Coastal River Charters

Several factors this week made fishing challenging: the algae bloom, rough conditions caused by wind and negative tides. Despite challenging conditions there has been some good flounder and seatrout fishing. Best seatrout action can be on beach fronts. Fishermen can find a mixture of seatrout from small males to legal fish to large roe seatrout. Schools of small redfish are popping up. These schools of small “rat reds” do not appear to as concentrated as in past years. Hopefully this will change as the summer progresses. The shark bite which has been phenomenal in Wassaw Sound has slowed. Bait which has been everywhere suddenly is hard to find. Large school of bait will filter back into the sound system as negative tides abate. A negative tide is that is lower than a average low tide. A week of negative tides (combined with wind) can literally pull bait out. It is a stretch to say it was the tides alone attributed to the challenging conditions. More likely it was a combination of factors. The negative tides definitely did not help. On a brighter note there were nice flounder caught near the sounds fishing with mud minnows and shrimp as well some dandy seatrout!

Tides for the coming week are soft tides. Should give plenty of opportunities to target flounders and redfish. The seatrout bite should be good. An oil spill in the near Elba Island has put a temporary damper on targeting jack crevalles in the Savannah River . Prior to the oil spill there few jacks seen and few caught near the Coast Guard station. Fishermen are well advised to stay clear of South Channel, Fields Cuts and the Savannah River until the spill has been cleared and the damaged assessed. This will likely take several days if not longer. Ricky Johnston reported catching about 30 seatrout north of Savannah. There have been similar catches in local waters. Typically most of seatrout will be undersized with a few keepers and few large fish. It’s always a good idea to release any large roe seatrout. This is next year’s crop of fish!

There have few tarpon caught. Tarpon action should continue to heat up!

Most unusual catch this week was a nurse shark that weighted about 100 pounds by Will, Sam, Jay and Blake Herrin off of Cabbage Island Spit. The guys videoed the fish and let it slide back down to its haunts off of Wassaw.

Hope this of help!

Good Fishing! Capt. Jack McGowan

Fishing has been up and down this week. A mid week storm dumped needed rain into locals waters. A poor or slow drift coupled with lots of fresh water put a definite damper on fishing. Prior to the mid week storm water temperature in the Wilmington River was at 87 degrees. David Bauerman said he marked the water temperature in the Savannah shipping channel at 90 degrees! That’s hot! The rainfall we received will definitely be a benefit to the marsh system. Fishermen prior to the storm were catching fish. Joe Thomas has been catching nice seatrout and reds in local waters. Capt Jay Rosenzweig said he’s catching about a dozen nice seatrout in an outing. The report has been mixed. Some fishermen are reporting good catches while others are struggling. Local conditions have a lot to with catching fish. Poor drifts and dirty water usually mean poor fishing. Clean water with a good drift is likely to produce fish. Even for those catching fish the bite was more methodical rather than fast and furious.

Prior to mid week storm sharks dominated the sandbars and many inshore drops. Capt. Rick said twice a shark nail a nice seatrout as they were reeling it in. Sharks are plentiful! That said sudden changes in salinity (due to rain) will drive these fish out into the ocean in search of saltier water. Spanish mackerel and sharks are working the sandbars. One fishermen said when pitching a bucktail for mackerel tie on a piece a 20 pound fluorocarbon to help prevent brake offs. One of Allen’s customers ( from River Supply) Tom said this is shaping to a great year for flounder and redfish. Tom said his preference is to pitch a 4″ chartreuse and red bass assassin (sea shad) “red rooster” another good patterns is the electric buzzard. Spinner baits are getting a lot of attention. In subtle conditions a light 1/8 oz. jig or DOA shrimp would likely be a fisher choice. In conditions where a bait is competing with current, high water, muddy water try a spinner. A jig is a lure that can do most anything. On days with poor drifts and hot water fishing a jig deep can produce fish. There been lots of bait in Turners Creeks and not surprisingly there has a report of some large roe caught on menhaden in the creek. Sometimes you don’t have to go far to catch fish. We fishermen are creatures of habits. Often fishermen we travel long distances to fish a favorite drop when often there can be plenty of fish within a short distance from where you started. You might be surprised at what you can catch. The law of attraction (in fishing) is one boat attracts another and another and so on. Fishing an area because there are plenty of boats is a mistake. Look for the conditions rather than the boats. A minimum distance to be courteous when fishing around other boats is 50 yards.

Tides for the coming are the coming week are building. This is a condition I like. Tides look good. Nothing over 7.4 feet. A Springtime characteristic are lower than average lows. Next week we’ll have several days with negative tides. Depending on the wind the low tides could be exaggerated. Catching fish on the bottom of tide during the summer is tough. For best chances of success try to avoid fishing through the bottom of the tide.

Hope this of help! Good Fishing!

Capt. Jack McGowan