How trout numbers look nearly a year removed from wintry blast of January 2018
It was a pleasant Sunday before Thanksgiving Day, prime time for targeting spotted seatrout along the South Carolina coast, and Capt. Mike McDonald and I couldn’t stand it, we just had to go.
So at mid-morning, McDonald, owner/operator of Gul-R-Boy Guide Service in Georgetown, headed northeast from South Island Ferry and into Winyah Bay, cruising at about 30 mph in the Bulls Bay 2200 center console powered by a 150-horsepower Mercury Optimax.
First, McDonald made a quick stop late in a falling tide at the bay’s jetties to see if sizable black drum were still on hand there, as they had been a few weeks earlier. They weren’t, and we caught only small black drum in the 10-13 inch range.
Time was a-wastin’ and the trout were waiting, so McDonald left the jetties, headed to the north end of the Winyah Bay vicinity, zoomed through a few creeks and pulled up along a Spartina grass bank.
The tide was near dead low, not ideal for trout, but we still caught a few below the minimum size limit of 14 inches over the next hour casting Saltwater Assassin and Matrix plastic paddle-tail grubs on 1/8 and 1/4-ounce jig heads.
Soon, the rising tide started really moving and McDonald found the right spot.
This time, we cast the grubs, set about 2 1/2 feet under popping corks, along a grass bank adjacent to a tidal creek. The bite heated up nicely, and we caught several more trout over the next 30 minutes including one 15-inch keeper. I pulled the hook near the boat on what was clearly the fish of the day. Oh well, another chapter of “the one that got away.”
On the way back to South Island Ferry at mid-afternoon and near high tide, McDonald stopped along an oyster bank in Winyah Bay. We once again worked the grubs on jig heads, minus the floats, and added a few more fish to our tally, including a nice 16-plus inch keeper.
In all, while the bite wasn’t torrid, we wound up catching and releasing double figures of trout along with the two keepers, providing plenty of action on a fine autumn day.
Trout Tally
As the calendar turned to 2018, the Carolinas endured one of the harshest stretches of wintry weather in memory.
Over the 10-day stretch from Dec. 26, 2017 through Jan. 4, the high temperature reached only 50 degrees on one day (Dec. 30) according to National Weather Service daily weather data for North Myrtle Beach, and five of those days the high stayed in the 30s.
The low temperature dropped below freezing for eight straight days, all but one in the 20s or upper teens. On Jan. 3, the entire Carolina coast was coated with a rare layer snow, sleet and freezing rain.
Spotted seatrout become lethargic and can potentially die when the water temperature is below 45 degrees for a prolonged period of time, and Dr. Joey Ballenger of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources reported dead trout, red drum, sheepshead and black drum along with forage fish menhaden and mullet were found in the Charleston area after the cold stretch.
Concern was high that a major kill of spotted seatrout was in store, and authorities in both states reacted accordingly.
The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries quickly announced a closure of spotted seatrout for all anglers, both recreational and commercial, through June 15. The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources doesn’t have such proclamation authority necessary to immediately close a fishery, but anglers in the Palmetto State were urged by the agency to not target trout and to release any trout caught.
Despite the concerns for the population of trout as the year wore on, the numbers encountered by anglers this fall has been a pleasant surprise.
By all accounts, from the Georgetown County line through Brunswick County, N.C., spotted seatrout are plentiful, especially fish in the 12-13 inch range, just below the minimum size of 14 inches for both North and South Carolina.
On this Thanksgiving weekend, anglers have plenty to be thankful for, including the fact that the winter blast of early 2018 didn’t decimate the population of spotted seatrout as badly had been feared early in the year.
This story was originally published November 23, 2018 at 5:43 PM.