Coastal River Charters

High evening tides muddied water and made conditions during the week difficult to fish. Many people think shark fishing is a summer time given. This isn’t necessarily the case. Strong currents and muddy water can make shark fishing very challenging. Typically and incoming tide can offer an abundance of sharks and all sorts of fish. This week the outgoing produced most of big bites. We hooked one (100 pound) tarpon on finely aged mullet that was cut into. The only point is most fishermen go great extremes to fish live bait for tarpon. Lots of tarpon are caught on dead bait. When conditions are muddy if a quality fish take your then loses it chances are the fish wont be able to track the bait down. Fishing the week was tricky. Seatrout bit pretty good when fishing areas with clean water and moderate current. Fishing for shark and tarpon was slow. Big tides pulled most of the bait out. Consistent reports of large menhaden on the south of Wassaw. Typical areas for whiting produced only small newly birthed blacktip sharks.

As quickly as conditions became difficult to fish, due last week to a lunar perigee on the July 21st the moon was at its closest point to the earth. During the coming week tides will be subsiding and conditions should be improving. Plenty of bait in the creeks and rivers but anticipate big tides to have pull the bulk of the bait shrimp into the sounds. Nice catches of flounder being reported from the slough at Little Tybee. During big tides as a generalization the best time to fish can be at the top or bottom of the tide or look areas with clean water and moderate currents.

The unusual catch this week was a cobia at the mouth of Turner Creek and the Wilmington River. The fish was released. It was likely around 30 inch. Earl from Adams bait shop says fish towards the sounds that where most of the fish are being caught not much on the inside. On the other hand some creeks and rivers on the inside are teeming with life lots of bait, small seatrout, a wide of small fish as well as large bonnet head sharks and small black tip shark in the two foot range. It’s summer time so fishermen fishing for bite can go through lots of bait in short order. In muddy conditions its not uncommon for ladyfish to dominate a seatrout drop. The eyes on a ladyfish are very large. Its likely ladyfish can see your bait much easier in muddy conditions. On days when the water quality is poor. The water is containing lots of silt, try popping your float more often or even better use a popping float. Fishermen can find some redfish back in the grass but its summer. Flats that can holds lots of redfish in cooler conditions might hold only a few.

Overall looks like good year! Fishing this week should be improving as tides subside. Try to avoid to fishing areas with muddy water.

Hope this of help! Fish On! Capt. Jack McGowan

Sounds like a familiar refrain nonetheless, “fishing has been good”! A mixture of large and small fish. Lots of small redfish holding in most marshy area with oysters beds close by. Similarly lots of seatrout around twelve inches in length. Lots of bigger seatrout can be found close to beach fronts. Don Adams, Adams Bait Shop, said most of the brown shrimp have been pulled out with the last spring tides. Plenty of white shrimp in the creeks and rivers. Those throwing a net should have little trouble in getting bait for fishing. These shrimp are still too small for eating. Fiddler crabs seem to be everywhere! Opening the screen door of the cleaning station at the marina a dozen or so fiddlers can be seen scurrying to find hiding a place. There so many fiddlers that several will stow away on your boat if left overnight in the water. Fiddlers crabs compromise the bulk of the small redfish’s diet. Perhaps the abundance of fiddlers crabs up and down the coast is an indicator of a banner year for redfish! Redfish action has been good with the bulk of the redfish being caught are small juvenile redfish. That being said there are definitely nicer redfish to be found. Most days we’ve fished for a combination bite. We’re primarily targeting seatrout. When fishing close in too structure its possible to catch some nice reds. When water conditions are poor we’re fishing more for redfish. Some nice flounder and black drum being caught! We generally have the best flounder fishing when the tides are small and the currents are slow moving. As said at the beginning of the report fishing has been good! We catching good numbers mostly small fish but plenty of larger fish as well! Sheepshead can sometimes be found congregating on the tip of shallow water points. A more consistent sheepshead bite can be found at the Savannah River jetties. When fishing a float for sheepshead fish close to the jetties and deep. It’s possible to a fish drop shot rig for sheepshead as well as the traditional egg sinker carolina rig. Nice whiting still being caught. The down side to whiting fishing now is there are so many newly birthed baby black tip sharks. Those desiring a mess of whiting might want keep trying new spots. We’ve seen some very large whiting in lat couple of weeks.

Big fish are in! First report of large ocean pogies on the beach front. When big baits come into the sound system large fish will follow. These fish can be jack crevalles, cobia, tarpon and large sharks. Last week a few tarpon have been hooked and landed as well a couple of cobia. Break offs are likely large sharks or massive rays. In short, big fish have moved in! This time of year even when not targeting big fish it’s always a good idea to have at least one tarpon class rod on your boat. You never know.

Tides will be building throughout the week, peaking with an 8.2 feet high tide on Sunday July 19th in the evening. Typically an 8.2 foot can be a difficult tide to fish. With tides running higher than predicted anticipate more water. If the pattern remains as it has for the last couple of high tides periods fishermen will likely catch some quality fish. Tides look fishy all week. The question mark will be the weather in particularly thunder storms. When fishermen are able to get out fishing should be good! Big fish are in!

Hope this of help! Fish On! Capt. Jack McGowan