Taking a trip offshore on Saturday morning. My buddy and i will both have our 10 year old sons with us and really want to make it a good trip (looks to be good weather and waves). Unfortunately I am a big inshore guy and my buddy is a true novice at fishing. I have been offshore before but don’t really know where to go for a good bottom fishing…trolling a bit for anything we can catch. We are going to be in a 32 Seafox so we would like to hit a reef a little further out than what I am used to in my smaller boat(Charleston 60). Any recommendations what reef to hit??? How far out do we need to get before trolling or finding a weed line…again…we are both pretty green.
Any tips appreciated…
Look at DNR artificial reefs, there is a lot of them, Vermillion reef, Comanche artificial reef Charleston near shore reef, Charleston 60, get some jelly balls for Spadefish fishing. Read the forums, some people are catching Mahi at Buoy Charlie trolling.
32 foot boat your in good shape.
I went and having been going to area 12 & 77 maps unique. My fishing buddy , retired charter captain says now is the time to drop lines for trolling at 60 feet.
Today I went to the ledge. On the way out at 72 feet there was grass and schools of flying fish.
Bottom fishing you can use jigs, I always have a homemade rig for chum, cat or dog food. Menhaden oil soaked in a sponge in the chum bucket, just soak the sponge in oil, works great.
When you hit the reef drop a line with squid on it, wait a few minutes, no hits move a mile. If your sonar is good you can see the outlines of the tug boats. Make sure you use a reef anchor. Look on line you can make several fo $ 20, when the arms get bent , bend them back . Better to loose a $5 reef anchor then a $ 70 Danford anchor.
Use a anchor ball to retrieve 100 plus feet of anchor line,
Go troll edisto banks early am until like 10 30 and while trolling look for bumps on the screen. A bump with fish marks means its a good spot. Bonita kings dolphin cuda aj cobia and all types of bottom fish. By a couple boxes of chum and chum like crazy while bottom fishing.
Here is my $.02 about fishing with kids in that age / experience range. I’m in much the same situation with 12 & 8 year old sons and a couple of their friends. If it is their first time, I would take them out to 60-80’ and have them drop squid to the bottom on chicken rigs and let them go to town on black seabass, triggers and whatever else comes up.
When they pull up a pinfish or some other whitefish rig it up on a duster rig, tie a balloon 5-6’ above the bait and sling it out behind the boat on a heavy spinning rod. Sooner or later a barracuda, king mackerel, shark or something will grab it and they’ll spend the rest of the summer grinning like a mule eating briers which is how you hook them on going again and again!
Get the numbers for the reefs from the DNR website, plug them in your GPS and pick one. I wouldn’t mess with the trolling at this point in the season unless you are trolling for kings. Even then, trolling gets boring for kids pretty quickly. Having a fish hooked up within 20 seconds of their line hitting the bottom is much more fun for them.
I second the maps unique. I would go to black banks and look around the live bottom numbers in 80-95 fow. You’ll find beeliners, sea bass, porgies and chances at some bigger fish too. If you want to find Mahi you’re running 50+ miles. Weed lines often found starting about 5 miles past the ledge and on out.
Couple of apps out there SailFlow, ReefCast, NOAA buoys info to look at .
I have a 21 foot boat my limit is 3 feet ,15 knots.
Here is what to look for 2 foot waves at 10 seconds great ride , all day & next. If at 1600 the weather is suppose to change to 3 feet at 4 seconds , stay home.
Baby yourself off shore, check the wind,waves & weather, one day go 20 miles out testing your navigation skills, how your boat handles. Then next time a little further.
Learn the weather and understand the changing conditions. At 2 foot waves no white caps, at 3 foot waves small white caps will form. Get your butt in gear and head for home.
I have a lot of experience form the Navy, BUT driving a 500 foot ship vs a 21 foot boat there is no comparison. Take small steps until you feel comfortable., ALWAYS respect the sea.
Go to Haddrells tackle in Mt. Pleasant and get the maps unique for the Charleston area. It’s a map showing live bottom and reefs coordinates. I would wait to take them younguns too far out until you get more experience with weather and how your boat handles the seas. Stick to the closer reefs. I’ve taken teenagers out, but never further than the Edisto Offshore reef, or Comanche(that was pushing it).
which is how you hook them on going again and again!