Area fishing report (May 14)
Estuary
Look For | Flounder, red drum, spotted seatrout, black drum, sheepshead.
Comments | At mid-week, flounder catches had started improving after Tropical Storm Ana moved through over the weekend, but the water in the estuaries was still dingy as of Thursday morning. “The water was still murky,” said Capt. Patrick Kelly of Capt. Smiley Fishing Charters in Little River. Kelly had good success catching flounder on mud minnows in Cherry Grove Inlet Wednesday and Thursday. “There are a lot of shorts, but we’re starting to catch more keepers, which is good,” said Kelly, who noted a water temperature of 70 degrees. Likewise, Perry’s Bait and Tackle reports improved size to flounder in Murrells Inlet, with more keepers over South Carolina’s 14-inch minimum size limit. Capt. Mike McDonald of Gul-R-Boy Guide Service in Georgetown caught spotted seatrout, flounder and red drum on a Thursday trip despite windy, rough conditions featuring a two-foot chop on Winyah Bay. McDonald used soft plastic grubs and cut shrimp to catch his fish, plus noted a water temperature reading of 75 degrees.
Inshore
Look For | Spanish mackerel, king mackerel, bluefish, whiting, pompano, flounder, black sea bass, weakfish, sheepshead.
Comments | Conditions still remain stirred up along the beach, especially after Thursday offered stiff north to east winds. A few Spanish have been caught in the wake of Tropical Storm Ana, but not at the rate they were before the storm. Catches of whiting, Spanish, and blues have been scattered off Grand Strand piers, although a 4-plus pound trout was landed off Apache Pier. The time is right for cobia to show up along the beach and the near-shore artificial reefs. Look for the lumbering brown lunkers around schools of bait, turtles, rays and buoys, or just appearing around your boat. Be prepared to toss a cobia a live bait, live eel, rubber eel or bucktail jig. Also look for spadefish to make a showing on the reefs at any time. The surface temperature was 73.23 degrees Thursday at 2:55 p.m. at 2nd Ave. Pier in Myrtle Beach. The annual Spring Pier King Mackerel Tournament, held on public fishing piers along the Grand Strand, is set for Saturday and Sunday.
Offshore
Look For | Dolphin, blackfin tuna, wahoo, grouper, black sea bass, vermilion, snapper, triggerfish, amberjack.
Comments | Tropical Storm Ana simply interrupted what was a super bite of dolphin, wahoo and tuna in early May. With stable weather, which is forecast for the weekend, action should quickly be very good again. Critter Gitter slipped offshore on Thursday and brought four dolphin and three blackfin tuna back to Georgetown Landing Marina. Aside from dolphin, wahoo and tuna, trolling boats can also look for blue marlin and white marlin. Bottom fishing is good for grouper, black sea bass, vermilion snapper and porgy, with triggerfish, amberjack and grunts also available. Red snapper are also on hand in good numbers but the species is off-limits indefinitely in the South Atlantic Region and must be released.
Freshwater
Look For | Bream, bass, catfish, crappie.
Comments | Rick Woodward of Rick’s Bait and Tackle in Conway says that bream fishing is excellent on the rivers even though the water has a little rise in it. The Waccamaw River from Conway to Bucksport to the Ricefields is a good area to target bream in 2-3 feet of water floating crickets. “I can’t envision anybody going to the river and not coming back with their limit of bream,” Woodward said. Woodward recommends fishing falling water. “Those flatfish [bream] want to see what the swamps bring to them on that falling water,” he said. Catfish action is also very good, especially on cut eels.
By Gregg Holshouser, For The Sun News
This story was originally published May 14, 2015 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Area fishing report (May 14)."