Hi Everyone, first post here. My brother, nephew and I are driving down to Florida next week to see our Dad over Thanksgiving week. We are towing my 17’ Alumacraft Competitor Sport Deep-V w/ 60 ETEC to fish throughout our trip. Our plan is to swing by the Charleston area to saltwater fish for 2 full days. I have read many of the posts and it looks to be a great place to fish/enjoy the scenery, but way too many options/rivers/honey holes/etc. We are looking for recommendations to launch the boat, general areas to fish saltwater inshore and hotels/towns to stay. Any advice would be great.
Towards optimizing the scenery/local experience I’d suggest launching at Shem Creek, which is the only such recreational point of interest of it’s kind in the area (plan on lunch at one of the several options thereon). There are many good fishing spots that have been discussed here within close proximity to Shem. Good luck. Pay close attn to depths on your NAV as there are at least two sticky flats, immediately outside mouth of Shem to the right, and a short distance north along the east side of the Mt Pleasant Channel before you hit the red buoy.
You are picking a great time of year to fish here as long as the wind does not get you. Remleys Point is a good spot to launch. And the Wando ricer is a great fishery. Focus on points and feeder creeks using either live bait or artificials. I would recommend stopping in one of our local tackle shops and getting information as well as having them show you a map or two. There are a lot of areas, if you are not familiar with the area that can case some problems ie oyster beds and sandbars in the rivers. There Are plenty of hotels located right there in Mount Pleasant near the Remleys launch
The bite is on fire right now so I don’t know that you could pick a bad spot. I’m more familiar with the Wando river and the lower end of the Cooper river and the bite is great there too. The trout are there in numbers AND size and the reds are there and still coming in. We launch at Remley Point 99% of the time. It’s a public boat ramp in Mt. Pleasant, just off HWY 17 and the Ravenel bridge. There are TONS of hotels within a short drive to the ramp. Downtown Charleston and Mt. Pleasant hotels will be a bit more expensive than near the airport or North Charleston. Granted, North Charleston wouldn’t be very high on my places to visit/stay list. The ramp is in good shape and there’s a good amount of parking. While there is rarely kayakers and paddle boaders to contend with at Remleys, you still have your typical googans that jack up the flow at the ramp so be patient, especially if you’re fishing on the weekend. It’s not as crowded during the week.
Look at an aerial map of the area and you’ll see tons of small feeder creeks that run into the Wando and the Cooper. Don’t be afraid to get in skinny water. I only use lures and I’m usually rigged to cover all three levels of the water column. I would have topwater bait of some sort (walk the dog-style, popper-style), minnow imitation swimbaits (3"-5"…don’t be afraid to throw big baits) and suspending twitch baits (MirrOdine) to cover the middle and bottom bouncing baits. For my bottom bouncing baits, I like various Z-Man soft plastics but whatever soft plastics you use, do yourself a favor and get some Eye Strike jigheads. You can also use them with your swimbaits.
I’m sure some of the fellas that use cut/live bait could tell you more about that approach. Good luck and safe travels.
The Red Roof Inn and Days Inn at Patriots Point (Mount Pleasant) are very reasonably priced, have space to park the boat and are very close to both Shem Creek and Remleys
Do NOT stay at Red Roof Inn at Patriots Point! It is DIRTY and NASTY! I stayed there last summer and it was a nightmare. As for fishing, we always launch at Isle of Palms Marina. There are many great fishing spots along the inter coastal waterway. The marina also has live bait. Good luck.
Do NOT stay at Red Roof Inn at Patriots Point! It is DIRTY and NASTY! I stayed there last summer and it was a nightmare. As for fishing, we always launch at Isle of Palms Marina. There are many great fishing spots along the inter coastal waterway. The marina also has live bait. Good luck.
Bearcat
Can’t say I’ve personally stayed at RR in a couple of years, but I did stay at Days Inn across the street from it a couple weeks ago and it was very clean and only about $80/night,
IOP Marina is a decent ramp to launch at and the shop has pretty much a little bit of anything and everything (the grill in the back cranks out some good breakfast vittles) but there is a launch fee. Too many good free ramps around to want to pay to launch. Plus, this is one of those ramps that can and does get crowded by kayakers and paddle boarders. Granted, there probably won’t be too many of that crowd on the water this time of year.
IOP Marina is a decent ramp to launch at and the shop has pretty much a little bit of anything and everything (the grill in the back cranks out some good breakfast vittles) but there is a launch fee. Too many good free ramps around to want to pay to launch. Plus, this is one of those ramps that can and does get crowded by kayakers and paddle boarders. Granted, there probably won’t be too many of that crowd on the water this time of year.
God bless the “ignore” function.
Only place in Chas I put in any more. Just the breakfast is worth the $10 launch fee. lol
Central location to some good fishing and I like the way the ramp is situated, making in easy to get the boat back on the trailer no matter what the tide is doing.
Thank you everyone for your advice and suggestions. I ran into a high school buddy yesterday who owned a fishing charter in Charleston 10 years ago. He also told me about some spots to net Menhaden’s and recommended I fish the jetty rocks if the winds/tides(outgoing) permit. I also plan to fish the rivers around Shem/Remley launches per your suggestions. Can’t wait. I’ll chime back in during/after my trip to share my experience.
Good plan but I would not fish the jettys if I were you. No offense but there is a lot that can go wrong out there if you aren’t familiar with saltwater/nearshore angling. Strong currents, big tide variations, giant rocks and container ships throwing big wakes at you. PLENTY of water you can fish in the rivers and creeks, much safer.