Newbie here, and by the way nice forum!! Well, just a little info…I was ice fishing on a local pond just last week, lol. I am from northern Maine and we still have snow on the ground. All the reason I just booked a vacation for IOP next April. I am a die hard fisherman and have been checking out charters and all that online for that area. I am sure they are worth every penny, but I am the type that if I can do it on my own it would be awesome!! Thinking of renting a boat for the day and trying my luck. I know absolutely nothing about saltwater fishing. I am an avid fly-fisherman, but for brook trout and salmon. Sometimes I hit up the LM Bass, which we have an unbelievable fishery. Looking for any info, location, techniques, flies, fish to target, etc. I know this is asking a lot as our fishing forums up home are pretty tight lipped, lol. I would hope to repay the favor to someone coming up this way sometime and a few beers and a meal when I am down to IOP. Heck, I’ll even take ya fishing!! Thanks a bunch. PM me any info. Tight lines!!
The boats available for rent are not exactly set up for fly fishing. Not to mention the marina has boundaries that will limit you from the ideal areas for fly fishing. By the time you rent a boat and pay for fuel you wouldn’t be that far away from the cost of a charter with someone like Ben Alderman who is the person I would book for a trip, he is relentless when it comes to pursuing redfish on the fly. Just my .02
Charleston Fishing’s most hated guide!
Charleston City Papers Best Guide of 2014
^ he speaks the truth
2007 Scout 221 150 Yamaha 4 stroke
I can’t attest to Ben Alderman since I don’t know anything about him, but considering Fritz just suggested that you check out someone that is technically his “competition”, I suspect he’s worth a shot. Fritz knows his own business quite well.
He’s also right about the money you’ll spend (and time likely waste) on trying to find a boat rental that will work. If you’re spending that sort of money, just hire a guide.
Around here you need to learn the tide, behavior patterns of the fish, the lures, and presentation (ie, basically like any other new territory, except dealing with the tide in saltwater can be puzzling to newcomers here). Add to that the fact that you really need to learn the layout and bottom structure of the areas you’re fishing… a guide will know all this.
I’m probably the biggest cheapskate on this forum, but a guide is the only thing I can fathom that will give you the sort of day(s) you are looking for.
… The Cross of Christ is the anvil upon which the hammer of evil wore itself out.
Thanks fellas, I have been doing a bit of research and I think you are all correct about hiring a guide. Is late April a good time for spots?? From what I have read it is a key time if the weather is right for the Fiddlers to be coming out, hence buffet time for spots. Feel free to throw out any more advice/suggestions for anything from fishing to places to eat, a year away and can hardly contain myself. Thanks again fellas!!
Fishing for spots, no, fall is your best time. But I doubt you are looking for “spots”. I think you mean “spottail bass” aka red drum aka redfish.
Spots are a small, tasty little panfish that look a lot like a bluegill. They have a spot on their gill plate, hence their name. In the fall, up around Myrtle Beach, they run in large numbers and aren’t hard to catch at all on scraps of shrimp and bloodworms. Lots of old salts fill up their 5g buckets with spots fishing from piers.
April is a great time for redfish/spottails.
Places to eat-- my favorite place in Mt. Pleasant is the Mustard Seed. Look them up. Reasonable prices but great food.
As for seafood places to eat, I usually cook my own because I’m a better cook than most restaurants could afford to hire lol (at least to my palate I am)… but if I am going out for seafood, Hyman’s Seafood in downtown Charleston is tops. There are other good places out there.
… The Cross of Christ is the anvil upon which the hammer of evil wore itself out.
quote:
Originally posted by Redfish_mattFishing for spots, no, fall is your best time. But I doubt you are looking for “spots”. I think you mean “spottail bass” aka red drum aka redfish.
Spots are a small, tasty little panfish that look a lot like a bluegill. They have a spot on their gill plate, hence their name. In the fall, up around Myrtle Beach, they run in large numbers and aren’t hard to catch at all on scraps of shrimp and bloodworms. Lots of old salts fill up their 5g buckets with spots fishing from piers.
April is a great time for redfish/spottails.
Places to eat-- my favorite place in Mt. Pleasant is the Mustard Seed. Look them up. Reasonable prices but great food.
As for seafood places to eat, I usually cook my own because I’m a better cook than most restaurants could afford to hire lol (at least to my palate I am)… but if I am going out for seafood, Hyman’s Seafood in downtown Charleston is tops. There are other good places out there.
… The Cross of Christ is the anvil upon which the hammer of evil wore itself out.
Yes, you are correct and apologize for sounding so ignorant, lol. The only saltwater fishing I have done is deep sea fishing off from the Maine coast for Haddock and Cod. Went once off from NC and hammered the Grouper and Snapper, talk about good eats!! Thanks, looking forward to my visit. 
You’ll enjoy your time here. I’ve always wanted to visit coastal Maine, one of the top places in the States I want to visit… along with coastal Alaska.
… The Cross of Christ is the anvil upon which the hammer of evil wore itself out.
Thanks Fritz!
He’s very enthusiastic 
14’ Skiff-“Redfish Reaper”
Ben is good people…and will put you on the redfish.
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