Coastal River Charters

To say fishing been good is an understatement! This is will go down as one of the best years up and down the coast out of the last ten or fifteen years. That’s a strong statement. That being said it’s still just fishing. A front can slow the bite. Usually fishing will be good just before the front and after the fish have adjusted to the conditions. Immediately after a front sounds like an ideal time to fish. On the contrary even if you find clean water fishing will likely be fair to poor (immediately after a front).

Several mild winters and ideal salinity levels have come together to create a bumper crop of seatrout. Seatrout can be found on almost patch of marsh grass. Seatrout are on the move in search of shrimp. An ideal time to target this fish is either when the shrimp are entering or leaving the grass. Current can concentrate bait and fish. When conditions come together the bite can be fast and furious. Many fishermen are taking a few to eat and releasing the rest (many legal fish). Drops that can produce seemingly an endless supply of fish one day might not produce a single bite the next. Fish will move as bait moves. Porpoises and fishing pressure can also change a pattern. When fishing look for conditions: clean water, bait, lack of porpoises and good drift. When these come together you’ll likely find fish. Almost any patch of marsh grass might be holding a thick school of seatrout. When targeting reds look for hard structure: oysters shells, hard bottom and thin grass.

One fisherman asked me yesterday how long could he expect to catch fish. It all depends. On some past years we’ve seen a hot inshore up to New Year’s. Cold fronts always play a big part. . Don Adams, Adams Baithouse has said shrimp are already starting to become hard to find. Shrimp that are plentiful one day can be pulled out into the sounds on a big tide. Shrimp in the Savannah area are usually pretty scare by New Year’s. Fishing should be hot as long temperatures are mild and shrimp are plentiful. Enjoy it!

Tides look good for the coming week. Weather permitting could be some of the best fishing of the year! Time to wet a line!

Good Fishing! Always practice catch and release – keep a few and release the rest!

Capt. Jack McGowan

The inshore bite the last several days has been hot! Clean water, good drifts, mild weather have come together to make for some great fishing! When winds have gotten up lots of fishermen are still catching fish. Fishermen who have said they struggled catching fish are coming to dock with some nice seatrout, redfish and flounder.

Fall is great time of the year for inshore! Shrimp is the primary bait! Those desiring to pitch artificals or a fly will find seatrout and redfish will take these with abandon. Tides look good throughout the week. Generally, seatrout generally bite best on incoming tides around points or spots where the current is channeled by some kind of structure: sandbars, oyster rakes, rocks, marshgrass, rip rap, etc.. Seatrout can be at any level in the water column. Seatrout are sight and sound feeders. Rattle or popping cork will work well this of the year. Popping a standard float will likely produce more strikes than letting your cork sit. An ideal method of fishing is to pitch your float rig in the drift and let line out until your float has finished it’s drift. A typical drift might be 100 feet or longer. Sometime fishermen will find a magic spot where the fish just bite. A good cast is one that land short of the target and gently floats into the strike zone. Rod position is critical! This sound simple and it is as long your rod is pointing toward the float. A standard rod position will be about 45 degrees. When the float go down waiting a second or two can mean all the difference in catching a fish or not. A firm but gentle hook set usually works the best. Fighting the fish should be done with care. It’s easy to rip a hook out of large trout. Seatrout have notoriously weak or soft mouths. Seatrout are on the move coming off of spring tides. This means they hungry, schooled up and on the move in search of food! These fish will usually be present for an hour or two then gone. These are mercurial, a little like stripers, here one day and gone the next. When these fish are biting it’s easy to get caught in “trout fever”. Fishermen get so excited they lose their judgement. The result can be sloppy fishing or worse keeping over the legal limit of fish. Stay within the limits! Better yet practice catch and release or keep a few and release the rest!

Tip of the Week

Work the current for seatrout, fish structure for redfish. When possible practice and release!

Good Fishing! Capt. Jack McGowan

The inshore bite has been hot! Most of the action has been seatrout when fishermen have been able to find a suitable drift and clean water. Big tides and a northeaster have made fishing difficult. Despite tides close to and over 9 foot fishermen have still caught fish. Seatrout can be found schooling and on the move. Not all the seatrout are schooling but there are good schools of seatrout on the move. Muddy water, debris strong currents can all make fishing difficult. Catching a few fish on a big tide is an accomplishment! Some fisherman have managed to bring in good catches of seatrout despite the conditions. Fishing tides around the 9 foot range is problematic. Usually the best is around the top or bottom of the tide. Drops that can work well in a smaller tide range might be ineffective on higher tides. A northeaster can also reduce the amount of fishable water. Like any day look for suitable conditions. A few distress mullet can give away seatrout or redfish. A mullet jumping out of the water at unusual angles might be giving some nice fish near by. I call these mullet ” unhappy mullet” as oppose to happy mullet. A happy mullet will jump in straight lines. One young student asked Dr. Ed Chin (former head of the University of Georgia Oceanography School), why do mullet jump? He laughed and said somethings you’re going to have to ask good Lord. It is wonderful that are so many mysteries that even something so seemingly simple as a mullet jumping isn’t completely understood. A distress mullet or unhappy mullet is a little easier to understand. This is fleeing fish. The mullet is swimming close to surface and trying to avoid a predator.

There are still lots of fetish fish or trash fish in local waters so take plenty of bait. Anticipate very challenging fishing conditions until tides lessen, this be on Thursday ( the good tides after the Spring tides). Fish will likely be hungry and on the move. The best bite has been towards the sounds. Spring tides blow the shrimp out the creeks and river. Concentrating on the sounds during big tides is usually more productive than heading up river. As tides fall from the 9 foot range to the 7 range fishing should pick up. Fisherman during the fall might find good fish on literally any spot along marsh. Fall means fishing, particularly inshore fishing!

Good Fishing!

Capt. Jack McGowan