Any thoughts on when this water will clear up and how it has affected the fishing?
Well, it has definitely slowed the fishing down. We are having to use loud stuff to catch anythihg. The normal tactics aren’t working for us right now. My theory is that with the dirty water and reduced salinity, along with the heat will have the fish in deeper water and not feeding much during the heat of the day, which is a normal summer patter, but I think it will be tougher than normal. As far as the clearing up, I see it taking around a month to clean up and get to the normal summertime water conditions. We went out, like fools, Saturday morning, and you could literally see the chocolate milk flowing in from the feeder creeks during low tide. Up on the flats was ridiculous. Even at the jetties there is less that a foot of visability right now. We caught 1 flounder, it was a nice 22", on a spinnerbait fished up in the rocks. But I think it was luck and it just happened to fall on it’s head. We didn’t get another bit all morning. So, if we don’t have another storm, and we don’t get much rain, we should be able to fish like normal in mid-August. Good luck, man!
Actually saw a lot better water up at Shallotte Inlet today. Still no predator fish, though.
p.s. this is the first week-long trip to the beach, anywhere, where I have yet to see flipper. Not off the beach, not in the ICW. Not one sighting.
best bet is at the jetties on the rising tide when the water is the clearest. Inshore is good in the extreme shallows up creeks, but all of the main creeks and channels are muddy. Don’t waste your time there. Flipper should be along the beach out several miles where the bait is hanging.
Yesterday, we saw some good water on the incoming up on the flats. Also had 5 reds, a sheepshead and a flounder to boot. Flounder was short. Biggest red was 34" down to 18.5, and the sheephead was 14". Steady bite for about an hour. Visibility looks to be about 2.5’ where we were yesterday. Good luck, but we still haven’t seen flipper inside like we usually do. Finnaddict knows the deal!!! Fin, we got down to Awendaw last weekend. Caught a flounder at the old hotspot on the incoming, then we headed to the flats to look for tails on the flood tide. We saw a lot, but we didn’t have what they wanted, I guess. They wouldn’t take Gulp! or finger mullet. With that said, it was our first time doing it, so I may have a thing or two to learn, plus the wind was blowing gale and it was tough to lead the fish and put the bait in their path. Maybe next time. It’s always good to see so few boats while on the water.