I have the opportunity to visit a friend in Wild Dunes this weekend. I am considering heading to the north end of Isle of Palms and either surf fishing around the point or in he channel between IOP and Dewees. Is either spot better than the other? What about the creek at the backside of north end of IOP?
Anyone had any luck in any of these spots? Incoming or outgoing tide?
Thanks in advance for any input.
I have always wondered about the point on IOP thinking it would be worth a look. The only problem is access and it sounds like you have that. Take a walk and scout it out at low tide. If you see troughs, sand bars and pot holes filled with water, you are in a good spot. Remember where they are. Points can be productive, they generally have good “sand” structure, cuts, and hold good rips and currents. Sometimes the water and waves will come together in a V on the points. With the bottom of the V being where you cast into. Work these areas with a half or third of fresh cut shrimp or some finger mullet. Work the rips and currents. The tide produces coming and going as long as you have moving water. Waves are nice too. If I find bars and troughs on a point with water coming together in a “V” and cast into the bottom of the V as the tide rolls out, more often than not fish sit at the point of the V, or a little left, or a little right and use this as an ambush spot and catch the bait fish rolling out to sea. They sit at the end of the conveyor belt and wait for dinner to be brought to them. If you see no V coming together in the water, drop baits in the troughs and holes. Be in it for the long hall. Sometimes you can fish all day with little to show, and when it gets just right the bite can light up. Allot of times I fish for 6-10 hrs with a “window” of a couple of hours being productive. Line those things up at dawn or late afternoon and you “could” have a great day. Good luck!
Thanks, RBR. I’ve read that end of IOP beach goes through a lot of transforming year to year and some part of the beach up that way had to be rebuilt. I will scout it out and do some fishing if it looks good. Hope to have a good report to post.
I was there last July and October… a lot of work was done to the hotel right after the Port of Call. at high tide that spot on the beach is just about impassable…especially with a cart. I don’t know where you are staying but if you have to walk the beach its a really good hike, maybe better if you have a golf cart and can get onto the golf course you can make it up to the point and just have a small distance to get to the creek mouth. Last July there was a father and his two sons that rode their bikes down to the creak mouth…its either around the power lines or just past…and they ended up catching 8 or 10 spotted trout until a boat pulled up to where they were casting because they saw they were pulling them in as fast as they casted out. After that they had nothing. I had given up walking up past the bent about 200 or 300 yds. At low tide there was a rock formation there. caught 8 blue crab by the rocks and one dinner plate stingray. I think it gets deep pretty quick there and the sand is soft like the Breech Inlet, I believe there is also grass and crab on the bottom of the channel. I would think that at the creek mouth with the incoming you may turn up some reds coming in and with the out going some reds going out.
if you need mullet and have a cast net walk south on the beach past the Port of Call down to where the beach curves out. Stay up on the high sand and there should be a giant trough at low tide that holds plenty of mullet, hell you could probably fish there too its like at least 10 ft deep. Might have changed a little or a lot but that’s what I remember.
Great advice. Thank you. I found the trough near the 18th Fairway. Deep and full of mullet and bait fish. Caught small reds in there too. Used the bait fish to catch a 5-6 foot shark in about 8 feet of water just of the beach. I do not know the species. Nearly burned out the drag on my old Daiwa 30H. I’ll try to post a photo; maybe someone can let me know the species, or if photo does not post, tell me how to post a pic.
The way the ocean has eroded the beach at Ocean Club is crazy. Poor owners will probably never be able to sell and have seen their investment deteriorate. Nonetheless, we got caught on the wrong side when tide came in and had a long walk back with our fishing gear.
Would you be willing to share your setup you used on Dewees Inlet? I’ll be there for a week beginning tomorrow and would really like to have a better idea of what to bring.
Thanks.
Happy to pay it forward. As far as targeting fish, re-read the posts above. As for my rig, I had a few.
For the shark rigs, I fished a Daiwa SLOSH50 and Daiwa 30H. Each real had 65# powerpro spectra braided line - about 300 yards on the SLOSH and 200 on the 30H (with a mono backing on each). At the end of the braided line on each rig, I tied about 30 feet of 100# mono (started with more, but hard to cast and cut it way back) using a 15-turn Albright special knot. I used a 5-turn uni-knot to tie the 100# mono to a 200# swivel. To the other end of the 200# swivel, I had 3ft of 200# mono (tied to swivel with an offshore swivel knot), then another 200# swivel, and 3ft of 174# wire haywire twisted to the swivel and to a 7/0 Eagle circle hook at the other end. On the 200# monofilament, I had an orange bead, a coast lock swivel for weight, and another orange bead. The SLOSH50 was on a 12’ BPS Offshore Angler rod and the 30h was on an old 10’ catfish rod (conventional surf reel on a spinning rod - interesting). As has been suggested, I used a glove to cast the braideded line. It can tear through your skin with 4oz pyramid sinker and a bait fish. I can send a pic of rig if I can figure out how to do it.
For catching bait fish, I had two 9’ rods with Okuma ABF 65 reels - one spooled with 14# mono and the other with 20’ braid. The reels were overkill. My son used a smaller Pursuit II and was killing it. I used either a fish finder rig or the similar Carolina rig. I finished with 30# fluorocarbon line to the 1/0 or 2/0 hooks. My bite ratio decreased when I went to a 3/0 hook.
When the guys on this message board talk about not having to cast very far out to catch fish, they are right. My most successful casts were to just behind the spot where the waves broke or into a trough or gulley at high tide.
Thanks for the info.
One thing I learned was to not get stuck past Ocean Club Villas as the tide is coming in. There is very little beach there at low tide and at Hugh tide there is none and the water is like a washing machine. I didn’t even try to walk through it. I compounded my mistake by walking barefoot to Dewees Inlet and paid the price on the walk back. Hot asphalt and bare feet, yeah, you’re going to have a bad time.
I’ve been pretty well skunked the whole time. I did manage to pull in a stingray about 20" wide. For such a small fish it put up a pretty good fight.
So.ething got ahold of my wife’s line and pulled a 4/0 hook right off. Bad not I suppose.
I’ll probably be back out later to give it Not her go.
Try smaller hooks. 4/0 limits the number of fish that can get that size hook in their mouth. Try 1/0 and 2/0.
I would try a smaller hook if I had more time down here. My week is nearing it’s end and I’m going to make sure my son has a good time. There is always more time for fishing.
On a positive note, my wife had her first ever catch tonight. It was a real man-eater. All 12 inches of sand shark. Lol. She was pretty excited so that’s cool.
Thank you for the info. This site has been great reading and I will continue to enjoy it for some time to come.