Recently, I have been thinking about a boat that would allow me to fish in open and nearshore waters. While I love my skiff for fishing in the rivers and creeks, it was not designed to fish in the harbor and beyond. Clearly, I needed a second boat. A larger vessel would enable me to pursue Cobia, Tarpon and Jacks in our near coastal waters. The lure of catching (large) coastal pelagic species was overwhelming. Unable to resist, I purchased a Pathfinder 22-foot bay boat.
The first fishing trip on the new boat was Saturday afternoon. Elliott joined me. We had a friendly competition to see who would catch the first fish on the new boat. Wanting to run the Pathfinder a bit, we decided to start fishing up the Wando near the Highway 41 bridge. The ride up river was quick and soon we were casting lures (Z-Man TRDs on 1/5-ounce NedLockZ jigs) to a submerged ledge in about 15 feet of water. On my second cast, I felt a solid thump but somehow managed to miss the fish. I expected Elliott to quickly cast where I missed the bite (like he usually does). However, he did not. I looked back and he was just standing there waiting. He said, you should catch the first fish. So, I cast back to the ledge and boom, fish on!
It was not a particularly large Redfish, but we were pretty excited. Elliott took a few pictures to commemorate the first fish caught on the new boat. As I was releasing the Redfish, Elliott picked up his rod and cast to the ledge. He immediately hooked a Trout. For the next 20-minutes, we caught a fish on nearly every cast. The fish were still biting when we decided to leave and run the Pathfinder down river into the harbor. We were smiling the whole way.