Holiday fishing anyone?

Hey. Im off of work until Jan 5 and am dying to put a line in the water. New to saltwater fishing and was wondering would it even be worth my time to head to the coast and if so where? Would love to meet up with anyone else heading out to the surf.

I will be out a bit myself, Whiting, Black Drum, Flounder and Red Drum are all still around. IMO fresh shrimp on the bottom, smaller hooks wil catch them all. If you want to catch some Stingrays, soak some nasty mullet chunks.

Good Luck!

“If it were catching, Everyone would be good at it.”

Thanks for the response dparker677. Where would you recommend? I see you frequent IOP. Im coming from Columbia. I normally pier fish in MB and have once gone to the south end of Pawleys Island. Again, Im a newbie so ill take any and all recommendations.

quote:
Originally posted by Sir Fish-a-lot

Thanks for the response dparker677. Where would you recommend? I see you frequent IOP. Im coming from Columbia. I normally pier fish in MB and have once gone to the south end of Pawleys Island. Again, Im a newbie so ill take any and all recommendations.


How long will you be down? That’s the trick. Folly beach county park is always a got bet. There you could try south of the first wall closer to the entrance, or move down to the groin at end of the parking lot. On Folly beach itself, I’ve only been 2 times since re-nourishment a lot of the groins are not visible. South of the pier to the park. 8th-12th east, 1585 east Ashley south to the next groin. And others for sure. Have not been in a while.

IOP, Just south of the pier, 10th-6th. 22nd-28th. 36th-44th. 44th-53rd. All can be good at times.

I don’t fish the piers so I really can’t comment. Seems like a lot of spots to hit in 1-2 days. Look for the deeper holes. Find them at the low tide. Sat. looks to be nice.

Thanks a lot dparker. I plan on coming down either friday or sat for one day (both days look good) unless i can find a room at a decent rate and do both. You lost me at first talking about the groins and started listing numbers but after a little research i now understand :-). Can you fish off of the groins? Went online to check the tides both days and at both low tides come at a time it will be dark. Any other recommendations.

The tides are a little messed up for scouting holes. Maybe folly county park? Fish the wall and the groin, if nothing, move up the beach just south of the pier, 6th-4th ave? Usually a nice ditch in that area. I haven’t fished folly a lot lately, but those areas are pretty consistent. Come on down, fish all day. Probably the best plan IMO.

Good luck and Merry Christmas.

Thanks dparker. I think im going to take your advice and go on down.

First thing I would do is lower my expectations of catching and come on down for the sand and sea breeze.

Maybe I’m confused, but if you are coming down the 2nd or 3rd, I’m seeing mid day low tides, which will work out better for the County Park. They don’t open the gate till 10;00am most days unless they have a crew working down there. If you are early and park out on the street, remember to keep your tires off the pavement and face the direction of traffic flow or you will get a ticket. (parking is only on the ocean side of the street on the west end)

When you first enter the park there is a gazebo on your left. Out in front are some pilings but are totally exposed at low tide so don’t offer fish any structure. I’d go all the way down in the parking lot to the long cement and rock jetty. Walk down to the rocks and fish in the hole on the west (south) side of the rocks. There is a nice hole right now but I have not fished it with bait. Water is usually murky due to swell action so cut bait is the way to go down there.

There is a HT or Crosby’s seafood on the way to Folly where you can pick up some freshish shrimp. If you have a cast net bring it too as there may be some mullets in the gulley, and don’t let people tell you they are only for bait! Although the gulley was void of life last week, you never know what and when stuff gets trapped in there. Thinking mostly black drum right now and the occasional random red so smaller hooks are better as someone else already stated.

Also picked up quite a few small shark teeth last week left over from the renourishment, never know when that big ole megalodon might appear, keep your eyes peeled.

Good luck and have fun.

Did you make it down yet?

Thanks for the input Mugil. Gave me a lot of good info to think about. Very much appreciated!

Dparker- I didnt make it down. Family stuff popped up so there was a change of plans. Was lookin at the forecast for this upcoming week but the only clear days are looking to be New Years Eve and New Years Day. Unfortunately for me, I go back to work the following Monday so I have no idea when I’ll be able to put the info received to the test. Apparently though, based of various posts, the fish werent doing much of anything this past weekend so i really didnt miss much

Fished it for a little over an hour day after Christmas, (I was confused, had no idea what day of the week it was)at high tide. The trough is/was set up perfectly all the way from the pilings to the jetty, except for the H2O temperature. The pilings had a really nice area around the structure, probably 4 feet deep. It looked much better than the jetty rocks at that stage of the tide.

Walked the length of it throwing plastics but not a touch, although I did see quite a few mullet, not much else going on.

Hope to get some surf fishing in the next few weeks if the weather cooperates. A long way till April.

Ill bE out on folly pier sunday {tomorrow} look for the grocery cart carryin the gear tward the diamond…my name is will and ill have a giant named John with me. pier opens at 10 am…see ya there Buddy… cut mullet and fresh shrimp from crosbys and also have had some luck with frozen whole squid for sharpnose and rays. most likely rays and sharks this time of year.

Some Fish Some Catch
15.5 glassmaster
70hp evinrude vro

Billdozer- Man I wish i knew more about surf/pier fishing. I figured if i didnt get out last week then that was gonna be it until late april when the temp changes. Goin back to work on Monday and using the next two days to get caught up on work I should have done over the last two weeks. If I wasnt though Id be right there along with you. Appreciate the invite. If you make any future plans PM me in advance. Id love to have a salt water fishing buddy.