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.