I am in the process of moving to the Charleston area. I have a 24’ Grady White Gulfstream that has been the perfect boat for the waters around Cape Cod. The draw is about 4 to 5 feet.
I plan to do a mix of fishing in SC, but need to know if my boat is not adequate and what is the best boat to have.
Thanks
Matthew
Your boat is perfect
You’re gonna do good
Welcome aboard
Like he said, welcome aboard!
4-5ft is alot for the creeks but you already know that. Not sure how the tides do up there but they swing far n wide around here, something to keep in mind with a bigun like that.
What type of boating and or fishing do you mostly do up there?
Agree with Stump. You’ll miss out on skinny water but lots of deep water around.
5 feet draft on a 24 foot boat?
You must be loaded pretty heavy
Welcome to Dixie
I’d bet the draft on that boat is about 20 inches. He probably likes around 3 foot of water at least to not have to worry about it.
It’s different fishing up there vs here. A 24 Grady will be great for Charleston assuming you want to do some jetty and nearshore fishing. You can push offshore on nicer days without much reservation too.
It depends on what you want to fish for here whether you need a different boat or not. We’ve got great opportunities both inshore shallow and trolling 60 miles off.
Welcome! Fishing here has a wider range of waters than up your way in terms of creeks, rivers, marsh, flats, harbor, near shore, and offshore. As mentioned your 24’ Grady lends itself to those last 3 settings but is too much boat and not shallow enough draft for the first 4 (on a regular basis). So depends what part of the mix you prefer.
Recommend keeping your boat and seeing how it goes for starters, as it may make more sense to add a skiff/jon boat for shallower than swapping out your 24.
Average tide swing here is about 5.5’ per day (over 6’ on full/new moons) so be very careful boating until you have a sense for where you can be at what stage of tide and location of oyster rakes. Saying goes you haven’t really boated here until you get stuck in the pluff mudd for a tide.
Whatever you land on, highly recommend a trolling motor if you don’t already have.