I’ve been seeing some comments here about Grillage is this the Grillage that everybody is talking about?
Station 12 St, Sullivan’s Island, SC 29482
Any ■■■■■■■■ about fishing on this area?
It is basically under and around the red bouy.
Technically the Grillage is tough to reach from shore, unless you are a long distance caster, but you can get close. If you go to Station 13 beach access on Sullivans and head left on the beach you will see a sign about dangerous currents, and a red buoy out in the water to the left of the rock jetty. Out past the red buoy you will see lots of boats anchored on the edge of the shipping channel from Station 13 to Station 16 in the spring and fall. There is a big drop off here, and the bull reds like to hang out in this area. If you don’t have a boat best bet is to fish around low tide and cast out towards the red buoy, and left of the buoy. Cut mullet or finger mullet has worked best here for me.
This link from DNR shows most of the well known fishing spots in the harbor area. The Grillage is shown on page 9.
http://www.dnr.sc.gov/marine/tagfish/pdf/CharlestonHarbor.pdf
@Graceandhayes thanks for the information very helpful…Since I dont have a boat any info about just fishing from the surf on this area of Sullivan’s?
If fishing this area of Sullivans I prefer the area mentioned above - between Station 13 and Station 16. Since there is not much surf/breaking waves on the harbor side of Sullivans the technique here is a bit different than fishing out into the surf/breaking waves. Since the fish here are not drawn in by the wave action to feed, you are looking for spots near structure or good drop offs. The rock jetties here provide good structure and eddies to hold fish. Fishing around the jetties you will find flounder, trout, and smaller black sea bass. These fish usually will take mud minnows or finger mullet on a carolina rig, or the trout like the bait suspended in the water column also - like under a float. The reds and blues will be a farther out - cast as far as you can trying to reach the drop off for the shipping channel. I prefer cut mullet or whole finger mullet, on the bottom. The red buoy is a good marker - cast towards that, or move down towards Station 16 casting out trying to reach the drop off.
Honestly I have not fished Sullivans for a year or two. There are likely folks on this forum with better and more recent info on Sullivans. I think most of the bull reds caught on Sullivans are being caught in the surf, facing the ocean, and not in this area which faces the harbor. I also like the area on Sullivans around the elementary school and the lighthouse. I am sure someone on here will correct me, or provide more recent/better info on this area of Sullivans.
I found a couple of places on IOP with good troughs and cuts in the sandbars which almost always produce fish. I generally fish IOP from April to November. In the Summer I generally only fish close in with fresh shrimp and small hooks. In the Spring and Fall I still fish a rod close in with shrimp, but also put a larger rod out just beyond the last sandbar with cut mullet on a slightly larger rig. By small rig I mean double drop with #2 circle hooks. By large rig I use a fish finder rig with 2/0 - 4/0 circle hook and cut mullet.
This great info I actually plan to go there tomorrow never done any surf fishing in the area I would just like to try it out, I always fish on the pier by Demetre in James Island. Will probably move to a different spot if I don’t see any bite within 2 hours.