Morning surface water temperatures are around 85-87 and the creeks are full of bait.   

It’s not fall inshore fishing, but Captain Buddy Love with Captain Smiley Fishing Charters (843-361-7445) reports that they are doing pretty well catching scattered redfish and black drum in the creek mouths with live shrimp on a slip cork rig.  The falling tide has been best, and you can also pick up redfish on live finger mullet.  

Trout are also around in the same areas, but they have been small.   

The flounder are fairly prolific, but south of the border most of them are short fish right now.  There are some keeper fish that can be caught at creek mouths, but it seems like most of the better fish have headed out to the jetties or nearshore. 

It’s still a pretty incredible Spanish mackerel bite some days, and the last time they went after them they managed to troll up one about every ten minutes.  Twenty-five feet of water is the magic depth, and you can catch them trolling spoons on #1 or #2 planer boards.  There are also still some times when you can cast at them.   

 

Morning surface water temperatures are in the mid-80s and the creeks are full of bait.   

It’s July on the South Carolina coast, and Captain Buddy Love with Captain Smiley Fishing Charters (843-361-7445) reports that some days you have to work to catch the inshore species.  But they are still biting, and each trip they are managing to pick up some combination of flounder, trout and redfish.  Unfortunately most of the keeper flounder seem to be north of the border in North Carolina, but if you weed through smaller fish you can still find some in South Carolina waters.  

While for flounder you will have the best success dragging baits along the bottom, to pick up a mixed inshore bag live shrimp or finger mullet under a slip cork have been the best bait.  Target moving water and look around shell beds.  Recently the falling tide has been the best.  You can also pick up redfish as well as occasional black drum with cut shrimp on the bottom in holes and around oysters.  

Even as the resident fish can slow down in the heat, the Spanish mackerel bite is still red-hot.  Trolling spoons is a great way to catch them, but recently they caught 30 fish casting at the schools.  Spanish are generally off the beaches in 20-30 feet of water, although sometimes they will come closer.  Birds will usually show you the way if the fish are schooling.     

Finally, the best fighting fish easily accessible right now are sharks, and there are some big ones inside as well as off the beaches.  In 25-30 feet of water they have gotten into some hammerheads recently.  

 

Morning surface water temperatures are about 77 or 78 degrees around Little River.   

The Spanish mackerel fishing has been as good they have ever seen it at the north end of the Grand Strand, and Captain Buddy Love with Captain Smiley Fishing Charters (843-361-7445) reports that they are catching them as fast as they can reel them in.  On Father’s Day they caught 45 fish in two hours!  Most of them are keepers and there are also some fish in the 20-inch range.  They are within a mile of the beaches around the menhaden schools, and you can either troll or cast spoons for them.   

While there are a few king mackerel and cobia close in around the bait, most of the kings seem to be out in 35-40 feet of water.  However, there are tons of sharks to be caught.  

Inshore it’s typical summer fishing, and that means they are catching a few redfish, trout and flounder but overall things are settling into a slower summer pattern as the water warms.  Flounder are probably the best of those, and there are tons of keepers in North Carolina but they are rarer south of the border.  Dragging mud minnows or finger mullet on a Carolina rig is tough to beat for flounder, but you can also fish the bait on a jighead.  

Trout have been pretty sporadic but fish can be caught on live shrimp fished in creek mouths, while the best redfish action is usually on low tide mud flats in depressions and around oyster beds. 

Morning surface water temperatures are about 71-74 degrees around Little River and the water is still pretty dirty with all the wind.   

With windy conditions it’s been all about the inshore fishing the last week or two at the top of South Carolina’s coast, and Captain Buddy Love with Captain Smiley Fishing Charters (843-361-7445) reports that the flounder fishing has been pretty good if a bit inconsistent.  It seems that because of the fronts and wind some days they bite well and some days they do not, but yesterday even though they only caught 8 fish they had an impressive 5 keepers. 

In general the falling tide has been best, and fish are feeding in 3-8 feet of water around creek mouths and oyster beds.  Mud minnows are working but some finger mullet are also showing up and producing.    

They are also catching a few redfish in the same areas on mud minnows, cut mullet and sections of blue crab.  On cut mullet they caught a monster 41 ½ inch fish this week and on a crab they had a 37 ½ inch bull.  With crab you can also catch black drum, but with most of them running a little on the smaller side cut shrimp are working better.   

You will also pick up the occasional trout on mud minnows, and they are averaging 3 or 4 each day.  If you had live shrimp you could slay them, but shrimp are hard to net right now.   

While they have picked up a rogue Spanish mackerel or two in the creeks, if you could get off the beaches in 20-25 feet there are plenty.  However, it’s been too rough this week.