Coastal River Charters

There were a few reports last week of seatrout being caught on live bait. Artificials were not effective. The bait of choice for seatrout was live mud minnows. CT from Tybee Island Bait and Tackle reports these fish are fat and healthy averaging between 15 and 18 inches. This great news! There have been reports of seatrout upriver as well as in the sounds. The majority of the seatrout action has been in the sounds near barriers islands. The seatrout bite is improving but definitely sporadic. Redfish are getting lots of attention. Fishermen are saying they are seeing fish but not many takers. The reds we caught was by hunkering down and pitching live baits. Dirty water while not great is not a major factor when comes to catching reds. Often bait will hide in the muddy patches of water. Muddy water despite limiting a fish’s sight at times can be plus. Last week some of reds we caught was in muddy water. Another trick is get your bait down. A redfish’s mouth is down ward pointing. The shape of a red’s mouth lends itself to putting a bait on the bottom. If the bottom isn’t too shelly a simply 1/4 ounce jig is an effective way to fish a shrimp or mud minnow. A jig on the bottom with live or cut bait is a great way to pick up some reluctant reds!

Last week there reports of big stag bass along outer sand bars. Great baits for large red drum are cut mullet, whiting and menhaden. There was even a report of a large red drum hooked up on a chunk of bluefish. Usually the most productive tide to fish outer bars is the first of the incoming. Shark action is picking up with more atlantic sharp nose sharks showing up as well some black tips and bonnet heads. The whiting bite has been solid! Whiting can be even more fun to catch when you down size your tackle to medium light and light action rods and reels. The smaller hooks are generally what’s most preferred #4’s and #6’s. The only problem with down sizing your tackle is you might hook into a three foot or larger shark which can easily over power light tackle. Nonetheless, fishing light tackle for whiting is a hoot! Sometimes instead of anchoring a fisherman might try drifting along a sand bar. This can be really effective particularly when fishing is slow.

Water temperature is in the low 70’s. The marshes are alive with bait fish! Shrimp in local bait shops is still coming from Florida but hopefully in couple of weeks we’ll start seeing brown shrimp showing up in our water ways. A few reports of cobia in the Broad River. Offshore sheepshead action last week was hot but don’t anticipate this bite to last much longer. Typically a bite will be real hot just before the get cold. It’s just nature. If the offshore bite isn’t workig try a few inshore drops.

Tides are subsiding this week and conditions are continuing to warm. Inshore fishing this week will likely be picking up as conditions continue to improve!

Hope this of interest and help!

Fish On! Capt. Jack McGowan

Fishing is heating up! There are lots of river pogies in the water ways! These are medium sized menhaden about five to six inches in size. They are a favorite bait for redfish and sharks as well a host of other fish. Atlantic sharp nose have started to arrive. The first, sharp nose sharks, to arrive are a few large males. These are the scouts. Soon there will be hundreds. These small sharks are about three feet in length. They’ll put up a nice fight on medium action tackle. Until the sharks arrive in mass the whiting bite will remain strong! Whiting are small exceptionally tasty fish and can be great fun to catch on light tackle. The only problem when you’re fishing sandbars close to the barrier islands you never know what you’ll hang into! You could hang into a large stag bass as they maraud the surf in search of disoriented prey.

Some blue fish have pushed into the sounds, again a good sign of warming conditions. The redfish bite in recent days has been has been tough due likely to exceptional clear water. Some flounder have caught during the past week. The inshore sheepshead bite has been good but the varies: as current speed increases their bite seems to decrease. Look for the better inshore sheepshead on those days with smaller tides. Last week there were several reports of good offshore sheepshead action! Though one fisherman said, he can see noticeable changes in the bite. In the coming days the offshore will likely slow as the inshore bite continues to gain momentum.

Live shrimp is still scarce. Adams Bait Shop is carrying live from Florida. See Don Adams for your live shrimp. CT from Tybee Island Bait and Tackle said he stocking up on fiddler crabs and he’ll have plenty on hand for those fishing this weekend. Remember if you don’t have at least 100 crabs on board you’re not sheepshead fishing!

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At the coming Fishing Seminar at Bahia on Tuesday April 19th (6:30 to 7:30pm) The discussion will be on what’s biting now! We’ll also talk about some of rigs and fishing strategies for sheepshead, whiting, cobia and large reds!

Please contact Ron or Rory at the Bahia Bleu Marina for sign up information 912.354.2283

Hope to see you there!

Fish On! Capt. Jack McGowan