As always, August brings warmer temperatures but also some great fishing. Fishermen will want to focus on fishing early or late in the day for the best action. Lots of different styles of fishing are productive this month and if you choose the right ones you can beat the heat and stay cool.
If choose to start early, your go-to option should be topwater. Make an effort to get to your spot just as it is becoming light. Fish will aggressively strike topwater lures based on the disturbance they make on the surface and they can’t tell that the lure isn’t a real struggling baitfish. These lures work well for both redfish and trout. Heddon’s Super Spook Jr. lures in chartreuse and black or red and white are the ticket.
Popping corks can be used all day and during every part of the tide. Anglers enjoy using them because you can catch so many different types of fish: trout, redfish, flounder, ladyfish, shark, etc. I use a weighted popping cork so I can increase the distance of my cast. I run an 18″-24″ fluorocarbon leader from the cork to a size 1 circle hook. When your cork dives under water, reel until you feel the fish is on and then lift your rod tip. Shrimp, mud minnows and artificial shrimp all work well as bait.
Regardless of the temperature, sharks are always ready to attack. Even in the middle of the afternoon, they will be eagerly eating. With so many bait stealers present, we have been using live menhaden on a 7/0 circle hook. Inshore you can expect to find sharpnose, bonnetheads, and black tip sharks. As an additional bonus, you will occasionally tie into a big bull redfish!
See you on the water!
Started at first light to try to catch the last bit of outgoing tide. We were hoping to fish the same smoking hot ladyfish bite we found yesterday. Unfortunately, there was no bait to be found along the grass edges and the ladyfish were absent. Moved into the inlet around slack low and spent the next three hours fighting sharks and cow nosed rays one after the other. Sharks were eating anything thrown at them but seemed to prefer cut bait fish. Great action for most of the morning!
July can be one of the most productive months of the year for fishing. The combination of the usual targets like redfish and trout and summer seasonal species like shark, ladyfish and Spanish mackerel make for a very active fishery. Anglers can look forward to lots of different opportunities during all tides!
Don’t leave the dock without your cast net. Finger mullet and menhaden are readily available and choice baits for redfish. Target redfish while fishing these baits around structures like rock walls and docks. Hook the bait on a size 3/0 circle hook going up through the lower lip and out through the top. Place the bait on the bottom with a Carolina rig using enough weight to hold your bait in place so it doesn’t snag.
While popping corks are always a choice option for trout, don’t forget that artificial lures can be quite productive as well. Trout have been crushing lures that mimic small baitfish. The Z-man 3 ¾” streakz in smoky shad is an excellent choice. Paired with a 1/4oz. jighead, these lures perform best when worked slowly along the bottom. Trout tend to strike as you lift the lures up in a jigging motion.
Spanish mackerel are plentiful and are most prolific at first light. If you find schools of fish busting bait on the surface, toss reflective 1/2oz. casting jigs and reel them quickly through the school. Move your boat slowly around the school; running over a pod of fish will put them down. If you know fish are present but not on the surface, try trolling Clark Spoons at different speeds and different depths.
Sharks bite well irrespective of the temperature and our waters are loaded with them. Even in the afternoon heat, they will be on the move looking for easy prey. With lots of smaller sharks and other creatures pecking away at live and cut bait, we have at times been fishing an entire live blue crab absent its claws on a 7/0 circle hook. You’ll have lots of drops but the sharks that hang on are the big ones!
See you on the water!
As a surprise for his 40th birthday, Steve’s friends brought him to the boat landing and told him nothing about the charter until they pulled into the parking lot. Our trip straddled high tide and we set up in the inlet to begin. Hooked up with a shark or two and then moved into the Kiawah river once the current picked up. Had lots of fun throwing popping corks while occasionally a shark would smack blue crab fished behind the boat and set the drag singing! A great birthday afternoon.
Weeks full of sunny weather and warm temperatures have made our fishery come alive. Bait is everywhere and eager fish are chasing it down. Anglers have a whole host of options now that our seasonal species have arrived to compliment the traditional targets of redfish and trout.
Redfish are very active and attacking artificial lures. Jerk shad lures rigged on flutter hooks are my go to option. These artificial lures, usually 4″-5″ in length, imitate the baitfish flooding our waters. Flutter hooks have a weight on their shank that let you cast a far distance and also put motion on the lure. I use them in size 3/0 with a 1/8oz. weight. Make sure to cast to the edges of the schools to avoid spooking the fish.
As for trout, not much new here. Popping corks remain the way to go. Surprisingly, mud minnows have been outperforming live shrimp under corks. Usually, it is the other way around. If little fish keep picking at your live shrimp, switch over to a D.O.A. 3” artificial shrimp. Their Glow/Gold Rush Belly color has been quite productive.
Ladyfish are my favorite summer seasonal species. They strike hard, run fast and make one acrobatic leap after another. Sometimes referred to as the poor man’s tarpon these fish are wildly entertaining. I will target these fish with live shrimp or mud minnows under a popping cork. I prefer the D.O.A. oval corks. They come in a two pack that costs the same as most single corks and they fish great. Pair them with a size 1 Owner circle hook and get ready for a good time.
All species of shark have appeared. Sharpnose and blacktip sharks have been present for over a month and bonnetheads are becoming more present. Menhaden make for great shark bait. We still use circle hooks but go up to size 7/0. Try fishing one line with a live menhaden and a second with a chunk of menhaden. You’ll find out quickly which one is preferred.
See you on the water!
