April 4

Saltwater Offshore Reports
1

One forecast was for 1 foot seas on 9 second interval. Nope. More like 2 to 3 on 5 seconds. In this case, the NOAA forecast was closer to right. Wet ride back as the wind picked up, but still a nice day to go out.

Fished in 80 - 90 feet of water at 64 degrees.

The great news for the day was catching our first king mackerel of the year. Caught on a squid pattern jig fished slow (not a high speed jig) at a depth of probably 40 - 60 feet. The king was not on the bottom, but nowhere near the surface either. No smoker by any means but nice to catch one. It seems like our first kingfish of the season the last few years has been right around the first of April and in 80 to 110 feet.

Bottom fishing started slowly and struggled to get on a decent bite even though marking lots of fish on the sounder. Did, however, catch what would likely have been a world record lizardfish and sand perch - that kind of luck.

Switched to a smaller hook size and moved the bait a few cranks off the bottom and started catching steadily on each drift. Ended up with a nice bunch of vermillion and triggers with a few decent sized white grunts thrown in as well. Only caught one ARS and just a few small

BSB’s, a little different mix on this structure than the last few trips.

Every day out is different.

2

Glad you got out and caught some. I went looking for Little Tunny and Sheepshead at the reefs. Did ya’ll see any Little Tunny? Thanks

You can't catch fish on a dry line
3

Caught one little tunny at Edisto 60 on March 27 and caught some and saw many on March 24 near Hunting Island reef. On March 24 they were widely scattered between Hunting Island reef and south of Edisto 40 with lots of birds right on the fish.

On April 4 caught zero little tunny and saw zero bird activity at all at any water depth. Who knows, maybe they moved back out or south with the colder weather over the weekend.

We plan to try nearshore again on Thursday if the forecast holds and will post if see or catch any.

4

I went out between Botany and Deveaux Bank and fished at Edisto 40, Edisto 60,then went to Kiawah reef and by Edisto nearshore on the way in. I didn’t see any birds or fish on the top anywhere.

You can't catch fish on a dry line