My wife has to go to North MB (not too far from Little River) in mid September & then to Hilton Head in Mid October. I was planning on going to one of them with her to do some inlet fishing in my boat (18ft jon boat). I have never fished either one of them & was wondering what would be the better choice for fishing. If any one could chime in that has fished one or both of them that would be great, keep in mind time of year.
Also could you point out any public boat ramps. I saw some while looking around on google but could not tell if some are public or private & I am sure there are some others that I did not see.
Another option would be to leave the boat at home if there are enough good public bank fishing spots at either one of those areas?
I have never fished HHI, but I did grow up boating and fishing in the NMB area. Your best bet for a public boat ramp is either side of the Hwy 17 Little River high rise bridge. The jetties are about a 20-30 min ride north up the ditch. There’s also a public landing behind the police station in NMB, but there’s no dock at all there and it’s another 10 minutes south down the waterway from the LR bridge. (at the same time, it’s always the least crowded.)
There are some good creeks/flats on the way out to the jetties. You could also stay straight at the Calabash crossroads instead of making a right out into LR inlet. There are some good spots up that way but be careful because you get into North Carolina pretty quickly.
If you do end up in NMB, I would check out Cherry Grove Inlet, especially during that time of year. There’s also a public landing there at the end of 53rd ave N, NMB. It gets pretty shallow in there and the tide moves very quickly but you should be fine with a jon boat. The fishing area is nowhere near the size of LR Inlet (the two connect at high tide but I would not reccomend trying to navigate that creek), but CG has some of the best flounder fishing I’ve ever experienced in my life, and you’d be there at almost the perfect time of year from my experience.
Hope this helps
edit: I saw in another thread that you kayak fish. Cherry Grove is perfect for kayak fishing, especially around the canals. Very easy to launch a kayak from the area surrounding the boat landing in CG.