Live bait. Joe.
When I began asking folks about fishing on Kiawah
Island, many mentioned Johnny Nichols. Johnny hails
from Nashville, Tennessee and is widely known for being a
generous man—generous with his time, his expertise, his
secrets. Legend has it that he is a great fisherman. His breadth
of knowledge makes it even more interesting that he says he
learned to fish on Kiawah Island from a 16-year-old boy. He
was, apparently, wasting time trying to catch something when
the youngster next to him casually observed that he was never
going to catch anything. He was using techniques suitable for
the fishing holes in Tennessee but all wrong for Kiawah.
His “teacher” shared with him the secrets of timing
his efforts to synchronize with the tides and time and the
importance of fresh bait as opposed to the artificial lures he
knew best. Bait was also the subject of an act of kindness by a
stranger that brought him his first cast net. A youth of about
nine years old was fishing next to him. The boy’s mother
showed him how to cast a net to catch live bait and even ended
up giving him her net—the first one he ever owned. He says for
sure that bait fishing on Kiawah requires fishing with live bait.
I met Johnny on a hot afternoon fishing at Bass Pond with Marcia and Scott Koch, friends of mine from Kentucky.
Both Johnny and the Kochs told me how much fishing
had connected them to the outdoors. One significant
part of fishing is the opportunity to spend quiet time in
natural surroundings. Marcia observed that they had never
particularly considered themselves naturalists but that it is
impossible to fish on Kiawah without noticing and becoming
acquainted with the wildlife here, particularly the birds.
Johnny’s favorite aspect of fishing was having the opportunity
to spend casual time with people but also to be outside at the
edge of a pond or stream.
These three were using live bait and open-face spinning
reels, casting their lines into the pond and reeling them slowly
in. Fishing was not the greatest during our time together,
mostly (according to Johnny) because the timing was not
conducive to success. He says the best time is when the tide is
coming in and there is some movement in the water. Scott had
to remind Marcia of the angler’s old adage: it is called fishing;
not catching. Still, she emphasized that the best part of fishing
for her was spending time with Scott—reason enough for
sure. She especially enjoyed the day they caught a 45" redfish
Scott and Johnny.
SUMMER/FALL 2018 • VOLUME 40
Joe and Todd and a big blue crab.
Charlie.
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