It was all fun and games for the redfish...until I got on the water.

The agreement had been to meet at the public boat docks on Folly Beach at 9am. The gray and grizzled sky coupled with a chilly breeze made the warm comforter of my bed especially heavy and difficult to toss away at 8:15. I considered contacting Captain Geoff Bennett, who was probably already at the dock, and calling in sick like you might do at a job you hate. This was supposed to be fishing, not work, after all, and I was already dreading it. However, I recalled that I had really wanted to get out on the water with Captain Bennett when I wasn’t half asleep, so I slowly rolled out of bed, put on some autumn clothes and hopped in the car.
I was about 10 minutes late when I crossed the Folly River Bridge and pulled into the boat docks. Captain Bennett was shuffling around his 16 foot Hewes Bayfisher and when I walked down to greet him, I was a bit surprised. Captain Bennett is relatively young – 33 actually – with red hair. I guess I expected a peg-leg or an eye patch and a beard, at least. Maybe a parrot. And the boat wasn’t large, but among the many things I learned that day, it was the perfect size for inland marsh fishing.
It never occurred to me to separate fishing charters from the open ocean. However, Captain Bennett informed me that his charters are considered “inland”, meaning that we stay on the backside of the barrier islands, cruising the rivers and flats.
We began fishing around the high tide mark which would allow us to stalk red drum on one of his favorite flats near Kiawah. We crossed the Stono River and worked our way onto a very shallow area only a few feet deep. It was there that I learned the small, flat bottom boat we were using was perfect for the hunt. It allowed us to meander through the grass and get to places that larger boats simply cannot go, which gave us an edge. The red drum, he explained, like to round up shrimp, crabs, and small fish on the flats which are usually only accessible during high tide.
The air was cool and a hardy breeze chopped up the unprotected water between Folly Beach and Kiawah. However, things were much more peaceful and the sun was even threatening to make an appearance when we arrived at our fishing spot. Captain Bennett hooked me up with a jerk shad lure (not named for its rude social skills, but instead for the jerking motion you should use when fishing with it) and showed me how to mimic the movement of a small fish. Unfortunately, my schedule forced us to leave a little earlier than Captain Bennett would have liked, so he warned me that the fishing might be a little slow at the beginning.
He was pushing us through the grass on the flats like a gondola conductor as I cast the lure and retrieved it according to his instruction. I was trying to differentiate the feel of the lure hitting a patch of grass from a “bite”. Every time the line pulled on the grass, my heart skipped a beat and then jumped to disappointment when I realized it wasn’t a bite. However, I would quickly learn the difference.
On my third cast, we were facing the flat and I tossed the lure at a 10 o’clock angle. It landed amidst blades of grass and I began to retrieve the jerk shad as per the Captain’s instructions, but I was still working out the kinks when something hit it hard. We were both surprised at how quickly the action began. I hooked it and the fight was on. The fish took off for the shelter of thicker grass as I tried to pull it in. Its strength was amazing and the dark spot on its tail, which became visible in the shallow water, confirmed my opponent was a red drum. Several times it pulled line out of the reel as it tried to escape and I tried to bring it in. The battle seemed to last for several minutes.
Captain Bennett later admitted that he knew it was a relatively large fish when he saw it, but kept his excitement to himself in order to minimize my disappointment in the event the red drum got free or snapped the line. However, with his coaching tips in the back of my mind, I was eventually able to exhaust the fish and bring it beside the boat. Captain Bennett pulled the fish from the water while I tried to keep the huge grin on my face under control. It was a 10.5 pound red drum that I caught on the third cast on my first time out with the Captain.
Bennett’s knowledge of fishing is remarkable, and I admired his skill as he placed the red drum back in the water and gently held it, waiting for the fish to catch its breath and take off. It was obvious that he is living his passion.
We talked about all sorts of things over the next couple of hours. Captain Bennett has been fishing since he was a kid, casting his first hooks as a fly fisherman in the north. He began to make his way south before settling in the Charleston area with his wife, and began the process of mastering the local waterways.
I caught one more red drum during the trip. It was a smaller three and a half pounder. I also missed the opportunity to catch a couple more as I jerked the lure out of the water in my freshman excitement, watching two other fish chase the lure into the shallows.
As we made our way back to the Folly Beach boat docks, I put my hat back on despite the fact that it was damp. It was chilly, but I did not notice. In fact, I couldn’t have been happier that I crawled out of my warm bed that morning. I am hooked.
Captain Geoff Bennett operates Charleston Charter Fishing and can be found through his website: www.charlestoncharterfishing.com. If you want to learn how to fish the marsh with an expert, you already know what you’re doing, or you just want catch something, be sure to contact him.

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Charleston County has yet to make a significant impact in their declaration to increase recycling rates from 10% to 40% since giving themselves a five year timeline nearly a year and half ago. Folly Beach is discussing ways to increase their ability to handle recycling on the island according to Mayor Carl Beckmann.

By Paul Robinson

“When you recycle one aluminum can, you save 95% of the energy that was used to originally make it. That 95% is enough energy to run a household television for three hours,” says Jenny Bloom, Charleston’s Recycling Educator.

The Garden Club of Isle of Palms, founded in 1948, recently gathered at The IOP Exchange Building for an evening with guest speaker Jenny Bloom. Bloom’s enthusiasm resonated throughout the room as she explained Charleston County’s current recycling programs, the importance of teaching young people about the impact of recycling and what everyone can do to help.

“When a plastic bottle goes in to the normal trash can and not the recycling blue bin, that plastic bottle will sit for 400 to 1000 years and never fully break down,” explained Bloom. “Plastic bottles are not bio-degradable, they are photo-degradable, meaning they only break down into smaller pieces. You are looking, at best, at seven life generations until that one plastic bottle deteriorates, but only into smaller pieces.”

According to Bloom, only one out of every ten plastic/glass bottles in Charleston County find their way to the downtown Recycling Center located at 13 Romney Street. “We have buyers for all of the plastic and glass labeled 1 and 2. Anheuser Busch buys all of the beer bottles,” said Bloom. “If the item in question has a category of 3 – 7, we still accept them and want them,” she said. “If you are in doubt and are wondering if the item in question can be recycled, put it in the bin. Separate glass bottles with plastic bottles and paper with paper. Let us worry about sorting the rest,” Bloom urged.

On the docket for the Charleston County Environmental Managing Department is an initiative to increase the current 10% recycling rate to an aggressive 40% recycling rate. The County Council asked for the initiative roughly one and a half years ago and with three and a half years to four years left go to, there is yet to be a significant increase in recycling. Part of the reason lies with the long wait between recycling bin pick-ups. With the residential blue bin collection trucks coming through once every two weeks, commercial businesses and residents are often accumulating more recyclable materials than they can handle and throwing the run-over into the regular trash. However, Jennie Davis, Public Information Officer for Charleston County, stated that, “The Charleston County Environmental Management Department is currently working on the best way to meet County Council’s new recycling goal of 40%.”

The push for more widespread and efficient means of recycling in Charleston County is becoming more and more necessary as the County’s population expands and more events are being held in the area. The 7th Annual Ballpark Festival of Beers held at Joe Riley Stadium on October 3, did not offer recycling to the 20 of the 40 vendors serving out of bottles only. With roughly 2,000 tickets sold for the event, an estimated 6,250 bottles of beer never made it to the recycling center. However, smaller initiatives, such as Mayor Joe Riley’s unveiling of the first recycling bin at a Charleston City park on Monday, October 5, are beginning to take place. Unfortunately, change needs to happen a little faster than that.

On December 31, 2009, the garbage incinerator on Spruill Ave in North Charleston will be shut down. According to The Lowcountry Chapter of the Sierra Club, the incinerator burns 70% of household trash accumulated in Charleston County. Incinerators across the Nation are being dismantled due to the out of date technology and the harmful/deadly emissions, but that leaves just the Bees Ferry Landfill to pick up the slack. Currently, the Bees Ferry Landfill only brings in 30% of Charleston County’s trash. After the incinerator closes, the landfill will be taking on 100% of Charleston County’s trash and the life expectancy of the landfill will be cut in half from 25 years to 12 years. “If we are able to increase the 10% recycling rate to 40%, this will become much less of an issue,” said Bloom.

According to Folly Beach’s Mayor Carl Beckmann, “County Council is embarking on a quest to have more recycling options for local businesses and the guests of Folly Beach. We are pushing to have a stationary recycling station on Folly and for the summer of 2010, we could implement this with the guests of Folly Beach and increase the amount of recycling options to them. When guests are leaving Folly Beach, they could easily drop off their cans and bottles in the public bin.”

Some area businesses and municipalities are taking matters into their own hands and hiring privately owned companies to handle their recycling. Aaron Siegel, owner of Home Team BBQ, has a business size recycling container at each of his locations on Sullivan’s Island and West Ashley. With the help of a private hauling service, Home Team BBQ has a weekly pick-up to meet their recycling needs. “We try as much as we can to recycle and have less of an environmental impact on the local area. Making the effort to have a private recycling service and having your employees commit to is our way of doing our part,” said Siegel. Home Team BBQ also utilizes a private sustainable composting business that transfers their food waste to a pig farm in the Charleston area.

Kiawah Island has also taken the initiative to hire an outside company for their recycling needs. According to Rusty Lameo, Chief of Code Enforcement for Kiawah, “We have seen an increase in recycling each year at Kiawah. In 2009 we recycled 23.5 tons for the month of July, which is up from 21.72 tons in 2008. Seeing those numbers rise means progress. With Kiawah implementing a 35 gallon roll out recycling trash can to the residents with weekly pickups, we can educate and provide convenience to our residents and do our part.”

For more information on how to recycle and help Charleston County reach their goal of 40%, visit www.CharlestonCounty.org. For more info on receiving recycling bins for your home or business, please call 720-7111. Contact Pat Johnson at or Susan Wallace at 442-6450 for information on The Isle of Palms Garden Club.

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