Jan 13, 2010

By | January 13, 2010

Eleven straight days with temperatures below freezing! Thank goodness we are in warming trend! Despite brutally cold weather some of the fishermen who ventured out caught fish. The bite has been mostly redfish on soft plastics. The few bait shops that have had shrimp are now out. Larry’s bait shop in Port Wentworth will be restocking but it take several days. Larry wants everyone to know that he has purple back fiddler from Florida. Nonetheless during the winter it’s always best to call ahead. Larry also had some large mud minnows on hand. This week in some frigid conditions large schools of redfish were up on the flats. Tough fishing but there were some fish to be caught.

Just prior to the intense cold a couple of 30 inch stripers reported landed in the Savannah River. The striper bite has been off with only a few fish caught. Moderate to slow inshore sheepshead action. Anticipate the offshore sheepshead bite to be picking up!

With mid day water temperature yesterday in the Savannah River was at 39 degree and 40 degree at Thunderbolt conditions are cold. Thankfully conditions are warming. As water temperature raises anticipate the bite to pick up. A typical bench mark is 56 degrees. When temperature is raising during the day to the mid fifties its not unusual to see both sea trout and redfish turning on. Water temperature dip below 40 degree there is a very real threat of fish kills. So far no reports of concern in our waters. However North Carolina appears to have had fish kills of redfish and seatrout. Lets trust the damage is less thought and they have a speedy recovery.

Best bet for the coming week redfish, sheepshead and stripers On sunny days try fishing deep for stripers with a natural bait or deep jigging in the main channel. Redfish on the flats and sheepshead hanging close to oyster and barnacle encrusted structure.

Hope this of interest and help!

Fish On! Capt. Jack McGowan