I’m bringing the family down for our annual week at Edisto May 21-28. I plan on picking 1 or 2 of the best weather days to head offshore. What is biting within 20 miles of shore? I need help trying to decide what to target. How far out would I need to run to have a shot at dolphin this time of year? Are kings running yet? Would I be wasting my time trolling within 20 miles of shore? Anyone have any luck with butterfly jigs on nearshore wrecks? Any and all tips are much appreciated!!
The dolphin are usually good during that time, but they are double that distance out. You wouldn’t necessarily be wasting your time trolling at 20 miles if you find good bottom to troll over. You can pick up Spanish, kings, bonito, amberjack. All great fighting fish, but they don’t taste like dolphin. A Maps Unique chart can easily help you find the marked live bottom spots. The kings show up when the water temp increases a little. You can start finding them at that time of year, but they usually aren’t on fire yet. Your best bet might be to just go find an artificial reef and bottom fish over it. Plenty of sea bass, sheepshead, spades, grouper depending on your depth, sharks, amberjacks. Put out a drift line as you bottom fish and perhaps you’ll have a king or cobia come up and hit. Butterfly jigs will work well on bottom fishing the reefs. Don’t go crazy, simpler is usually better. Squid, cigars for bottomfish. Fiddlers, oysters on light leaders for sheeps. Jellyball strips and light leaders for spades.
If the family gets bored, put down a big live bait and wait for an AJ to eat it. Sit back and enjoy the show!
Reef coordinates can be found here:
http://www.dnr.sc.gov/artificialreefs/
Check out PA-30 and PA-31
I will also be down there may 21-28 looking at doing about the same. Wanting to hit the outer feeds to see what’s deep. Have the vhf on might be able to help each other out
quote:
Originally posted by 23SailfishThe dolphin are usually good during that time, but they are double that distance out. You wouldn’t necessarily be wasting your time trolling at 20 miles if you find good bottom to troll over. You can pick up Spanish, kings, bonito, amberjack. All great fighting fish, but they don’t taste like dolphin. A Maps Unique chart can easily help you find the marked live bottom spots. The kings show up when the water temp increases a little. You can start finding them at that time of year, but they usually aren’t on fire yet. Your best bet might be to just go find an artificial reef and bottom fish over it. Plenty of sea bass, sheepshead, spades, grouper depending on your depth, sharks, amberjacks. Put out a drift line as you bottom fish and perhaps you’ll have a king or cobia come up and hit. Butterfly jigs will work well on bottom fishing the reefs. Don’t go crazy, simpler is usually better. Squid, cigars for bottomfish. Fiddlers, oysters on light leaders for sheeps. Jellyball strips and light leaders for spades.
If the family gets bored, put down a big live bait and wait for an AJ to eat it. Sit back and enjoy the show!
Reef coordinates can be found here:
http://www.dnr.sc.gov/artificialreefs/
Check out PA-30 and PA-31
Thanks Ricky! Huge help. I still need to get down and fish with you sometime! Have you been out much lately?
quote:
Originally posted by JessepgI will also be down there may 21-28 looking at doing about the same. Wanting to hit the outer feeds to see what’s deep. Have the vhf on might be able to help each other out
Awesome! That sounds great. Let’s work together. What channel do you monitor? I’m planning on picking the 2 best days to head out. Other days will be spent chasing kids on the beach or cruising the back water.
I’ll be out there every chance I can get in the mornings but also will have to be a beach bum with the girlfriend haha but I’ll be on 68 most likely
22’ center console “Hakuna Matata”
Unless you have another private channel, I can monitor that one
22’ center console “Hakuna Matata”