Fishing last week was again a little up and down. The bite has been mostly redfish and sharks. Despite the seatrout bite being off compared to recent years. We caught some dandy seatrout this week. Reports are coming in of bites lastly about an hour with some nice fish! The seatrout bite while not incredible is at least interesting. Some nice quality fish being caught in a wide range of locations from well up river to the beachfront. Most of the seatrout being caught are females loaded roe. Fishermen this are encouraged to go light or preferably release the large roe trout 18 inches or larger. Ladyfish, while not thought as a food fish is great fun on light tackle. Ladyfish can be is the same type of currents that seatrout like. Ladyfish can be fun to catch and a great bait for large predator fish. Normally if you keep a couple of ladyfish you are going to catch some sharks!
As the inshore water get saltier more and more ocean fish are showing in the sounds. Lots of black tip, sand bar and sharp nose sharks can be found around the barrier islands. A few cobia are in the sounds as well! Reports of lots of spanish in the shipping channel! Spade fish and sea bass can found around the near shore wrecks as well.
Last week the tidal currents were moving slow. Fishermen pitching soft plastic generally fared better than those soaking a bait. It pays to be flexible! Brown shrimp are showing in local creeks. Nonetheless if shrimp can be found in local bait shops the shrimp will likely be imported from Florida. These shrimp are more pricey than local shrimp but it is a hardy shrimp and sometimes nothing will catch a fish like a shrimp. Another prime bait is the lowly mud minnow. This is a hardy relatively cheap bait that can catch a wide variety of fish. My preference is fish a larger minnow when possible.
As redfish become scare on the flats. Think deeper water. Fish revetments and other deep water structure for reds in hot weather. The flounder bite while not awesome is still interesting. Fishermen pitching soft plastics such as Zooms or Gulps are catching a few pitching to small gullies on outgoing tides. As the summer heat up the flounder should heat up!
As this week winds down tides are small. This an excellent time to pitch plastics or fish drops with some current. For the best chances of success look for areas with some moving water.
While fishing this week has not been great some days have been good. Hottest bite has been sharks and spanish.. Some nice sheepshead being caught off the Tybee Pier as well as some nice black drum. Most of seatrout are in the 16 inch range. These fish are large enough to give a good tug! Some nice reds on the flats but more sharks are show up most of the reds will move to deeper water. Whiting bite is off likely due to the abundance of sharks. Sharks are highly electrical when an intense storm system pushes through fishermen one can catch bunches one day and nothing the next. Summer storms can drive these fish to deeper saltier water.
Hope this report is of interest and help! Fish On! Capt. Jack McGowan