I fished the Georgetown tarpon tourney on Friday and even though we didn’t manage to hook up we did see a few. Oh, we did hook up with an 8’ Gator that we actually got to the boat, have a video.
So, Plan A Saturday was to see if I could find any in our area. Well, I don’t know how many people were out in the am but it was cold and windy. Bait was tough to find so I went to Plan B, inshore.
Went to a couple of spots on the last of the outgoing and had a lot of fun with a bunch of trout and small reds. They were stacked up along a bank that was protected by the wind. Caught most on a Vudu shrimp under a cork, and a few on dark paddle tails. Forgot how much fun this could be as I haven’t done a lot of this type of fishing for a while.
For folks that are reading this that may be new to the area or fishing and are looking for tips this is for you. 90% of the fish I caught were withing a foot of the bank/oysters/grass. If i was 3’ from the bank I didn’t get a bite. most of the fish hit nearly as soon as the bait hit the water, i then twitched it back so the shrimp wouldn’t get caught up on the oysters or grass.You end up loosing some tackle, but you really need to be in where the fish feel safe. I tried to get them on a fly but was tough getting the presentation right with the wind, managed one hook up but lost it when it jumped.
Cheers
You ain’t trying if you ain’t re-tying! Thanks for the report! Oh, and leave them gators to the cajuns haha
Fishing Nerd
“skilled labor isn’t cheap, cheap labor isn’t skilled”
Hey Stump, thanks, you gonna be on line later?
cheers
I’m not a Dr, those are my initials and I cant edit my user name. Please do not contact me regarding medical issues 
Pathfinder 25 Hybrid
Yessir… Should be!
Fishing Nerd
“skilled labor isn’t cheap, cheap labor isn’t skilled”
quote:
Originally posted by StumpNocker
Yessir… Should be!
wife is out of town, so looking fwd to a couple of hours!
Fishing Nerd
“skilled labor isn’t cheap, cheap labor isn’t skilled”
I’m not a Dr, those are my initials and I cant edit my user name. Please do not contact me regarding medical issues
Pathfinder 25 Hybrid
Fished yesterday morning. Caught a 19” red in the stono at about 7 am. After 10 mins of no more bites headed to Folly. Wind and current heading same direction so headed to Kiawah after about 10 mins. Right about dead low fished the windward side for about 30 mins working the bank with no bites. Headed to the leeward bank just as the tide was starting to turn. Tons of bait but no bites. Saw some thrashing about 75 yards upriver headed there and saw it was a shark, but saw a few big V’s and thrashing another 50 yards upriver. One was a shark but unsure of the other V’s. Casted right up near the bank and after a couple of casts finally hooked up when the bait was 30 feet off the bank close to the boat. Wife caught a 20” red. Same thing happened again with another 20” or so red catching him near the boat just when I was about to recast. We realized the fish were off the bank and moved the boat 20 feet further away. All in all caught 3 fish in the 20” range, popped two off at the boat (forgot the net at the house), popped off / another 3-4 good sized fish, caught 5-6 in the 12-15” range, and a 13” and 14.5” flounder. Wore jackets the whole time cause it was cold which was awesome…
So similar to you we found the fish in the wind protected side but different from you they were all a good distance from the bank (though it was still only 2-4ft deep there). Have been out of town for the last 1.5 months and this was the first trip out and it was FAR more productive than the 15 or so times I went out in June / early July. Don’t know if the bite is better now or what but it was very encouraging. Also encouraging to see flounder in this size range vs the 8 inches I’ve been catching the last year or so
We fished Saturday morning and searched for bait for over an hour, couldn’t find the menhaden anywhere. Gave up and headed up the Cooper for some dink trout and flounder on artificials.
Glad we weren’t the only ones that couldn’t find live menhaden.