Inshore Fishing Report May 28, 2004

By | May 28, 2004

Summer is officially about start. This means long hot summer days, baseball and of course fishing! A summer favorite is flounder fishing! This Spring has already produced some good flounder fishing. As temperatures heat up the flounder bite should pick up as well. Fishermen in South Carolina and Georgia have said this has been one of the best year’s in recent memory for cobia. There have excellent reports from the Broad River in South as well off the Georgia coast. This is fish is on the move making it’s spawning run. Like most fishing timely is everything. Fishermen who fail to find these will usually salvage the day fishing for redfish. The seatrout bite is picking up with good fishermen boating nice messes of trout. Some fishermen will deliberately limit their take of seatrout during this time of the because most of fish are likely to be roe trout. A couple of veteran fisherman told me they kept two or three fish and released the rest. Releasing fish isn’t a bad idea. Seatrout are a delicate so handle with care.

The whiting bite is slowing up as sharks increase. Whiting are still working the sand bars just not as many as in early Spring. Brown shrimp are showing up the creeks. Emanuel, from River Supply, said he started catching small redfish. These are this year’s crop of redfish. These fish will grow rapidly as bait becomes more and more abundant. Commercial crabbers are saying having to throw back lots of small crabs. On the other hand we’re seeing crabs in the rivers definitely a good sign. Sure enough another sign of summer is the
arrival of tarpon. While in Cranmans, one Chuck King’s customers reported seeing tarpon. It’s that time of year!

Tides will be negative range heading into Memorial Day. Big tides usually mean difficult fishing. Tides will reach a height 8.7 on Wed. June 2nd.. Definitely a big tide but wind will likely be the determining factor. Many fishermen believe building tides mean a better bite (I’m one of them)!

Tip of the Week
You never know. You never exactly what’s on the end of your line. Of course you know the fish you’re targeting but part of the fun is the unexpected. Salt water fishing definitely has the unexpected This week we hooked in not one but two cobia while whiting and shark fishing. Don’t pass up the fun and joy of the unexpected whether large or small, it’s still fun! I’ve seen trout fisherman become discouraged when he caught a redfish and a person fishing for redfish pout when he caught a trout. Part of joy of saltwater is the variety and you never know. You might catch a spotted hake or pompano. One looks like a space creature; the other a tasty treat but never know.

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