Day Three was unforgettable! Tom and I had been eagerly anticipating our inland fishing expedition, and as the time approached to meet our captain, we could hardly contain our excitement.

Once we all finally decided on the Charleston trip, I immediately began hatching a plan to make sure fishing was involved in some fashion.

I started researching trips online to find the perfect balance between budget and time. I knew I wanted a fishing excursion that would be a new experience for me, something I hadn’t tried before.

I quickly settled on inland fishing, since deep sea fishing would take up to much time away from the group. I reached out to Tom to see if he would even be down with a fishing trip, and that question was met with a resounding YES!

So I booked a trip with Tall Tides Fishing Adventures located in Folly Beach. I reached out to the captain via phone to confirm dates we would be down there and he quickly, and graciously, guided me along the page to secure the date for our trip.

Day three of our trip finally arrives and Tom and I are stoked about getting started. Captain Gates reached out to me the night before with info about the full moon high tides and suggested a time of 11:00am to meet him at the dock just six minutes from where we were staying on the beach.

Tom went off early in the morning to get a quick workout in, and I, true to vacation form, slept in till 9:30.

We met Captain Gates at the marina, exchanged proper introductions, and were quickly off to find some fish and swap fishing stories along the way.

A quick fifteen minute ride out to our first location and it was time to put our skills to the test.

Captain quickly rigged up our rods, equipped them with the proper bait, and gave us a quick tutorial on the keys to catching inland fish.

With Tom holding up the stern and the captain already casting his line into the water, I took a deep breath, said a little prayer to the fish gods, and cast away!

Now I’ll admit. I get absolutely giddy, like a kid on Christmas, when it comes to fishing new areas for the first time! My hands were slightly trembling, my mind racing with potential catches, and legs shaking as they steadied themselves when I climbed onto the bow.

Within six minutes, my line went tight, I felt a familiar yank, and quickly surmised I had something determined not to be brought to the boat on the other end of my now spoiling reel.

After about five minutes, the fish was spent and ready to surrender to its fate. I reeled it in closer to the boat, and Captain Gates quickly shoved a net in the water and congratulated me on my very first Charleston redfish!

I’ll admit it wasn’t the monster I had conjured up when envisioning my first red, but honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Not long after, Tom found himself battling his first redfish. With some guidance from the captain, he skillfully brought it to the boat within minutes, breaking the ice for his day. I might have let out a few choice words when I saw the size of his catch, but by the end of the day, I couldn’t be too disappointed. The quantity and quality of the fish we snagged by trip’s end made it all worthwhile.

After we officially broke the ice, it was off to the races. Tom would go on to catch at least six or seven more redfish, all different sized, but not much smaller than the one he initially started off with! He even managed to hook into a sting ray that we got to the boat but quickly released.

After we caught a few more redfish, I felt another tug on the line. The captain quickly identified it by the way it was fighting under the water—it was a flounder! I was amazed by his expertise, honed through years of experience. Sure enough, when the fish finally surfaced, there it was—a flounder, just as he had predicted!

He was astonished at first, saying that there aren’t many flounder pulled out and maybe this was the fifth one this season! I was equally surprised no doubt, and was excited to learn that it was indeed a keeper!

With that flounder, and one other sizable redfish that Tom had caught, we had our limit as far as feeding the clan later that week.

I’ll add, we wanted to keep more, and could have, but Captain Gage is a man of the sea and advised it’s better for the ecosystem if we only keep what we want to eat. That being said, with the two fish, and picky little eaters waiting for us back on the beach, we had more than plenty! The rest was catch and release!

Catch and release we did! We moved spots after the flounder and rode up the beautiful water system to another spot the captain had pinged on his map.

Another few minutes of travel and we were placed in location ready to try a different type of fishing.

We started with a “bobber”, (Don’t kill me captain), but moved to bottom fishing as the tide started to recede back into the ocean.

Immediately we began to see the results of the knowledge captain had acquired over the years as Tom and myself quickly hooked more fish! Tom had managed to hook into a really decent fish, but with maximum effort from the redfish, he had escaped and was lucky enough not to get his picture taken.

As a fly fisherman in Tennessee, I spend a lot of time in the river whenever I can slip away for a few hours. My usual target is trout while fishing in the mountains, but this trip held a surprise I had hoped for, though I wasn’t counting on it.

After catching a few redfish and a keeper flounder, I hooked one of my favorite fish—a sea trout! This was my first-ever sea trout, and it was spectacular. The colors were vibrant, and the fight was exactly what I had imagined. When I finally landed it, I was thrilled! With the redfish, flounder, and sea trout, I had hit the trifecta!

We continued there for about 40 min or so. The captain decided he needed to catch more bait for the upcoming trip the next day. He promised he would make it up to us on the back end of the trip for time spent netting tomorrow’s redfish meals.

Honestly, it was a thrill to watch the master at work as he prepared his net, maneuvered it ever so eloquently in his hands, and then cast out, ensnaring the smaller bait fish. He worked on it as Tom and myself chatted about the fish we had already caught, and swapped stories with the Captian of fishing adventures he had previously been an apart of. All in all we spent about 30 min basking in the sun and enjoy the wonderful weather Folly Beach had graced us with.

As promised, we moved back down river where we stayed for another 30-35 minutes, capitalizing on the remaining flow of the tide.

That’s where it happened! I eventually hooked into the largest red of the day! The fish decided to take my bait on, I kid you not, the last cast of the day. As any fisher-person will know, there is always a “last cast”, and this one provided a hefty reward!

All in all, it was a thrill of a lifetime to be out there! With the wonderful weather, great fish, awesome company, and a great Captain to see us through, I highly recommend this charter for your next fishing adventure while in Folly Beach, SC!