This is my first time at Hilton Head. I have a 19 foot center console 115 hp with 11 inch draft. I’ve read a lot about the area on this wonderful site but still have a couple of questions. I’m nervous about the size of the tides. Is the current running through the creeks strong enough that it makes them difficult to navigate? I will mostly be fishing for reds and and any trout that at around. Should I fish at low tide or high tide or in between? I usually use DOA shad but my wife likes to fish with live bait. What live bait should I use, shrimp, mud minnows or some kind of cut bait? Should I just anchor up at a likely looking spot or wait till I see some fish or have caught some on the DOA shad? Any other advise will help calm my nervousness. Great site and really helpful people. Thanks in advance
welcome to the site. I don’t fish Hilton head but can tell you how I fish around Charleston and you can apply said techniques however you wish. Given my choice I fish rising tide. I also enjoy live bait…especialy now when the creeks are full of it. Live shrimp or menhaden under a cork, you can’t go wrong. 1. Look for a small creek feeding into a larger one with an oyster bed at or by the mouth. Float your shrimp right through there. 2. Look for birds diving along a bank on a larger/main creek. Stay back and see if you can tell what is going on…which direction are the fish coraling the bait in? Get “down stream” of the fish, be quiet and toss a couple live shrimp out in front of them under a cork. If you’re out on a falling tide look for grass islands or grass flats and fish the smaller creek mouths coming out/off of the flat. Basicaly like every other type of fishing…figure out where the bait is and is going to be and do your best. Good luck.
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