A lot has happened since my last report. We’ve had several nice catches of red drum on light tackle with several fish 24 inches or better. We’ve caught fish on mud minnows, shrimp as well plastics. Sea trout action has been picking up. There have some catches reported of a dozen up to forty sea trout caught. Live shrimp is still the favorite bait but call ahead as of this writing only Bandy’s (at the foot of the Skidaway Bridge) and Adam’s (down the road from the Sea Ray Dealership on hwy 80) have been open. Don Adam’s has had shrimp from Florida. The shrimp supply will be improving as brown shrimp move into local waters towards the end of the month. Whiting are still biting but the bite is getting more sporadic as temperatures warm. Ample amounts of small sharks are following whiting can be found along sand bars. Manuel, from River Supply, said he’s catching some nice spanish off of Tybee pitching gotcha plugs. Seems pretty early for spanish. Spanish, blue fish, small sharks as well as other fish will follow the bait into the beaches. Small bait fish are already showing up. Should be likely that bigger fish wont to far behind.
Redfish
With the lack of shrimp in local waters redfish are keying on crabs, in particular fiddler crabs. This is a good time to look for tailing redfish! Look for small parts of a tail fin sticking out and you might be surprised at what you’ll see. Pitching a plastic that resemble a crab can definite work. My only hesitation is the bulkiness of some of these baits. A bulky is difficult to pitch into the wind. Sometimes a tailing redfish can be so preoccupied with sticking his nose in the mud that your plastic needs to land close to the fish as well as soft. We’ve done well pitching small floats such as the Low Country Lightings with shrimp or mud minnows. Low country lighting are sold by Chuck at Cranmans.
Low tides for the week are in the negative range. The afternoon high tide is building to 8.7 feet on Wednesday, not ideal. Nonetheless, winds and storms will be the determining factor for the week. Usually even under less than ideal conditions you’ll still be able to find some fish. Look for good fishing by the end of the week when tides falls to 8.3 feet on Friday. The tides for the rest of the month look fine.
Good Fishing! Capt. Jack McGowan