Not a Charleston report, but thought some of you might appreciate it. Fished the Hatteras surf and soundside hard from Thurs-Sun last week. Kayak fishing the sound was ok, but there’s a ton of water to cover and we never got the perfect conditions for sight fishing the grass beds. Surf was slow for the first few days, but we managed plenty of big whiting and other critters for dinner. Wind switched to ne on Sat and the water started to clean up. Lost a triple digit shark (I assume) when he tail whipped a kayaked bait 7-8 feet above the leader. Still caught nice whiting, blues, couple flounder, and a 1.5 pound spot.
By Sunday, the water was Bahamas blue and the fishing got hot. Caught several red drum in the 26 inch range (keepers there) and black drum of the same size. Nice Pompano and whiting too. Heartbreak of the trip was a 50+ Pound cobia that I got into the wash. Had some gaffing issues with my relatively green crew, and she popped off 80 pound leader. In the future, I will be handing off the rod and dragging her up myself, but this was just a shakedown trip.
I grew up fishing Hatteras, but haven’t been back in 15 years. I’m pretty sure this will become a yearly trip and we will have 2-3 kayaked baits out there at all times.
been wondering how you did man, nice report! really sucks about the cobia though, not the same eating giant spot for dinner i’m sure. did she eat a live kayaked bait?
I caught one pompano at folly last week, probably my first in over 10 years. under a pound, but made me happy. surf has been alive with whiting, blue, baby sharks and baby rays lately, not a lot of quality fish for the numbers though.
Thanks buddy. No live baits kayaked, just whiting heads. That seems to be the standard up there and there were several big cobia landed off the beach while we were there, including a 90 pounder. Whiting and pompano were mostly in the 1-2 pound range, but we also saw several 3+ pounders come in. I kept a 26 inch black drum for dinner, and while I generally like any black drum, this one had grouper quality meat. Don’t know if it’s the fact that it came from the surf, or the cleaner water, but the meat was incredibly firm and sweet.
I think the we could have got on more cobia, but the Park Service has the point shut down for (non-threatened) American Oyster Catchers. Apparently, they saw a pair of potentially breeding birds a month or so prior to our trip.
What’s the deal on catching pompano? We’re staying at the beach in a couple weeks and I’d like to try to catch a few. Sounds like you had a good trip. May take the family up there sometime.
The big fish are almost all caught on double drop rigs with light 20-25# flouro rigs and either very fresh shrimp or, even better, big roe sand fleas. Always use a bead in front of a small hook, preferably snelled. Some of the really good pomp fisherman I’ve been in contact with have rigs tied with different colors of beads and the bite can change daily from orange, pink, green, etc. Walmart jewelry isle has the full selection. If you don’t want to tie your own, look for a “river rig” at Frisco rod and gun and some of the other local shops.
Sorry, I misread your post and replied with Hatteras in mind, but the concept is the same. Look for clean water and fish sloughs and just inside or outside the outer bar for bigger solitary fish, but don’t ignore the wash in front of the breakers for numbers. A light wind from any direction for 24 hours is good, but a light E wind will really clean things up. You’ll mostly get SW here in the summer, so you are ideally just looking for a few days of light wind. Good luck.
Yeah sorry I should have started a separate thread. Thanks for the tips. I’ll look into those rigs.
We have gotten into giant Pompano in Garden City. I concur on the clear, clean water.
We have gotten into giant Pompano in Garden City. I concur on the clear, clean water.
How far out do you cast for pompano? Some people say in the wash/bubbles but isn’t that awful shallow?