Coastal River Charters

The bite over the Thanksgiving holiday was sporadic. Just prior to front pushing through the bite was hot on Monday (big seatrout near the sound). As the front pushed through on Tuesday and Wednesday most fisherman were likely in warmer more comfortable environs. Thanksgiving day, the after the front conditions were still pretty unsettled. Fishing was good heading into the weekend!

Capt. Bill Jarrell said during this time of the year a fish metabolism slows down and to fish smaller baits. This is a good tip! Drifting a shore line with a fly rod pitching a small fly such as clouser minnows can be fun and effective! In the current on a fly seatrout will give nice fight. When targeting seatrout opt for color. Chartreuse is a classic as well as chartreuse and white, white, or christmas tree patterns. The trick for seatrout is color and down size your offering as temperatures drop. When selecting likely areas to target seatrout look for a drift. An ideal bank is one that isn’t too steep ( has a gentle slop), has a good drift and plenty of features such as point, pockets and gullies to name a few. Gullies or small creeks that have little or no current are less likely to hold fish. Gullies or creeks that have a good drift can be holding fish. Ideal flies for seatrout are clouser minnows, half and halves, and deceivers. Fish relatively small flies 1 or 1/0 and bright colors. The same hold true for plastics downsize your plastics and opt for bright colors. That being said as you as you begin your fishing start with contrasting colors ( a dark and bright color) and see which is getting the hits and switch accordingly. In general the bright colors will likely work the best.

Tides for the coming week look good all less than 8 feet. Saturday and Sunday the tides are building to 8.2 and 8.5 feet respectively. The better fishing will likely be during the week. Water temperature is already is in the mid to upper 50′s , pretty cold for this time of year. Joey’s Bait Shop at Hogan’s marina has already closed for the year. Apparently Joey was having difficultly finding bait. Adam’s Bait House is normally open until New Year’s. Bandy’s remained opened last year throughout the winter. Its’ that time of year when bait is becoming scarce. If you’re planning on purchasing shrimp you might want to call ahead.

Hope this of help! Keep what you plan to eat fresh and release the rest!

Good fishing! Capt. Jack McGowan

Fishing has been good although there are definite signs the seasons are changing. Most noticeable shrimp are becoming harder to find. As a result, seatrout are leaving areas where bait is scarce moving to areas where bait is more abundant. Numbers of fish being brought in by local fishermen while still impressive are less than catches just a few weeks ago. Many fishermen are reporting a banner for the seatrout while an average or less than average year for redfish. Likely this is just peculiarity of nature: an up year for one species, an average year for another. Regardless the reason for these vagaries of nature practicing catch and release only make sense. Each year we are seeing more and more boaters placing greater demands on the resource. Tom Demoss, a Florida Keys fishing guide (he and George Woodward) fished with me in the Redbone Tournament over this past weekend. Tom said taking fish has already diminish the quality of fishing in the Keys and will have similar on other fisheries . A quality fishery is vital not only to an individual experience and to our community . Take only those fish you plan to eat fresh and release the rest. My sentiments have been more towards redfish. These fish have to survive three years of fishermen, porpoises, and mother nature (storms, drought, high or low salinity and freezes) only to graduate to big league, ” the ocean”. Fish responsibly and encourage and practice, catch and release!

When winds have blown fishermen for the most have struggled. When winds have abated fishermen have brought in good catches of seatrout. The redfish bite has been less consistent. Nonetheless some fishermen have found no problem in finding reds. Water temperature on most mornings for the past week has been in the 50′s. The best fishing has been in those areas where a food chain can be found. The elements to look for are clean moving water, structure, bait and perhaps evidence of active feeding: birds diving or bait popping on the surface. The best fishing last week when there was some cloud coverage , moving water and food chain . Twice just prior to bite turning on it looked as if there were diamonds on the surface of the water. The rays of the sun were hitting the water just the right angle where the water sparkled. This did not last for long. First the morning glare, then the glistening water, followed by a hot bite. Raising water will bring bait up. Small menhaden can be heard popping in some creeks and rivers. Don’t overlook menhaden as bait source. Seatrout and redfish will definitely eat menhaden. The popping sound is menhaden being forced to the surface. Usually this means there are blue fish under them but at time of the year it could be seatrout. Even on windy days look for the food chain. If the activity is on the wind ward side then that’s where you need to be fishing. Windy days can be problematic as fishermen move from one drop to the next. Holding tight (not running from drop to drop) you’re not as likely to have a big catch (or strike out) but you’ll catch some fish.

There have been several reports of stripers and seatrout well up the Savannah River. Currents can be strong. Fish neap tides. Concentrate your fishing up river when the river isn’t boiling. When seatrout aren’t biting it can mean stripers are present. Stripers will hit finger mullet, shrimp as well jigs, flies and lures. Some fisherman say fish wood, other say fish concrete structure. Stripers will and do hold on both. For best chances of success fish smaller tides. The limit is two per fisherman and the fish have to be over 27 inches. Indications are this should be a good year for stripers!

Hope this of help! Good fishing!

Capt. Jack McGowan

Election day, what a day for a fishing report! Most fishermen are saying the same refrain, that this likely one of best year for sea trout in the last ten or fifteen years. That said there will be times when wind and tides combine to make fishing difficult. As one Georgia DNR(Department of Natural Resources) official is paraphrased as saying there are times on the coast when it’s not that the fish aren’t there, it’s that conditions are such that fishing is just difficult. Recent spring tides and north, northeast combined to make fishing difficult. The previous spring tides limits of sea trout were being brought to the dock. Strong winds over several days combined with high tides to muddy waters. Fishermen fishing the top and bottom of tide will faired than those fishing when the tide was rolling. Boat traffic on the ICW (intracoastal waterway) has increased to point where big boats are literally churning the water. Definitely not plus in the favorable fishing conditions column. In windy conditions lee shores (protected shore lines out of wind) can provide pleasant fishing when windward side are too to rough to fish. Even when fishermen found spots of clean water and good drifts the bite was fair to poor. Poor water conditions usually means small fish. Small fish are more like home bodies unable to move when water quality deteriorates. Where do larger fish go? One veteran fisherman says, out to sea. Quality fish will seek favorable conditions. When tides abate and water quality improves fish will reappear. Local bait shops are saying shrimp are becoming harder to find. Large tides will literally pull shrimp into the sounds. Plummeting water temperatures will also send shrimp deep. As water temperature drops fish activity slows. Although fishing last few days has been slow don’t despair.

There still plenty of good fall fishing ahead! Warming days, clean water and good drift will likely mean fishing! Fishing following spring tides likely be good. Fish will be hungry and on the move as they search for easy meals in local waters. Tides will fall into the 7 foot range (good tide for fishing) starting Friday November 10th and will remain in the 7 foot range for the rest of the month. Water temperature is in the low 60′s some trash fish still present but becoming more scarce. As water temperature drops anticipate shrimp supplies at bait shops to begin to be inconsistent. At present shrimpers are still finding shrimp but demand will likely outstrip supply in the coming days. In the Savannah area bait shrimpers usually keep their doors open until the end of December. Last year Bo at Bandy’s was open most of winter. Should be good fishing ahead!

Just a side note, two fishermen last week said they caught a snook! This is something that is pretty unusual in local tidal waters. One those fishermen thinks this is a sign of warming conditions. Not sure. What I am sure is that catching a snook in local waters doesn’t happen very often, about as often as it snows. Just seems like kind of neat!

Hope this of interest and help! Keep what you plan to eat and release the rest!

Good Fishing! Capt. Jack McGowan