By | December 7, 2010

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