. Best fish of the day was a fat 17 inch male shown here lying in the belly of the Commander 120. I wanted to test the limits of the Commander today so I took it out into sustained 10-15 mph winds with wind blown waves on the Stono over a foot high with about 3 foot spacing, or a one second interval. I took a couple of waves over the bow when I tried plowing dead into the wind. Other than that the Commander handles the nasty weather like a champ. Never more water in the boat than what I could handle with a sponge. It was a fun day kayak fishing in Charleston, SC
12-6-09 Fished with Jordan Stewart and Ken Bergmann today at Bushy Park. Conditions were much better than Saturday, just wish the fishing was better. Caught a couple of small redfish, one trout, but Jordan and Ken each caught a big blue catfish. Jordan's was 33 inches and 15 pounds or so. Jordan released his to Crisco Bay to feed his entire soccer team.
Ken and Jordan both did me a huge favor and shot additional pictures for the website. Thank you guys, I appreciate it.
November
It’s shaping up to be another outstanding month of kayak fishing in Charleston and surrounding waters. The redfish bite is outstanding, but the cooler temperatures have moved the fish off the flats. Large fish are schooling up and can be found at low tide in creeks or on shallow mud flats. .
Trout are eating anything that moves. DOA, Gulp, Paddle tail grubs, and mirrolures are all effective right now. The best part is trout are showing up in very good numbers close to my favorite launches. Fishing is red hot within an easy 5 minute paddle.
TooBusy@KayakFishSC.com
October was a fantastic month of kayak fishing. The cooler temps resulted in great fishing conditions. The several Indian Summer days kept redfish on the flats all the way through the month. Plenty of redfish in the 25-30 inch class working the grass edges this month. Trout, flounder, bluefish and sheepshead bite have all been very good, but I think the flounder are winding down for the season... better catch them while you can.
The best fish of the month was a 31" redfish caught in Copahee Sound. There were quite a few 25-30 inch fish caught in Copahee and the upper parts of the Wando. The Stono gave up a few redfish in the 25-30 inch class, but most were in the upper slot at 22-23 inches.
You just can't beat fall fishing in Charleston. The highlight of the month was the Heroes On the Water fundraiser tournament held at Copahee Sound. There were 19 people kayak fishing in the tourney is the toughest conditions so far this year. The Best fish of the day was a 27 1/2 inch redfish. My best fish of the day is the one shown below which put me in 4th place for conventional tackle.
I was fortunate to land the only redfish in the fly fishing division, so I came home with a brand new March Brown Hidden Water 8 wt fly rod. Thank you March Brown and thank you Ken Bergmann for putting on a truly outstanding kayak fishing tournament to benefit the local chapter of Heroes On the Water.
September Report
Lots of hungry and aggressive redfish this month. The flats were covered in tailing fish throughout the month as we experienced some unusually high tides. I had several very good days kayak fishing this month with a few 10 fish days. The highlight of the month was spotting a school of tarpon in the Stono river!!!! I threw everything I had at them without a hookup, but what a sight.
Not very many trout this month. I only "actively" fished for trout on one outing, but we normally catch 5-10 on a falling tide while targeting redfish and flounder on oyster points.
TooBusy@KayakFishSC.com
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