Grand Strand Fishing Report: Carolina slams available offshore as dolphin joins party
.jpg "The crew of Game On shows off a nice catch of dolphin and blackfin tuna earlier this week out of Georgetown Landing Marina. The offshore trolling action has heated up within the last week.")
Estuary
Look For: Flounder, red drum, black drum, spotted seatrout, bluefish, sheepshead.
Comments: Springtime is flounder time and in 2022, the trick is finding keepers above South Carolina’s new 16-inch minimum size limit. Anglers should be aware flounder are closed to harvest in North Carolina waters. Some of the best flounder action is just south of the state line in Cherry Grove Inlet, says Capt. Patrick Kelly of Captain Smiley Fishing Charters. “Flounder are starting to show up,” said Kelley. “We’re seeing them in Little River and they’re very plentiful in Cherry Grove. There are plenty of shorts but there’s lots of keepers, too.” Kelly has had a hard time finding live shrimp but has done well when they have been available. “When we’ve had live shrimp, it’s been really good with trout and small blues mixed in. We’ve caught black drum in the same areas.” Black drum and flounder have been the main species Capt. Dan Connolly of Capt. Dan’s Fishing Company has had success with in Murrells Inlet. “I’ve had 3-4 nice black drum (a trip) and a semi-decent flounder bite, but it’s still one keeper out of 10 fish,” said Connolly. Connolly has used artificials such as Gulp jerk shad or paddletail grubs on Eye Strike jig heads and Vudu shrimp. Connolly has also caught a few trout on mud minnows, but notes the trout bite has been tough without live shrimp. Connolly reports the water temperature has ranged from the upper 60s to lower 70s. Capt. Mike McDonald of Gul-R-Boy Guide Service in Georgetown has had a couple solid trips to the Winyah Bay jetties in the last week. On Monday, McDonald produced six trout and two flounder and last weekend came home with seven trout, four black drum, one sheepshead and one flounder on a trip. McDonald noted the trout were all in the 2-3 pound range. The trout and flounder took soft plastic grubs while the black drum hit cut shrimp.
Inshore
Look For: Spanish mackerel, king mackerel, bluefish, whiting, pompano, flounder, weakfish, sheepshead, black drum.
Comments: King mackerel are inching closer to shore, as Connolly found out on a trip about 15 miles offshore early this week. Connolly’s crew landed a couple kings in the 30-inch range and also missed a few bites. Cigar minnows currently can also be tough to find so Connolly improvised, using Spanish sardines and small ballyhoo to catch the kings by the typical slow-trolling method at 2-4 knots on a one-ounce jig head. The crew also investigated the action on the bottom in 55-60 feet of water and caught black sea bass, grunts and ringtails. Only one black sea bass out of about 25 caught was a keeper above the 13-inch minimum size limit. Kelly headed to the Jim Caudle Reef on Sunday and had a blast casting to Spanish mackerel with spoons. Kelly’s crew also caught bluefish and bonito. “Just cast anything flashy with a treble hook and pull it real fast,” said Kelly. Spanish mackerel can also be caught in good numbers trolling Christmas tree rigs trailed by a spoon around near-shore artificial reefs, inlet passes and in the vicinity of bait along the beach. A few schools of menhaden have shown up along the beach. Joe Nelligan, an angler on The Pier at Garden City, says the Spanish bite has been good on days when there is pretty, clean water along the beach. Tuesday was such a day, and Nelligan said there were “great catches of Spanish” with anglers jigging straw rigs. General manager Calvin Dickerson of Apache Pier also reports good catches of Spanish mackerel with whiting, pompano and flounder also showing up. “Everything is starting to come in for the spring,” said Dickerson.
Offshore
Look For: Dolphin, blackfin tuna, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, king mackerel, blue marlin, grouper, amberjack, black sea bass, red snapper, vermilion snapper, triggerfish, red porgy, grunts.
Comments: Tis the season for Carolina slams for trolling boats in the offshore waters. Dolphin have joined the party in good numbers over the last week, and many boats are coming in from areas such as the Black Jack Hole, Winyah Scarp and Georgetown Hole with a slam of dolphin, tuna and wahoo. “It’s definitely picked up,” said General Manager David Black of Georgetown Landing Marina. “There are a lot of dolphin being caught, and a lot of good fish in the 20-25 pound range.” On Monday, Black and company at Georgetown Landing weighed in three dolphin over 30 pounds plus one weighing in at 50.1 pounds caught aboard Margaritaville, owned by Ben Forbes. One outstanding catch of 15 dolphin and 14 blackfin tuna came in aboard Reel Steel owned by David Walters. Blue marlin have made an appearance, too. Ronald “Catfish” Stalvey and his cousin Matt Winburn of Conway caught and released a blue marlin estimated in the 400-pound range on Sunday aboard Stalvey’s 232 Sportsman Open, powered by a single 250-horsepower Yamaha. Bottom fishing is excellent, too with anglers able to harvest black sea bass, amberjack, vermilion snapper, triggerfish, red porgy and grunts. Red snapper are plentiful but must be released in the South Atlantic Region. The annual shallow-water grouper spawning season closure ends when the month of May begins, less than a week away. Starting at midnight on Saturday, grouper once again may be harvested.
Freshwater
Look For: Bream, bass, catfish, crappie.
Comments: Super springtime fishing is here on local rivers, from the Black, to the Santees, the Pee Dees, and the Waccamaw. “Fishing is phenomenal,” said Stalvey of Stalvey’s Bait and Tackle in Conway, who noted the best areas in general have been in the vicinity of Bucksport, Ricefields and the lower Pee Dee. Bream have moved into warm-weather mode and are taking a variety of baits in 2-4 feet of water. “They’re hitting crickets and worms about 50-50,” said Stalvey. “Also beetle spins and they’re starting to catch a lot on popping bugs. That bug fishing is fun.” Crappie are hitting minnows and beetle spins on structure both shallow and deep. “I’ve seen some nice crappie lately,” said Stalvey. Bass are predominantly in spawning mode, but the temperature swings have had an impact on fishing. “Some of them have spawned, a lot of them are in pre-spawn,” said Stalvey. “The weather’s been crazy, those fish don’t know what to do,” said Stalvey. “(Use) plastic worms on brush tops and ditch mouths and areas where they are getting ready to stage up and do their thing. That’s where the big girls are hanging out at.” Stalvey calls catfish action “remarkable” and said “rod-and-reel, bush hooking, they’re catching them any way you can think about.” Top baits are live crawfish and bream, eels and frozen mullet or shad.
This story was originally published April 28, 2022 at 8:00 AM.
