Grand Strand Fishing Report: Spanish mackerel have followed bait fish near piers, inshore
Estuary
Look For: Flounder, spotted seatrout, black drum, red drum, tarpon, Spanish mackerel, bluefish, sheepshead.
Comments: Capt. Patrick Kelly of Capt. Smiley Fishing Charters in Little River has seen good action for flounder and red drum, taking advantage of plentiful finger mullet for bait. After a lengthy shutdown, the flounder fishery in North Carolina waters was opened on Aug. 16 and action has been good for the flatfish. On a Thursday morning trip, Kelly’s crew caught six flounder with two keepers over the 15-inch minimum size limit in Tubbs Inlet (N.C.) along with seven red drum. “The flounder fishing has been pretty good,” said Kelly. “We’ve been whacking them.” On the south end, Capt. Mike McDonald of Gul-R-Boy Guide Service in Georgetown had a productive trip on Tuesday, catching 13 trout and three flounder, including a 4.5-pounder. McDonald noted most of the fish were caught on soft plastic grubs with a few trout hitting finger mullet. McDonald noted a water temperature of 84 degrees. Capt. Perrin Wood of Southern Saltwater Charters found a good bite of black drum in Murrells Inlet on Wednesday, catching them on fresh dead shrimp. Capt. Dan Connolly of O-Fish-Al Expeditions had a nice surprise at the Murrells Inlet jetties Monday afternoon while floating live shrimp. Connolly was enjoying a decent red drum bite, when a tarpon inhaled his live shrimp. After a few jumps and a short battle, which were recorded live on Facebook, Connolly released a tarpon in the 15-pound range. Connolly also caught two reds over the 15-23 inch slot limit, two reds within the slot and one under the slot.
Inshore
Look For: Spanish mackerel, king mackerel, cobia, tarpon, spadefish, whiting, pompano, flounder, black drum, spotted seatrout, weakfish
Comments: Menhaden, or pogeys, along with mullet have made a good showing along the beach and the Spanish mackerel have been right there with them. Connolly of O-Fish-Al Expeditions has consistently found large Spanish available this week at the jetties and Paradise Reef located three miles east of Murrells Inlet. “The Spanish bite is on fire out there, from the jetties to the near-shore reefs,” said Connolly. “I’m loading up on finger mullet and either slow-trolling them on light wire or anchoring and throwing out freebies (live-chumming) to get them fired up.” The grade of Spanish has been excellent, with most fish weighing from 2-5 pounds. The Spanish are also showing up along the beach and are being caught from Grand Strand piers such as The Pier at Garden City, Myrtle Beach State Park Pier, Apache Pier and Cherry Grove Pier. Angler Joe Nelligan and his fishing buddies had good success with Spanish on Monday from The Pier at Garden City, all catching 3-5 pounders on live finger mullet. The piers are also producing scattered catches of whiting, croaker, weakfish, flounder, black drum, red drum and ribbonfish. Surprisingly, Tony McElveen of Cherry Grove Pier reports a good run of spots from the pier early this week. Pier catch of the week goes to Mark Morgan who landed a 12.4-pound king mackerel from the Apache Pier, the 25th king caught from the pier this year. Calvin Dickerson of Apache Pier reports the Fall Pier King Mackerel Tournament is set for Sept. 19-20, with competing piers including Apache, Cherry Grove, and Myrtle Beach State Park. Registration for the tournament opens Saturday. Kelly of Capt. Smiley Fishing Charters reports catches of flounder continue to be good at the Jim Caudle Reef, located about three miles south of Little River Inlet.
Offshore
Look For: Wahoo, king mackerel, dolphin, blackfin tuna, sailfish, grouper, red snapper, amberjack, cobia, vermilion snapper, triggerfish, red porgy, black sea bass.
Comments: Capt. Brant McMullan of Ocean Isle Fishing Center was excited to see a few yellow butterflies while driving down the road Thursday afternoon. “Be on the lookout for the yellow butterflies,” said McMullan. “When you see them go ahead and get ready (for fall fishing). They mean fall is coming.” For the short-term, it’s still late August and certainly feels like summer. “Summertime is bottom-fishing time,” said McMullan. “We’ve been seeing a lot of beeliners (vermilion snapper) in 110-150 feet of water. There’s always a few grouper in that range, scamp and a few gags.” While McMullan hasn’t had any first-hand reports of trolling near the break, he expects to see an uptick in wahoo action anytime now. “Typically we start to see some wahoo fishing later in August,” said McMullan. Capt. Austin Aycock of the OIFC Carolina Cat released five sailfish on a recent trip in 200 feet of water, and McMullan “saw a couple jumping around” on a recent bottom-fishing trip. Also look for blackfin tuna and dolphin on trolling trips. King mackerel action has been typical of August. “King fishing’s been okay, definitely not great and I wouldn’t expect it to be great,” said McMullan. “They’re anywhere from 50-150 feet, just scattered around.” Bottom fishing is also producing red porgy, grey triggerfish, amberjack, white grunts and black sea bass. Red snapper are common on bottom spots but must be released in the South Atlantic Region.
Freshwater
Look For: Bream, bass, catfish, crappie.
Comments: “It’s good fishing especially with the water being up,” said Ronald “Catfish” Stalvey of Stalvey’s Bait and Tackle in Conway. Local rivers are all just below flood stage and slowly receding. “Everything’s on the fall now so that’s good,” said Stalvey. Britt Brown won the weekly Tuesday big bass tournament out of Conway Marina with a 4-pound, 2 ¾-ounce bass caught on a topwater lure. “They caught a lot of good fish especially with the water being up,” said Stalvey, who noted Texas-rigged worms are also working well for bass. Stalvey has seen and heard of good catches of bream in 2-4 feet of water, particularly in the Ricefields area. Crickets are the most popular bait but worms will also produce fish. Stalvey reports excellent catches of catfish by both rod-and-reel and bush hooks. “The bigger fish are (being caught) on bream but the average-size good eating fish are on eels.”