Coastal River Charters

Fishing has been good! Seatrout and flounder have provided the best action! Female seatrout are still loaded with roe. Most of the bite is close to sounds and beach fronts. The best time to fish for seatrout during is usually early in the morning or during the evening. Seatrout love current. The most dynamic action is often where there is clean water, current and bait. Given these conditions the seatrout bite can be dynamic. Porpoises and sharks can adversely impact on seatrout fishing. When predator fish are present try fishing closer to the structure. It’s likely you can still catch some quality fish by making some anchoring adjustments. We’re catching most of our fish on live shrimp. There are lots small fish out there so take plenty of bait with you. For past couple of weeks I’ve had a “double shot” of bait. Double what you would normally expect to fish. My preference is to fish bait not too large or too small. Bait that is just right. Granted a nice flounder or seatrout will take a small bait. On the other hand it’s all about energy. How much of payoff will the fish receive if it goes for your bait. For a quality fish, fish a quality bait. The standard way to hook a shrimp is to run the hook just under the horn, in front of the larger black spot and behind the small black spot not touching either. For bait that is particularly frisky try putting a small spilt shot on leader to make it easier for a fish to target your bait. Usually when you see your shrimp dancing on top of the water it will be followed by a nice bite. There are lots of small fish around so a dancing shrimp might simply be your shrimp trying to evade a small one.

Rayburn Goodman, of the Yellow Bluff Marina community, says shrimp in his area have been scarce. Fishermen are catching fish but finding shrimp is another matter. Locally, in Savannah, we are fairing much better. Don Adams, of Adams Bait House, is finding shrimp. Don’s brother Jimmy says after recent rains the shrimp are growing quickly.

The recent pattern has been seatrout towards the top and bottom of the tide. When current has slowed the flounder bite has picked up. Larger reds the last of incoming and the first of outgoing. Tides will be building this week to 7.7 feet on Sunday August 5th.. Larger tides will mean stronger currents setting up fewer opportunity for flounders. When fishing stronger currents target seatrout until currents subside. Large whiting (12 inch and larger) can be found on the sandbars as well as lots of bonnethead sharks. Bonnetheads are very abundant up and down our coast. This shark main diet consist mainly of shrimp and crabs. It’s not unusual to see a crab swimming by get nailed by a bonnethead. Bonnethead will work sandbars and oyster encrusted points that bait is passing over. A large pregnant female bonnethead is likely over three and half feet and thick. They can provide a nice tussle on light tackle. Don’t anticipate a great seatrout if bonnethead are numerous. Black tips and other predator species can be found along the rips.

Most of the menhaden has been further off the beach front. Likewise most of tarpon and jacks that have been seen or caught have been on outer sand bars to near shore wrecks. Tides for the coming are building. Nonetheless, high tides will be less than 8 feet with slightly negative tides on Saturday and Sunday. Overall tides look fishy! Afternoon pop up storms are always a possibility for best chances of success during the summer fish the early morning hours.

Hope this of help! Good Fishing! Capt. Jack McGowan

Fishing has been good for the most part. Nice seatrout in the ICW, sounds and neighboring creeks and rivers. Seatrout prefer clean water and current. When the drift is slow often seatrout can be found well off the structure. More current fish tighter to the grass lines or whatever structure you’re fishing. Capt. Eric Traub reports redfish popping up from Ossabaw to Hilton Head. Eric says the fish he’s finding are in schools of about or ten to twelve fish and skidish. Despite conventional wisdom that redfish are always in shallow water; try fishing well off the structure in deeper water you might be surprised in what you catch! Deeper water is likely a little cooler and more oxygenated. Some black drum being caught. Small drum will often congregate on stumps or fallen trees. Sargassum moved into Warsaw sound around mid week due likely to strong east winds. Any debris on top can fowl fishing line adding one more chore to getting a hookup. As quickly as the weed appeared it is breaking up just as quickly. The bite for small sharks( 3 foot and less) has been slower than usual. Tons of tiny black tips (12″ or so) some two footers but the usual over abundance isn’t there. The bite for small sharks will improve as more bait (pogies) pour into Warsaw sound. Pogies that can normally be found in the sound are well up river. Likely small sharks have followed. Bonnet heads are still numerous. Bonnet heads main diet is blue crabs. What dictates the presence of a species is favorable conditions per Capt. Wild Bill. It’s likely in the coming days conditions will change again and black tips and sharpnose sharks will be in abundance the sounds.

Those fishing shrimp might still have difficulty finding bait. Although the bait situation is improving daily. White shrimp are moving into local waters. White shrimp are still small but recent rains should help give them a boost. Brown shrimp for the most have move out to the sounds. Shrimper are having a difficult time keeping up demand. In the coming weeks shrimp should become plentiful. The shortage is seasonal. Capt. Wild Bill said he had outstanding day on seatrout on mud minnows. Most think of mud minnows as primarily a winter but its also a great summertime bait as well. Lots of trash fish so running through a quart of shrimp isn’t difficult. Seatrout are primarily live bait feeders but occasionally will smack a piece of dead bait. Cajun thunder floats as well as wide variety of poppers will work well doing this time of the year. The only draw back is that a dinner bell draws them all in (sharks, trash fish, etc.). Nonetheless, if seatrout are in the neighborhood a rattle float can be effective!

Tarpon sighting and hook ups are beginning to trickle in. Ricky Duffy said he saw several around Little Tybee. Capt. Eric reported sighting three as well. Brent McCollugh hooked one while trout fishing. Tarpon fishing isn’t hot but it’s starting up! Large sharks around the outer sand bars as well as massive rays. An occasional cobia might seen or hooked around the Warsaw rip, as well as blue fish, mackerel, whiting and sharks.

Tides for this week are in the negative range. Evening tides will build to over 8.1 feet. Tides for this week are not ideal but fishable. Morning mid outgoing tides are tricky to fish. Simply just not enough water for many fishermen to fish most drops. If you have a good flounder hole now is a good time to pull it out. Likely the better fishing will be later in the day. The tides next week will be in the 7 foot and less range likely good fishing!

Hope this of help! Capt. Jack McGowan

Fishing has been good prior to the full moon over the weekend. Tides were gentle despite the full moon. Nevertheless, fishing has been off. Are fishing feeding at night and less likely to forage during daylight. This is likely. Wind and tide opposing each other results in slow or almost no drift. Water that is not moving isn’t likely to produce good fishing for seatrout. A drop one can be very productive and almost dead the next. A good drift is a key to good seatrout fishing. Slow or poor drift days can lend itself to fishing for redfish, black drum and flounder. Lots of little redfish can be found around oyster rakes. A few larger reds but don’t expect good numbers of larger reds until bait is more abundant. Bait shops are having difficulty finding shrimp and keeping up with the demand. Shrimp in local waters are a mixture of some brown shrimp and some very small white. The shrimp situation will improve as the summer progresses. As of now shrimp are relatively scarce and bait shops are quickly running out of bait. Ray Golden (Tybee Island Bait & Tackle) is carrying shrimp from Florida. Captain Ray open his shop at 8:00am. Again best bet is to call ahead to make sure bait is on hand. Ray’s number is 912.786.7472. Bo Bowen, Bandy’s Bait Shop, has been consistent is finding good quality bait. Bo’s number is 912.354.6444. Don Adams, Adams ‘Bait Shop, is finding shrimp but keeping up with demand is almost impossible with the bait thats’ presently in the creeks and river. Nonetheless, the Adams always does a great job! Adam’s Bait Shop number is 912.898.1550.

Heading into 4th of July holiday tides look pretty good. There is a slight negative on low water. Anticipate highs and lows to be slightly greater than what’s on your chart. So far this has been the pattern. Usually the best summer time fishing is early in the morning. Flounder and tarpon/shark seem to handle mid heat better than trout or bass. With high tides mid week around mid day this could be a good time to crack out the shark/ tarpon tackle. At present not seeing large pods of pogies. Nonetheless, it’s the right time of the year to start targeting tarpon!

Hope this of help!

Good fishing! Capt. Jack McGowan

“Practice catch & release and join your local CCA chapter”