Visiting Sc: Lady Island

[Tarpon4me]

Inshore fishing is kind of hit or miss this time of year. It's wicked hot and that turns them off like a light. If you're going to do it, do it early or late, when the sun is low and it's cooler. A lot of the guys around here use Saltwater Assasins on red jig heads, electric chicken is my favorite. Mirror lures that match the mullet in the area. It really depends, check out the bait in the area before you pick a plug. Live shrimp is being caught along the grass, so that's always a good choice. If you can get them, cast net yourself some tiger minnows. Not mud minnows, the tiger minnows. You can buy them sometimes, but we usually walk the sandy beach on the inlet side and cast net them. It might take a while, but not long ago a friend and I hit the creeks in Pawleys Island with three different kinds of bait, to include freshly caught mullet. Not a bite. We beached the boat and netted some tiger minnows. We landed a 3 pound flounder and got numerous strikes with in 20 minutes of fishing with them. Moral of the story, take different kinds of bait. If you can get by the rocks with some fiddler crabs, the sheepshead are bitting.

Offshore has slowed down as well. You need to make it to 80' in order to do anything. If you can make it out, mahi and kings have been doing pretty good, early. If you've got two downriggers, bring them both. Your strikes will be deep, unless you get on the mahi. The bite for king has been falling off around 9 or 10 in the morning. Bottom fishing has been crap lately in the 80 to 150' range.

Fishing should pick back up in the next three or four weeks. It might be better by the time you get here.
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