>> [Laughing] You can see -- So this is a little American alligator.

It's not a crocodile.

Okay, here we go.

Here's a couple more.

In fact, one of them just flew.

Since much of the Lowcountry is covered by water at least part of the time, we're bound to have a nice assortment of fish species.

These mummichogs, or mudminnows, are a good example.

This gives a really good idea of how productive the salt marsh is.

But it's not the only habitat we have.

We have deep sounds and embayments with high-salinity waters.

We have brackish tidal creeks where the ocean actually mixes with southern rivers.

And we have shallow wetlands that are filled by freshwater rains.

Each of these habitats is home to a lot of different kinds of animals, but let's take a look at the fishes of the Lowcountry.

Freshwater wetlands like this are home to some completely different kinds of fish.

So I've set some traps, and I thought we'd see what we caught.

Here's the first one.

And there's a couple of things in here.

Let me grab a little bit of water.

Let's see what we have here.

We'll get a good look at these.

One really neat one, one that I'm kind of excited about, and the coolest thing about this species is, I've caught it in both fresh and salt water.

You know, some fish can do that -- they can handle both saline environments and then completely fresh water.

And that fish is called -- great name -- it's called a fat sleeper.

And so this is a really neat little fish, but I can tell by this turquoise spot right here -- and again, they can live in brackish, salt, or fresh water.

And I checked the salinity here, and the salinity is pretty close to zero, so this is very definitely fresh water.

Now, if you notice, this fish has kind of a torpedo shape.

It spends a lot of time burrowing down in the muck.

In soft, silty wetlands like this, the bottom is very soft, and things can go hide in the mud, basically.

Let's see what else we have.

This next one is a sunfish.

It's got some pretty impressive spines on it, so I'm going to be careful.

This one is a warmouth.

And when I was a kid, we used to say this was a cross between a bass and a brim, and that's not the case.

And warmouth have big mouths -- not quite as big as a largemouth bass, but pretty big compared to other sunfish.

And this is a species that gets quite big.

These things get over a foot long.

And some people think of these as pretty good sport fish.

Now, obviously, this is not a great fishing spot, this shallow, weedy wetland, but these things show up in farm ponds and in rivers and things like that as well.

Cool fish, but I'll bet these other traps have some other things in them.

[Laughs] Man, there's a ton in this!

Boy, I'll tell you what -- these shallow little wetlands have tons of fish in them.

And it looks like a lot of the usual suspects, but, boy, there's, ah, there's a couple of pretty ones in here, too.

Let's get a couple of these out and have a look at them.

This is called a flier, and I can tell by this beautiful spot right here on the back.

Fliers also get quite a bit bigger than this -- this is a youngster.

They also have beautiful spots on it.

Look at the mouth!

The mouth is what we would call a superior mouth, which means it kind of points up.

Some fish, like a catfish, would have a mouth that would sort of angle down.

This animal obviously is used to picking insects and stuff off the surface of the water.

And that's what fliers do -- eat a lot of insects -- and they can pick those right off the surface.

I am really excited about these traps.

I want to check another one to see what we got.

Looks like there's a little one -- I was kind of hoping for a bigger one of this species, but it is what I was hoping to see.

This is one of the catfish, and these get quite a bit bigger than this.

In fact, sometimes people eat these.

It's one of the bullheads.

This actually looks like a brown bullhead.

And they get, you know, this long or so, and like I said, people sometimes eat them.

Bullheads have some kind of neat characteristics.

One is, they have some really wicked spines on them, and if you get stuck with one of these, it really hurts.

Also, like a lot of the other catfish, they have whiskers, and these whiskers are what help them to find food.

And so they search around on the bottom, using those sensory appendages.

And that's how they find food.

They eat a lot of dead things, but of course they'll grab and eat a live fish if they get a chance.

Now, one of the coolest things about brown bullheads is, they protect their young.

So they're -- in fact, this guy is probably a little bit too big, but when he was smaller, he probably swam around with Mom or Dad or both, and any time he got out of the school that he was in, one of the parents might grab him in their mouth, and they'd move him back and put him in the school.

Kind of neat behavior.

A lot of fish lay their eggs, pretty much take off, and that's the end of it.

Not with brown bullheads.

I have a couple of these standard minnow traps to check.

And they can catch smaller things.

And sure enough, there are some little guys in here.

Now, a lot of people would look at little fish like this and say, "That's minnows."

Well, "minnow" is one of those really broad terms.

"Minnows" include a lot of different kinds of fish.

And actually, these aren't minnows at all.

These are mosquitofish.

And great common name -- there's a crayfish in here, I'm going to put him out.

And if you look at mosquitofish, they're very small.

And these are adults, big as they get.

And these guys feed on mosquito larvae.

And their mouths are turned up to the surface so they can pluck those off of the surface.

They do some really good things for us.

If we didn't have mosquitofish, we'd have to deal with a lot more mosquitoes.

I'll tell you, this is a pretty diverse wetland.

There's a lot of different kinds of fish.

I'm going to pop these guys back in and let them go eat mosquito larvae.

Ponds like this have the usual suspects -- they have bass, brim, and catfish.

And the best way to catch some of those species is with a low-tech cane pole like this.

So I've got a cane pole, I've got some worms, and I'm ready to fish.

[Laughing] Ah, got one!

And, interestingly enough, this is a tilapia.

This is not your regular brim or bass.

This is an exotic species that was put in here, both for food for largemouth bass, one that does live here, and also as a fish to catch on poles like this.

So tilapia are African, and so they're introduced here, and they're used for fish farming -- they're very good to eat.

We're going to let this little guy go.

Okay, here is another one.

And this one is a bluegill, so this is a native species, and these are native to the Southeast.

But this one was obviously stocked.

Pretty little fish.

And, you know, bluegills have some kind of neat things going for them.

One thing is, they have these dorsal spines, and so if they get attacked by a bigger fish, like a largemouth bass, they can pop those spines into position, and whoever bites a fish like this is going to have a sore roof of the mouth.

That's for sure.

And that probably protects them from a lot of predators.

Bluegill are one of the most fished fish in North America.

People love to eat these things.

They're very common in a lot of ponds, and they're stocked all over the United States and in other parts of the world.

Now, I'm going to pop this guy back in.

Something playing with it.

Oh, man!

Looks like -- looks like it took my worm off.

Okay, this one appears to be a little bit bigger.

Yeah, this -- this is a largemouth bass, and it's a little guy -- I mean, bass get a lot bigger than this -- in fact, we've really only caught small fish -- but if you look at this fish, different shape.

Largemouth bass, first of all, have a giant mouth.

Different species of sunfish, types of brim, have a small mouth, but look at the mouth on this guy!

Also, he's built more like a torpedo.

So he's not as maneuverable, but he's very, very fast.

He has spines on the back, but nothing like those sunfish do.

Largemouth bass.

Boy, largemouth bass get big.

They grow to 10, 11 pounds.

The biggest one ever caught was over 22 pounds.

So they can get quite, quite big.

And they grow very big in these ponds like this.

This guy eats other fish.

He eats things like various species of minnows and things like that and even small sunfish.

As long as he can fit them in his mouth, he'll eat them.

These are voracious predators, and they'll eat pretty much anything that they can get in their mouth.

Frogs and -- in certain cases, they'll even eat ducklings, once they get big enough.

Let's pop this guy back in.

And here is a catfish, and this particular one is called a channel cat, and I'm going to handle it carefully, 'cause they have pretty good spines on them.

They have both a big dorsal spine, and then they have these really sharp pectoral spines too.

And, boy, they are -- they will really get you if you don't handle them carefully.

One of the things you notice about catfish is the whiskers.

And these help them to find food.

And what they'll do is use those whiskers to pick up scent on the bottom.

They also -- look where the mouth is.

You know, largemouth bass have that big terminal mouth on the end, and this guy has a mouth that's kind of facing down.

And that's because catfish spend most of their time feeding on the bottom.

Channel cats are native to the United States, but they're stocked all over the -- all over the world.

They're one of the most common commercial fish farming species of all.

Okay, so we've caught a channel catfish, we've caught a largemouth bass, we've caught a brim -- now, we use the term "brim" to mean a bunch of different kinds of sunfish -- in this case, a bluegill.

And we even caught a tilapia, an introduced species.

So I think we've caught all that we're going to see right here.

The marine waters of Port Royal Sound are home to an amazing diversity of fish species.

You know, if you fish in fresh water, you might catch catfish, you might catch largemouth bass, or even a couple of sunfish species.

But when you fish in the ocean, the possibilities are endless.

Now, we've got a real treat today -- we're going to get out on the water with Chris Mattson from Mattson Fishing Charters, and Chris is going to take us out on Port Royal Sound, and we're going to see what we can catch.

So what is the plan?

>> MATTSON: Well, the first thing, Tony, we have to do is catch bait.

Right now, we have plenty of bait in the waters -- mostly mullet.

We've called what's called the mullet run, where they're going to start making their southern migration, so it should be pretty easy to pick some up.

>> MILLS: Boy, the water is clear.

So we've caught some bait.

We've got a couple of lines in the water, and we're waiting for a bite.

So, Chris, why did we pick this spot?

>> MATTSON: We picked this spot right here because we're in a deeper channel right off a shallow bank.

And we've also got a creek that's coming into it, so between the three things, you're going to have bait coming into the -- coming in from the creek, it's going to drop off that shallow ledge, and it's going to drop in the deeper channel.

It's easy for the larger predator fish to sit and wait.

>> So it's a good place for them to ambush bait fish.

>> MATTSON: Exactly, and they also like to sit in a little deeper channel, and that's going to create a little bit of an eddy.

It's going to be a lot less effort for them to stay on the bottom.

>> MILLS: Okay, we've got a little guy on.

Actually... he's pretty -- [Laughs] This is a really interesting little fish.

Looks like an oyster toadfish.

There's nothing else around that looks quite like it.

Now, I'm going to be a little careful with him, because he has some spines on him that will really get you if you're not careful.

Sometimes you can get away with holding them kind of like this.

This guy has really impressive teeth, and you don't want to get bit by an oyster toadfish.

The other thing is, he has really sharp spines, and these are really irritating.

If you get stuck by one, I don't know if it's true venom, but it really hurts.

Okay, you can take one look at this fish and tell that it lives on the bottom.

First of all, it has wonderful camouflage -- this would blend in really well on the bottom.

Also, look at the shape of it.

It's got a huge mouth.

This guy took a chunk of bait that was about that long.

A huge chunk of bait for his body size.

He doesn't have much, in terms of fins, because what he does is just kind of walk around on the bottom.

He can swim, but this is not a fast fish by any stretch.

We'll pop this guy back in, let him go.

Got a -- I got a fish for sure.

Not exactly sure what it is.

>> MATTSON: A trout, maybe.

>> MILLS: It sure is.

It's a little guy, it looks like.

And I'm going to get my hands wet.

Nice little fish.

So this is a trout, right, Chris?

>> MATTSON: That's right, this is a speckled sea trout.

And they're just gorgeous fish.

>> MILLS: They really are.

Now, this looks like it's a little small to keep, right?

>> MATTSON: That's correct, they've got to be at least 14 inches to keep them, Tony.

>> MILLS: So this is way under that, I think.

>> MATTSON: That's right.

>> MILLS: But anyway, so we caught this guy on a little -- a little -- actually, what's that called?

>> This is a Saltwater Assassin, and then it has a nice little darter head on it, so it has a more erratic movement.

Right now we've got a current that's coming out.

We're coming off of the high tide right now, we're just a little bit past mid-tide, so we've got that nice current flow, which is also bringing in your bait fish and your shrimp.

And it's going to be coming around this oysters -- the oysters here off this point -- and it's a nice little drop-off here.

You've got a little lull in the current, so that's what they do.

>> And trout love shrimp, right?

>> And they sit in ambush.

>> MILLS: And if you look, on the roof of the mouth, they have a couple of really sharp teeth.

And those teeth are, I assume, what helps them to grab a hold of bait and hold on to it.

>> MATTSON: Absolutely.

>> MILLS: Because they'll eat little fish and stuff, as well as shrimp.

Chris, you mentioned these things have soft mouths.

So what does that mean for a fisherman?

>> Well, for a fisherman, what you want to make sure you do is, you don't want to set the hook too hard.

You pretty much want to get a lot of tension on the line, and maybe give it a little pop, but you don't want to really set the -- >> MILLS: Yeah, you don't want to yank or anything like that, because you might hurt the mouth.

The other thing you pointed out to me is, it's a good idea to get your hands wet before you pick the fish up -- why's that?

>> Especially the sea trout, sea trout have a very -- they hardly have any real scales at all.

You see how -- >> MILLS: The scales seem very small.

>> MATTSON: Exactly, so what their main protection is is the slime coating that covers their body.

So you want to make sure you dip your hands in the water before you touch them.

>> MILLS: That's good.

That's a good thing to do.

And I think we ought to get this little guy back in.

So I'm going to slide him in, make sure he swims off.

And there he goes.

Got another fish.

And this looks like... looks like it may be a red drum.

So this is a red drum, huh?

>> MATTSON: That's right, and they're very, very neat fish.

They're actually set up so that they can feed off the bottom.

So if he's -- that's what, oftentimes, they'll tail -- that's what they're doing.

They're sticking that tail up, and they're opening that mouth up, and that's how they feed.

>> MILLS: Well, generally when the mouth is on the bottom, you call it an inferior mouth.

So there's a superior mouth that points up, an inferior mouth that points down, and then a terminal mouth that points in the middle.

This obviously is one that's used to feeding on the bottom.

>> That's right.

>> MILLS: One of the theories on these tail spots that you see on fish is, it's to draw attention away from the head to the tail.

Because theoretically the shot to a tail from a predator fish -- another bigger fish, possibly -- might -- the fish might survive it.

You get your head bit off, obviously that's not the case.

So it could be this tail spot is a way to maybe confuse a predator, keep it from attacking.

Chris, what are some other names for this, besides red drum?

>> MATTSON: Red drum, puppy bass, spottail, spottail bass, some people just call them bass.

>> MILLS: People have a lot of names for fish, don't they?

>> MATTSON: Exactly.

>> MILLS: Now, this is nowhere near an adult.

This is a youngster, right?

>> This is definitely a youngster.

This is what, about 14½, 15 inches?

He's got a ways to go before he's breeding stock.

>> MILLS: And the slot on red drum is 15 to 23, right?

>> MATTSON: 15 to 23, that's correct.

>> MILLS: So they can't be too big, or they can't be too small, and this one is definitely on the small end.

>> MATTSON: Exactly.

>> So this is a young fish, and it's going to live probably the first three years of its life here in the marsh, and then once it gets bigger, after three or four years, it's going to move out into deeper water.

And that's where it's going to spawn, in the inlets and such.

There's a fair chance that this was a fish that came from Waddell Mariculture Center.

They release lots and lots of fish in these waters, and there's a chance that this one started there and now is right here in our waters in Port Royal Sound.

So let's let this little guy go, and maybe one day we'll catch him out in the Sound.

>> Oh!

>> That's all right.

>> He had different plans.

[Laughs] >> All right, let's see what else we can catch.

Okay, so we're in a really different area right now.

These are -- the mud flats just extend for just hundreds and hundreds of yards.

So what are we after here, and how are we going to fish for it?

>> Well, Tony, what we're really looking for is flounder.

We're coming here at the low tide, and hopefully these fish are going to be stacked up.

They're going to be a little bit more isolated because of the low water.

And they're kind of just sitting on the very last little bit of water that's flowing off these flats, hoping to catch some shrimp or some bait fish that are still coming out.

>> MILLS: And we've got to fish things a little bit slower, right?

>> MATTSON: That's right, mostly for the flounder, what you really want to do is just drag it along the bottom.

>> MILLS: And it's, of course, really shallow here.

It's just a foot deep or less, isn't it?

>> That's right, that's right.

>> All right, well, let's see if we can catch some.

It looks like we have a flounder on, and, boy, this is a very different-looking fish.

Let's see if we can lift him out.

Oh, what a neat fish.

You know, in terms of form and function, you can look at this fish and tell that it lives on the bottom.

>> MATTSON: Absolutely.

>> In fact, both eyes are on one side.

This is very likely a southern flounder.

And a big-time sport fish, huh?

This is one that people get really excited about.

>> MATTSON: And not only do they live on the bottom and they go ahead and they blend in, but they can -- they can just do a shimmy and cover themselves up with the mud and the sand, and cover themselves up even more.

>> So they can hide even more.

I've seen them many times with just their eyes kind of sticking up.

>> MATTSON: Yep, either eyes, or you see a little bit of a silhouette where there's the ridge, and that's it.

They're just amazing.

>> MILLS: Now, flounder also, you know, they're major predators, and they have really impressive teeth.

You wouldn't think a flounder would look that way, but the teeth are pretty good.

And flounder eat shrimp -- in fact, it looks like he maybe has a shrimp in his mouth, or -- looks like maybe some shrimp antennae are sticking out.

So maybe he ate a couple of shrimps before he hit your lure.

>> MATTSON: Look how wide he can open that mouth -- it's just unreal.

>> MILLS: They can eat mudminnows and all sorts of smaller fish too.

A good example of something we call "countershading."

So this fish is dark on top, and then he's very light underneath.

And most fish have countershading.

And that's because if something is swimming from underneath, it would see this against the surface and the sky, and then something from above -- a predator from above -- would see the darker animal that blended in to the bottom.

>> MATTSON: Neat.

>> MILLS: Chris, let's let this guy go so that we can get a look at this camouflage.

>> MATTSON: Let's do it.

>> MILLS: And I'm going to put him right in here.

And just -- get a look at just how well he blends in there.

Something big on now.

This feels really good.

Feels like a big fish.

Get a little line on him.

I see the -- oh, beautiful fish!

It's a great big red drum.

Oh, what a nice animal.

Let me see if I can get him closer to the boat for you.

>> MATTSON: I'll just grab a hold of this leader and bring him right in.

>> MILLS: Oh, good, and the hook is right in the corner of the mouth.

We're using circle hooks, and boy, it did exactly what it's supposed to.

All right, so this is an adult red drum, right?

>> MATTSON: That's correct.

>> MILLS: And it lived in the marsh for three years or so.

And now it's grown up quite a bit, it's much older, and it lives in deeper water here.

>> That's right, Tony, as soon as they get to be about 30 inches long, they'll go ahead and they'll migrate offshore and they'll stay with those adult schooling redfish, and they'll be anywhere from 30 to 45-plus inches.

>> How big do you -- is this fish 40 inches, maybe?

>> This fish will probably be right about 38 inches.

>> Boy, they are magnificent.

They're so pretty.

And you can see where the name redfish comes from.

This one is kind of a salmon color, not as red as some of them are.

But, oh, just beautiful.

This fish is just about ready to release.

But one of the things we want to do is make sure we revive it fully -- make sure it's in good shape and it's good and healthy and ready to swim off safely back down into deeper water.

Looks like it's in good shape, doesn't it?

>> MATTSON: Very much.

>> MILLS: They're so strong, boy -- oh, nice tail flip there.

So what's great about this is, this fish is going to swim back down into deeper water.

This animal is way too big to keep, it's way out of the slot.

The slot is 15 to 23, right?

So, but what's great is, somebody can catch this fish later this year or next year, or something like that.

Red drum, we know live 20 years, maybe longer, so that fish is going to provide a lot of sport for a lot of people here in the Lowcountry.

>> Absolutely, and do a lot of breeding.

>> That's good.

Maybe I'll -- Yeah, there's something on here.

Okay, so we got another beautiful red drum.

And I don't know if you can hear it, but this one's making a drumming sound.

[Thumping] And what red drum do is, they have these muscles around the swim bladder that they can vibrate, and it makes a real loud, loud kind of pulsing sound.

And they use this probably during breeding season, probably to attract mates.

I think this is a male, because it's got very, very dark pigment on the top and much lighter on the bottom.

But the coolest thing about this fish is, look at the -- Chris, have you ever seen one with spots like this?

>> I've never seen, Tony, a bull red with this many spots on it.

>> MILLS: So this is just a really, really pretty fish.

The combination of real pretty salmon color and then all these spots is really, really neat.

[Laughing] Oh!

So we actually have two here.

So this is exactly what you want when you're filming.

We were -- during filming, we managed to catch two simultaneously.

These are both redfish that are, what, 38 inches or so?

>> MATTSON: 38½, yeah.

>> MILLS: So they are nice big red drum, beautiful, beautiful animals.

And it's just kind of fun -- it's a little hectic, but it's kind of fun to have two on at the same time.

Obviously we want to get the hooks out and take care of these fish.

Boy, fishing in the Lowcountry is just incredible.

Oh, yeah, look at the spots on it.

You know, the diversity of fish species in this area is absolutely astounding.

I mean, that was a great fishing trip, Chris.

And I really want to thank you for spending some time with us and taking us out.

>> Thank you, Tony.

I really appreciate it.

>> BOY: Yeah, it's right there.

>> GIRL: There's one right there.

>> MILLS: One of the most important aspects to protecting our fish species is to protect the habitat that they live in.

Our waters are in really good shape, but the only way to see that they're going to stay that way is for all of us to be the best possible environmental stewards.

These kids are capturing and studying fish that live right around their school.

In fact, they're looking at the whole salt marsh ecosystem.

But you don't have to be a kid to get excited about local habitats.

Get out and do some exploring for yourself.

Thanks for joining us on "Coastal Kingdom."