Coastal River Charters

Merry Christmas! Despite winter officially beginning on the 21st we have already had several hard freezes. Fishermen south of Savannah have reported seeing some dead seatrout around Ossaabaw and St. Catherines. Last week water temperatures rose with several sunny days. When a cold front hits and water temperature rapidly decreases fish are more vulnerable. When the change is more gradual its likely fish can more easily find water where they can survive. Last winter’s prolonged cold was tough on the seatrout. Hopefully this winter when fronts hit we will have a warming trend soon to follow.

Despite last week cold there was good action particularly with redfish on the flats! Some anglers limited out. That said its not all taking a limit. Its about having an enjoyable time. One angler last week with me caught what would have been several limits on plastics. His plan was to keep one for supper but each time he said the fish looked so pretty he wanted to release it. Its guaranteed if you keep that fish you wont catch it again. My feeling is keep only what you plan on eating and release the rest. Redfish are a fun fish! Its likely there are more redfish in our waters now than when I was a child. That said, catch and release is still a very good thing!

Fishing the flats this week was good if not great! A variety of jigs, jerk worms and flies will work just fine! One local fisherman has said a redfish will eat just anything. This isn’t that much of an exaggeration. Lots of times redfish will push tight up on the flats to avoid the dolphins. With this in mind the sweet spot is generally tight to the mudbank. A cold water bite is usually a bump rather a strong bite. When you feel the bump tighten up, set the hook and yell fish on! The exception is when don’t want to draw attention to yourself. Then you pass on yelling “fish on” and bring the fish to boat unbeknownst to any boat around you.

Fished one day last week with Chris Weber, veteran fly tier and fly fisherman. Lots of nice reds on flats! Chris is an excellent salt water fly tier!

Don Adams closed his shop on Thursday. He typically opens again March 1st. Some years Don will keep his doors open as long as the weather is relatively mild and he is finding shrimp. Don said the shrimp have moved out. Those of you who like bait fishing. A small piece of dead shrimp can make an excellent winter sea trout bait. Winter sea trout will sometimes feed on a small shrimp, locals call hard backs. These shrimp are typically in the grassy matter under floating docks. Its not unusual for whiting fishermen to produce good catches in deeper water during the winter. Dead bait can work well for redfish as well as for stripers. The lowly mud minnow is all purpose live bait that can produce a variety of inshore species with sheepshead as the exception. Sheepshead love fiddler crabs, oysters and clams! It been said when you see snails climbing the stalks of the marsh grass there sheepshead that are feeding on them.

Good reports on both inshore and offshore sheepshead! Both Tybee Island Bait and Tackle and Adams Bait House are closed for several weeks. Bait shops that might have fiddler crabs are Larry’s Bait 912.966.6946 and Tackle and Bandy’s 912.354.6444. Best bet call ahead to arrange your bait.

Tides look pretty fishy as we head into the New Year! Water temperature is between high 40’s and low 50’s. Fish will eat but anticipate a soft slow bite. On sunny mild days the bite could be hot! Best action redfish on flats, stripers upriver as well as inshore and offshore sheepshead!

Hope this is of interest and help!

Fish On! Capt. Jack McGowan



Fishing has been good! We’re into December and condition are cold. This is the first the sustained cold wave of the season. Don’t despair there will likely be some good if not great fishing in the coming weeks. Fishermen up and down the coast are reporting large catches of small seatrout. The prevailing thought is this could be a sign for good seatrout fishing next year. As 2010 comes to a close anticipate lots of small seatrout with some nicer ones showing up as the season winds down. The redfish bite should continue to be good! Cold temperatures will mean redfish on the flats! Lots of time bite during winter fishermen will experience a bump rather than a strong hit. If you feel a bump tighten up! As conditions warm the bite can turn on! One whiting fisherman said he caught 32 whiting one day last week. Unfortunately he said like the seatrout his whiting were a little undersized. Lots of small whiting on the bars can mean stag bass (large red drum)!

With cold conditions the water in many areas is taking on greenish hue. On many day its possible to see several feet down into the water. This cold clean water looks like prefect water for seatrout and it can be. Its possible while fishing some rips to get a seatrout on literally every cast! At that rate one would think it only a matter of minuets to limit out. Not so. Most of these fish are just a little undersized. After lots of smaller seatrout , a larger seatrout will bite every now and then. There are larger seatrout. Lately it another thing to stay on larger fish due to so many smaller ones. There is a thought that big fish, larger seatrout will follow the smaller ones. This is general statement that has some applicability. The main thing is have fun! Fish the conditions not where fish were yesterday or even just a little while ago. My exception to fishing the conditions is when there are bunches of boats. Its simply not my preference to fish with lots of company especially since we have miles and miles of waterways. Even with lots on the water it easy to be encroached on or get too close to another fisherman. It can happen. Try to leave plenty of room between your boats and be courteous.

Adams Bait shop has plenty of shrimp. Mike at Tybee Island Bait and Tackle says they are well supplied with shrimp, fiddler crabs and mud minnows. With cold temperatures if you’re fishing shrimp putting a few in a plastic bucket with water will not work. The plastic becomes extremely cold and almost as soon your shrimp hits the water in the bucket they will die. While fishing live shrimp during cold days the simplest alternative is to dip out of your live well. When its impossible to keep your shrimp alive, switch to mud minnows

As conditions turn cold few fishermen think of flounders but its not unusual for an occasional fishermen to catch several nice flounders in a creek. Last week what was unusual was one fisherman landed a 23 inch and 27 inch flounder! Both of these are exceptional fish! This fisherman was using live shrimp fishing close to the bottom. White plastic curl tail grubs are another good flounder bait as well as mud minnows. During the colder months its always best to consider it a lucky day if you catch one or two flounders. Most inshore flounder fishing is during the warmer months. Some cast netters are reporting good results from deep water shrimping. Likely spots are deep holes close to mouth of a creek.

Tides this week are subsiding from a high on Sunday December 4th of 8.4 feet. Despite high tides and cold conditions we still caught some dandy redfish in tough conditions on the 4th. Tides will be steady improving throughout the remainder of this week as well as through the coming week. Tides fall into the 5 foot range. It could be time to start thinking about inshore or offshore sheepshead fishing! But that’s next week.

Tip of week. In cold conditions try trolling for seatrout, fishing for reds or sheepshead!

Hope this of help and interest!

Fish On! Capt. Jack McGowan