Well the holiday is over! Hope you had a great one! There are a reports of some some tarpon caught in local waters. The bulk of these fish are still south of local waters and will likely start arriving in greater numbers in the coming weeks. Large jack crevalles have been working Cabbage Island Spit although these fish aren’t staying on top of the water for very long. Large schools of pogies (bait fish) can seen in local rivers and on the beach fronts. Bait fish bring in bring spanish, jacks, sharks as well as other fish. George Hammond reported a nice caught of spanish in front of Wassaw pitching small silver spoons and trolling. The seatrout bite is on the beach front one fishermen (this week end) caught 15 roe trout off the public pier off of Tybee. This is a great catch! Keep a couple for supper and release the rest. These are the fish that will replenish the stock. Redfish action can be good. Best action for redfish has been pitching Bass Assassins (pin fish) as well as fishing live bait. Chuck King, Cranmans manager, and I caught several this afternoon on live shrimp. Our best result came on a “snag proof rattle sinker” (Chuck sells), 18 inches of fluorocarbon and a live bait hook. We caught several wary reds. The largest Chuck landed was 9 lb plus. Ask Chuck about the one that got away. Live bait and slow fishing is hard for even a wary redfish to resist. The flounder bite has been fair and will likely pick up in coming weeks. There’s tons of bait in the creeks so take your cast net with you when go fishing. There’s nothing like fresh bait!
Ron Thomas (Bahia Bleu) says afternoons can offer some of the best tarpon fishing. Most angler prefer incoming water. Ron says tarpon can bite well on either tide. The bait in so it should be only a matter of time before we start seeing tarpon rolling on the beach fronts.When you can chum ’em up. A trail of fresh fish aromas might turn a slow day in constant action. Today we were into some nice black tips. Purist might consider a black tip a nuisance while tarpon fishing. We look at black tips a possible harbinger of good things to come. Keep chumming or you might be watching others catching the fish!
Hope this report is of help! .
Good Fishing! Capt. Jack McGowan