I am planning to make a trip to fish inshore this weekend. I’m in my 17 foot Sundance Flicker skiff and can get plenty skinny. I plan to fish the Beaufort/HHI/Broad River area and any of the creeks and rivers around there. After looking at the weather forecast I’ve decided that the best day is Sunday. Looks like the wind will howl on Friday and will settle some Saturday.
Looks like really high tides in mid to late morning those days. Since I will make it a one day trip from Aiken, I won’t be fishing early morning. That means I’ll be fishing from high tide for several hours as it drops.
That’s always been the toughest part of the tide cycle for me to figure out.
So, I’m asking for some help now so I can formulate my plan A, B, C etc.
What type of spots would you start with on a high dropping tide and how would you progress with your plan through the hours following? What are the chances (and where) of getting live shrimp or baitfish w/ a cast net. I’ll put out a minnow trap for mud minnows while I launch.
That’s the time when spots are the most obvious IMO. Look for little creeks that shoot out into a larger creek making a “jet” of water. Look for eddies and points that create eddies. Look for anywhere where the tide will push up against it. Lastly, any of these spots with a hard bottom (shells, rocks, etc) should hold fish.
1966 13’ Boston Whaler “Flatty”
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I am working up a plan. Your last blog post on “Plan B” inspired me to prepare better for this trip. I also really enjoyed your blog on your trip to Lousianna. Sounds phenominal. Fishing there has been on my bucket list for some time.
Thanks for all the advice. I made the trip today after looking at potential spots on google earth based on input from y’all.
I got to the Broad River ramp about an hour after high tide and it was still way high. Due to the extreme tide there was very little grass sticking up above the water.
The current and wind clogged the ramp with all the rack debris. It looked like it would be a pain in the arse to launce and unlaunch there. So I thought about adjustments to plan A. I already had plan B in mind which was to launch at the Sands to access the same locations.
So I launched at The Sands and went through Archer Creek stopping at a couple of creek mouths that resembled what Optiker described. No luck there but the water was so high that wasn’t a suprise. I left Archer and went down to Ribbon Creek which is a large creek that also empties into the Broad River. By this time it was a couple hours after high tide but the water was still mostly in the grass. I fished a flat just outside the mouth for a few minutes with no luck. Next I went up Ribbon Creek to a couple smaller creeks draining into Ribbon that I picked out on google earth. Water still really high but no luck.
Next I went back out to the Broad to fish some small creeks draining there. I started at one creek mouth that I had fished before. I worked from that creek mouth along the oyster beds in the broad. By now it was 2 hours before low tide and the water was dropping fast. I saw some distrubance in the water in a shallow bowl between an oyster rake and the grass line. I put my mud minnow under a cork in the area and hooked up within a couple minutes. 16 inch redfish carefully revived and released. I put out another mud minnow quickly and in another minute had another solid take down.
