Just wanted to say that I have been following the posts on this forum since I moved to Charleston in June of last year from Kentucky and y’all have pretty much taught me everything I know about inshore fishing. It is very obvious that some of you all are an absolute wealth of knowledge and I can’t thank everyone enough for all the help you have already provided.
I started off fishing the Mt. Pleasant pier and learned A LOT from the locals in a short amount of time. It didn’t take long until I found myself there every chance that I could and I was catching a ton of fish too. After being in my job for awhile I was fortunate enough to purchase my first boat. Man, I can’t tell you how freaking pumped I was to explore the water without being confined to the pier and I have hit the water every time I have gotten the chance whether that be the weekend or a few hours after work on week days. Something I have learned very quickly is the learning curve from the pier to the boat has been pretty steep and I am definitely struggling.
What I am wondering now is what the heck am I doing wrong that I am not catching any fish! I fish around the James Island creek area a lot fishing points and creeklets like you all have described and I am getting skunked day after day after day. Within the next week I am going to be moving to Mt. Pleasant so I will be doing a lot of fishing around the wando and the cooper as well. On a typical day I use a variety of z-man soft plastics, billy bay shrimp imitations, or live mud minnows under a cork. At the moment I must say I am a tad bit discouraged. I will continue to go out day after day regardless because I know it is part of the learning process and who doesn’t enjoy a day out on the water but catching fish would be a nice added bonus. Let me know via PM or even on this forum is you have any other tips that may be helpful to my learning process. Sorry for the super long post and thanks in advance to all you inshore pros out there!
“You have to pay your dues” is what my uncle used to tell me.
Sounds like your doing everything right, try logging tides as you fish, and most importantly as you catch. Some people would disagree with me, but when i go out to seriously catch fish, i have atleast 4 or 5 backup spots, I pull up to the first one and typically put a shrimp on a cork, a mud minnow on a cork, and see what gets bitten first, then swap the other rod to what got bitten and see what happens. If nothing bites either choice baits in say, 10-15 minutes, i move on.
When times are especially slow and normal tactics arent working, go find a crabber in the ICW throw him a couple beers and get a blue crab, quarter it, find the biggest structure you can and hold on.
Good luck!
Look at where Jesus went to pick people. He didn’t go to the colleges; he got guys off the fishing docks.
I guess its the details that are keeping you from catching. 95% of the fish are in 5% of the water or something like that.
Here is an example if you are fishing under a float along the grass at higher tides. If your float is 2 ft off the grass you might get skunked.
If it is within 1 foot you might have a banner day. It can be little things like that.
For artificials, you want to keep moving and covering a lot of area until you get a bite, then dwell there for a bit and see if there are more fish around (there probably is) and see if you can figure out a pattern. Hope this helps!
Thanks for the advice guys it definitely doesn’t go unnoticed and I will be working to put this information to practice. Something else I was thinking that could be of a disadvantage to me is knowing where to anchor in relation to spots. I’m sure there are some solid articles that I can read about that too.
To answer you question FishinMission I don’t own anything above a 3000 reel and prefer to use my ultralight, 25 Quantum Smoke on an ALX Boku Speck 7.
Sorry guys that last message was me as well. Made that account months ago and forgot the password to the account and the corresponding email account. Guess my phone was still logged in haha. Didn’t want y’all to think I ignored the valuable advice! Thanks
Hang in there Mike!! It’s called ‘fishing’ not ‘catching’ for a reason! If you follow this forum you can easily get discouraged because most, if not all posts, are success stories. Very few posts with pics of getting skunked. We all have our dry spells. Everybody has great advise from logging your trips, monitoring tides, et al. I would add that you also need to explore artificial baits but, the key here is make sure you know how to use them (plenty of videos on youtube.) I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen using artificial lures incorrectly. I have one fake-bait that I use a lot, almost always catch something with it. Tried to show others but, they just can’t grasp and to make the action work. It’s trial and error, get smarter and more educated each time you go out.
I’ve notice on many occasions that boats are in a great “spot”…but unfortunately they anchored on/too close to the spot. Pick out your spot, figure wind/tide and position boat where it comes to rest about one full cast from where you’re trying to fish.
This is really good advice to shorten the learning curve drastically. Find a guide that specializes in what you want to do. When you’re out with him, ask questions about everything. Find out why he fishes where he fishes. Tides, time of day, water clarity, bait choice, everything you can think of. A good guide will pay for himself in time not wasted in the future. And make sure you give him some referrals every chance you get.
This answer is so old and beat to death. Not everyone can afford a guide. In the age of the information highway, it isn’t hard to learn yourself.
I never hired a guide in my life and have had great success fishing here. That being said, I’ve had stretches of drought. It’s a learning process. You can throw a 7 week college course on inshore fishing and still not learn everything.
Mikecasty, PM sent. Some free tips for ya. Imagine that.
Here is another good suggestion. Join a fishing club. There are ones to choose from a short drive from any where you live in the city.
They mostly all have monthly seminars. Our club, SSWA, has had some amazing speakers so far this year
Take advantage of the free seminars places like The Charleston Angler put on. They go through a series of seminars that go from salt water fishing 101 to how to target specific species during specific times of the year. Tactics, gear, rigs, etc.
The guys that teach the seminars are all very good, friendly, and open to any and all questions.
If you’re interested in fly fishing, catch John Irwin’s fly fishing 101. Great primer to everything fly in the salt.
17’ Henry O Hornet w/ Johnson 88 spl
26’ Palmer Scott project hull
14’ Bentz-Craft w/ Yamaha 25 http://www.ulmerboatworks.com
Yeah, I’d say for every 5 times I’m out fishing, I have about one good day, 2 fair days, and 2 poor to awful days. That’s just fishing as well as life I guess. I grew up here and have been fishing these waters for around 30 years, so that’s that, if someone tells you differently they might not be giving it to you straight.
The best thing I can recommend is time on the water. Now, with that said, I am going to give you some pointers I have learned over the years. My favorite tide to fish is falling into low, then the first couple hours of incoming. Once high tide comes in, I still pick up a few fish it just seems a lot more difficult. Mostly due to the fact the reds are pushing up in the grass looking for food. Trout can be consistently caught as long as there is water moving. I only use artificials but here is my gameplan:
Reds: Fish structure(docks, oysters, trees etc) with jig heads and assorted soft plastics. I mostly use Zman products and have great success. Fishing grass points and around oysters with deeper edges you can float a popping cork with an artificial shrimp (Vudu, DOA etc)
Trout: Look for water in the 6-8’ range. A jig had with a trout trick, paddle tail or curly tail grub with bright colors usually results in a good bite. I look for grass points/oyster bars where there is a strong current break and will throw in the edge of the current. Let it hit the bottom and lightly give two twitches up and let the lure fall back to the bottom. The trout will usually hit on the fall. Trolling is also a good way to locate trout. You can set up a couple of rods with different color lures and troll two behind your boat/kayak. Once you hook up, there will usually be more in that area.
Flounder: Same setup used for reds and trout will work. Throw up into feeder creek openings, sloooooowly bump across the bottom and wait for the inevitable “tap tap” then wait 3 seconds and slowly reel. If you feel resistance, set the hook. If not, continue working the lure. Also cast mud flats/banks and repeat the same retrieve.
Not sure what setups you are using, but a 2500 reel on a 7’ med light rod for throwing artificials is perfect. For fishing corks/structure, I use a 3000(maybe a 4000 for docks) and use a 7’ medium to medium heavy rod.
Good luck and the more you get out, the faster you’ll figure them out.
Great post Firefighter. See Mikecasty? You got a semester of info right here! I remember the first flounder I caught, thought I was hung up at first. Then the fight was on. It’s still disturbing to see a fish with both eyes on the same side of it’s face, I don’t care who you are…
I must say I definitely wasn’t expecting this many people to take interest in my struggles! Y’all are awesome and I appreciate the words of encouragement and the awesome pointers. Won’t be able to make it on the water tonight but I’ll be on the water all weekend and Monday. I’ll have to let you all know how it goes. Seriously everyone, can’t thank y’all enough.
Hey Mikey,
I’m not posting to add anything ground breaking. I started fishing in charleston a few years back. I had a friend with a boat who fished often, so luckily I got to as well. He moved home to Atlanta 2 years ago and soon after I bought my own boat. Its taken me until about a month ago to get my boat up and running. I tell you what, I paid attention to where and how we fished when I was on his boat, and I swear I’m going to those places and utilizing those techniques. I’ve had a bit of luck here and there but more often than not I’m gtn skunked. However today I got out there and caught the heck out of some trout and flounder. Point of the story is that you are not alone. The learning curve is a beach. I have the same plan as you, keep on trying until I get back on em like I know I can! Good luck my friend