Coastal River Charters

Fishing has been pretty good despite wind and building tides. Redfish and seatrout are biting! A few reports of limits on seatrout. Most of the action is still on reds. Lots of fish in the 14 to 15 inch range. Some of the reds are up to 16 inches. A few bonnet head sharks can be found on the flats and hanging off of points. Lots of shrimp in the creeks and rivers. Big tides can blow shrimp out of the rivers into the sounds. Fishing big tides is definitely tricky. Nonetheless, fish can be caught. Finding drifts that aren’t too fast and clean water is critical. In general when fishing big tides anticipate a smaller window of opportunity to find fish. Usually the best opportunity is around the top of tide, lasting about an hour. One fishermen today targeting the top of tide caught a couple of 19 – 20 inch reds and a 21 inch seatrout. Finding fish on big tides isn’t unusual. Nonetheless bear in mind if you don’t find fish on the top of tide you’re now hunting for clean water and a fishable drift. Finding suitable conditions can be difficult but possible. Your favorite big water tide drop might have a fellow fishermen on it. Best advice for fishing less than favorable conditions “just go fishing”. Nature is always surprising. Days that were suppose to be a bust can be very productive. Currents that were supposed to be ripping might be fine for fishing. As Miss Judy says, “it just fishing”. With that in mind sometimes a low expectation can be greatly exceeded. Go fishing!

When heading out to look for reds on the flats a couple of fishermen in my boat said they saw a big fish jump. Thoughts were it was a late season tarpon or perhaps a spinner shark. The fish jumped again, this time the id was easy a large sturgeon.

Have heard several reports this week of one or two large flounder being caught while fishing. Several fishermen also report catching a mangrove snapper. This is typical a warm water fish that is found further south. Basically an indication of warm water.

One report that needs to be made is be very careful when handling stingrays particularly small ones. I’m always reluctant to write anything about myself but this is a little different. Today while removing a hook from ray I got barbed in the hand. The hook out device that is normally fool proof wasn’t today. Small rays are more nimble than the heftier ones. Shaking the hook out of a larger ray might be suitable, for a smaller ray it definitely is not. Thanks to Miss Judy an the ER at Memorial Hospital a bad situation was righted. Lessons learned. Soak the injury in as hot as water as you stand and get medical attention immediately. The hot water actually draws out the toxin. It’s difficult to describe the discomfort, it’s real. When in doubt, cut the leader.

Anticipate tricky fishing conditions until tides start to fall. First tides under 8 feet are on Wednesday October 3rd. Tides look ideal going into weekend of October 5th and 6th. Hope this report of interest and some help.

Good fishing! Capt. Jack McGowan

September is turning out to the hottest month in waters near Savannah for tarpon! One fisherman reported landing four for six hook ups and six for seven on a following outing. Per Allen from River Supply, dirty water fish dead bait on the bottom. In clean water try live lining one on top and the other on the bottom. If the strikes are predominately on one then switch to one getting the hits. The likelihood of storms and rough conditions are the greater during September than any other time of all year. The opportunities to fish the outer sand bars will likely be limited but the chances of finding large tarpon are high. Small fish such as tomtates, pinfish, ladyfish and mullet all are excellent baits. Most fishermen prefer to fish large ocean pogies. Sometimes finding pogies can be difficult. The fall back baits can be just as productive or more. When surf conditions are rough try deep holes or the mouth of a slough. Water temperature is high per Wendell Harper, a great fishing guide out of Two Way Fish Camp, 82.6 degrees. It’s likely as temperature drops tarpon will vanish. For now there are still big fish off the coast with large numbers reported from Savannah to St. Catherine’s sound.

Don’t despair if you wait too long for your tarpon you can find stag bass running the surf! You can use the same or lighter tackle. The magic number for big reds in the surf, by most accounts, is between 72 and 74 degrees. Finger mullet and cut mullet make a great bait for stag bass. Some fishermen prefer to fish from the beach while others prefer to fish from their boat. Anytime around the surf the key word is safety. Fishermen need to position their boat near as possible to the breakers with out being in them. Anchoring is tricky to say the least. As the tide pushes in what was safe one moment can quickly turn unsafe. Keep a constant eye for changing conditions.

For fishermen who aren’t interesting in tangling themselves or their equipment in the surf there are lots 14 inch (legal size) redfish some 15 inches as well as some over and under the legal size (23 inch) in the creeks and rivers. It always a good idea to let redfish go or just keep a few. Lots of trash fish (little fish that steal your bait) so fishermen need to have plenty of bait. Having a pint or two of dead bait in addition to your live bait is a good idea. Redfish often seem to like dead bait more than live. To stretch your bait you might try putting a highly scented bait such as a Berkley Gulp or Bass Assassin Slurp under a float or on a jig. Little fish will still eat these baits but they can put quality fish in the boat.. Seatrout action has been sporadic. One day a good catch on drops in the Herb, Wilmington, or Bull river follow by not much on the same drop a few days later. The bite appears to be changing from a beach pattern to a river pattern. As shrimp become larger and more plentiful in the rivers and creeks the bite will likewise be mainly in these waters. With warm conditions lots of blue fish on the sand bars. Some bonnethead sharks but their numbers are lessening. Whiting are plentiful. As of last week lots small whiting, nine inches or less with plenty of keepers as well. Warm conditions not only means tarpon but sharks as well: spinners, blacktip and sand bar sharks. Until cool down anticipate small redfish to take center stage on the inshore bite. These fish are numerous and until they’ve been hooked they’re not too savvy.

Tides look good for the coming week. The big question is the weather. Thunder storms and wind can blow out fishing. When weather isn’t turbulent fishing could be good. Anticipate a sporadic seatrout bite laced with ladyfish, small trout and trash fish. In between all the bites there will be some nice trout. Redfish are plentiful and lots of them are legal. Incredible amounts of rain that fell last week near Savannah should have a positive impact on our fishery, washing out needed nutrients into the estuary and balancing salinity. On Thursday and Friday I had shrimp die in the bait well because the water was too fresh. This is pretty unusual. Nonetheless the rain was a good thing!

Hope this of help! Practice catch and release!

Good Fishing! Capt. Jack McGowan

Needed rain over the Labor day holiday dampened boating and fishing activities. Strong northeast winds prior to the holiday coupled with high tides meant even higher tides than predicted. The result of tougher conditions and less quality fishing. For last week this was pretty much the case. Fish could be caught but conditions were tough and fishing wasn’t great. Even after enormous amounts of rain fell fish could be caught by bouncing a shrimp under a float. On Monday in a couple of hours caught seven or eight 13 inch redfish and three or four small seatrout and one two pound seatrout. After lots of rain in short period of time conditions will usually rapidly improve. Generally all it takes is a tide or two. As summer comes to a close fishermen are looking to the fall and indications are that this could be another good year on the coast! At present the flats are holding some fish but the water is still very hot. As water temperature begins to drop shallow water fishing will heat up!

Labor day always brings to memory of stag bass in the surf. This time of the large red drum start to run the beachfront. Inclement changing weather and be part of the mix that triggers the reds on the beach. Fishermen can target these fish in or out of their boat. Most surf fishermen prefer to walk the beach and outer bars looking for just the right rip or cut in the sand bar to pitch a finger mullet or cut bait. Fishing the surf can be gang busters one day and nothing the next. When reds on the surf are hot this can be a dynamic way to spend an morning or afternoon!

Shrimp are plentiful. Finding bait should not be a problem. That said when tide are large (spring tides). Bait is literally sucks out of the rivers and creeks to the sound. There of course is some bait around. The point is throwing a cast for shrimp during a high tide period could be frustrating for several reason. Not the least is that bait is pulled the sounds.

September is the time of year if you haven’t caught your tarpon you better get with. Some have said this has been a better tarpon year in local waters. Others have lamented the bite hasn’t been that strong. Likely like any fishing it’s a matter of perspective. If you’re on the fish, fishing is good. Larger mullet are abundant in local rivers. Medium to large mullet are great tarpon bait as well a medium sized ladyfish. Ladyfish are plentiful as well. The expression big ducks fly late can attributed to tarpon. Some of the largest tarpon are spotted and caught late in the season.

This week as tides fall back to less than eight feet and conditions continue to improve fishing will likely be good. Redfish and seatrout will hungry and on the prowl after big tide and poor conditions. Small tides during the fall are usually the best day for flounders and black drum. Lots of “trash fish” in local waters. Take plenty of bait be prepared to fish different drops if trash fish are overwhelming.

Fishing for the coming week should be good! Hope this of help! Good Fishing!

Capt. Jack McGowan