Several fishermen have reported catching black drum this week in Warsaw Sound. Sea trout have biting but most have been small with fishermen catching 30 or more small fish to have half a dozen keepers. Bait steeler (pin fish and yellow tails) are still thick. Fishing finger mullet is great idea provided you find them. Fishing in the Savannah River has been off. Most fishermen are saying “too much fresh water”. Salinity level can change but at present the Savannah and adjoining rivers haven’t been very fishy. The best bite has been in the sounds. Redfish action has been good. Fishermen are encouraged to release redfish when possible. We’ve caught several nice flounder this week. Flounder are a fish that appears more numerous in the last few years. Seldom do we release flounder. This is a good to keep as well as few sea trout.
Fishing the Sound
When fishing the sound look for clean water. Water that is muddy will make more difficult. A usual method for most fishermen is to anchor on a favorite drop and wait out the fish. Often this method of fishing will produce as many fish as popping from drop to drop. Slack water is usually the most difficult time to catch fish. Try to fish moving water. Look for spots where there is a flow of water along the grass or oyster shells. Often you’ll find one tide (incoming or outgoing) will work better than the other. The flow of water is often is equated to the “food chain”. In other words when water the flowing a food chain can take place. Flowing water is the medium of the food chain. Birds, bait in the water and subtle currents are indicators. My preference of fishing is a little faster than most fishermen. Usually we’ll give a likely area several minuets to produce. If nothing happens we’ll work the water close at hand. Waiting on the fish will work provided you have the time and confidence the spot will likely get fishier. Some drops I’ll wait on most I wont. Usually the problem isn’t there aren’t fish where you are it’s likely the fish just aren’t biting. You, another boater, porpoises or something might have unsettled the fish. Provided the fish aren’t likely spooked, the conditions are good and trash fish aren’t over running the area then I’ll likely try several things to get the fish to bite: plastics, plastics under a float, cut bait, finger mullet, jigs, small floats with bait. Sometimes pitching a different variety of baits and plastics will produce fish when just shrimp wont. In other words, don’t be afraid to try something different particularly when your live shrimp are on the size. Big fish like big baits even if it’s an artificial.
Surf Fishing
Don’t forget October is month for surf fishing! Changing weather and even northeasters can be turn on large stag bass. Large redfish will run the outer sandbars in search of easy meals. Finger mullet and cut mullet are the favorite bait but redfish are pretty in that will most anything as long as it’s fresh. The other day we striped out a couple of pin fish can caught redfish. Crabs are a excellent bait. The key again is the bait has to be fresh. One fisherman had difficulty catching redfish on dead shrimp. The problem was he kept reusing same dead shrimp. What he had was a good cat fish bait. Something simply like fresh can make a big difference. I always try to fish big baits and fresh baits. A typical surf outfit is an 8 to 10 foot rod 20 to 30 pound line through a fish finder rig with 3 ounce pyramid sinker, barrel swivel, 50 to 80 monofilament leader tied to an 8 or 9/0 hook. Most surf fishermen prefer spinning tackle. Redfish in the surf can get large and are accessible to fishermen that don’t have access to a boat.
Chuck King – Manager of Cransman Sporting World
Chuck asked how the fishing was. I told him we had a little northeastern. Chuck said he had a for me chuckle. One of his customers came in great excitement with what they identified as a piranha. Apparently the fish was caught at Lake Myer. When asked what’s biting the piranha bite is a little slow!
Forecast
Seatrout bite will continue to improve fall progresses. Savannah River fishing will improve as fresh water abates. Until then better will be found in saltier water. This time of the year shrimp are moving in and good seatrout action can be found in tidal creeks as well in the sounds. Redfish will likely continue be strong. Stripers bite will pick up as temperature drop and days shorten.
Good fishing! Capt. Jack McGowan
