Local fishing report

Estuary

Look For: Spotted seatrout, flounder, black drum, red drum, sheepshead, tarpon.

Comments: A glimpse at Pawleys Inlet Thursday morning at high tide showed clear, calm water and a multitude of finger mullet and menhaden schools at the surface – perfect conditions for late summer fishing, transitioning into fall. That will all change on Friday with the arrival of Hermine as a tropical storm or a hurricane. Labor Day weekend will be impacted as Friday and Saturday likely will not be fishable. Churned up water with plenty of stormwater runoff will likely be in the offing Sunday and Monday. Fishing was good earlier in the week as Capt. Mike McDonald of Gul-R-Boy Guide Service produced seven red drum and a four-pound flounder while fishing on the Santee Delta vicinity Tuesday. McDonald and crew floated live mullet for bait, with the largest red a 10-pounder. On Monday, McDonald’s crew caught 15 small spotted seatrout on plastic grubs. McDonald said he caught the trout “between the jetties and Conway.” Capt. Jeff Maples of Reel Salty Charters has caught flounder in Murrells Inlet this week and said “I’ve never seen this much mullet in the creeks. It’s crazy.”

Inshore

Look For: Spanish mackerel, king mackerel, whiting, flounder, weakfish, black sea bass, spadefish, pompano, black drum.

Comments: Hermine will also churn up the near-shore waters in the Atlantic and it will take at least a few days for conditions to return to normal. Earlier this week, the near-shore hard-bottom areas and artificial reefs were beginning to round into autumn shape with weakfish and bull red drum showing up. Some of the near-shore reefs have also produced good catches of spadefish this week, with flounder, weakfish and black sea bass also available. Spanish mackerel have been landed near the reefs and especially in the vicinity of inlet passes, where large amounts of bait are flowing into the ocean on a falling tide. Capt. Jeff Maples of Reel Salty Charters caught a few bull reds at Paradise Reef on live finger mullet on a Carolina rig Tuesday. Maples also caught a juvenile sailfish in the 18-20 range on a live bait while fishing for Spanish last Friday. Several small sailfish have been caught by anglers fishing for Spanish along the Grand Strand in the past few weeks. Spanish and whiting are the best bet on Grand Strand piers with bluefish, flounder, black drum, red drum, weakfish and pompano also available. The ocean water temperature was 85.5 degrees Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at Springmaid Pier.

Offshore

Look For: Grouper, vermilion snapper, black sea bass, porgy, triggerfish, grunts, amberjack, wahoo, blackfin tuna, dolphin, sailfish, blue marlin.

Comments: Obviously, fishing will be on hold in the offshore waters for a few days since, as of Thursday afternoon, the NOAA marine forecast called for 14 to 21 foot seas on Saturday, with seas slowly calming in the next few days. Once conditions calm back down, it will be very interesting as fish, including reef fish, move during a hurricane, sometimes to bottom spots closer to shore. Before the storm, bottom fishing was excellent for grouper, most notably scamp, amberjack, vermilion snapper, black sea bass, porgy and triggerfish. Wahoo have been providing the best action for trolling boats with king mackerel, dolphin, blackfin tuna, barracuda, bonito, sailfish and blue marlin also available. Red snapper are off-limits in the South Atlantic region and must be released.

Freshwater

Look For: Bream, catfish, bass.

Comments: There will almost certainly be a rise in the rivers with the deluge expected to be unleashed by Hermine. But “Catfish” Stalvey of Stalvey’s Bait and Tackle in Conway saw a silver lining in the impending storm. “At least the river systems aren’t high right now,” said Stalvey. “The rivers – the Waccamaw, Little Pee Dee, (Great) Pee Dee – right now are low, so it shouldn’t effect it as bad.” Before the storm, catches of bream were good in depths of 3-8 feet along the banks, with fish hitting crickets or worms. Use fresh cut eel or fresh baitfish for catfish.

GREGG HOLSHOUSER

This story was originally published September 2, 2016 at 4:07 PM with the headline "Local fishing report."