Fishing Report:
"Thick and Thin the Trout
are In"
November 18, 2008

I can't begin to tell you how many Trout and Reds we have caught in the last two weeks. Probably more than in the last two months combined. We have been fishing in the Coosaw River a lot as well as Parris Pt. Had many trips where catching 50-75 was an average day; the second your cork hit the water, down it went.  You had best been ready to set your hook!  Lots of redfish and a few flounder are still lingering around as well. The Trout school up this time of year which can make for some amazing fishing trips.
 
Had a full moon this week causing some tremendous tides; almost ten feet. Did some wading in the grass in the a.m. during some of these crazy tides and snagged several Reds.  Saw some Tailers in the grass but couldn't get get them to bite,  we were able to hook them though by watching the ripples in the water and casting past the movement with a medium retrieve and a weedless gulp.
 
It's true what everyone is saying about the shrimp this year; the catch is small in size and quantity. Plenty for the live well though!
 
Fall fishing is always the best; give me a call for a good hook up.
 
Capt. Steve

Redfish:
Redfish are caught year round, on variety of tackle, and bait. Depending on the tide and the time of year. These fish range from a size of 1-50lbs. Favorite foods: Shrimp, mullet, mud minnows, crabs. We also use several types of artificial.

Flounder:
Flounder are one of my favorite fish to catch; they provide a unique challenge to any angler. They average about 1-10lbs. Favorite foods: Mullet, mud minnows and a few types of artificial.

Sea Trout:
Sea trout are easily caught in the spring and fall. However, they can be caught year round. Trout are caught with live shrimp under a popping cork, as well as a handful of lures. Trout grow up to 10lbs. Your average catch is a few pounds.

Cobia:
Cobia start invading the Broad River in April, depending on the water temperature. These fish are highly sought after because of their fight as well as their tablefare. Cobias are traveling from the lower Keys to up north they stop half way of there journey here in Beaufort to spawn in the Broad River. They get to be around 100lbs. Average catch is going to be around 30lbs. therefore making this a good fighting fish. They like to eat live-bait, squid or just about anything if they are hungry.

Spanish Mackerel:
Spanish mackerel are an easily targeted species during the summer months. usually during a cobia trip we will free line a live bait off the boat, which will usually produce a Spanish, as well as trolling the sound with spoons.

Sharks
Sharks usually range 2-3 feet, however they grow to be several hundred lbs. there are many species including most popular the black tip also hammer head and similar bonnet head, and many more. Shark fishing is best April-October.

Tarpon:
Tarpon fishing in the lowcountry is not as popular as many other fisheries however don't be fooled these silver kings invade these waters usually around June depending on water temperature and hang out until September. These fish usually concentrate in deeper waters, when you hook up better hold on, and have eaten your wheaties.

Fishing Report: 3/25/08

Trout are back and they are biting, they are hitting white and rootbeer swimming mullet and shrimp gulp bait, and live shrimp.

Redfish are still schooling in large numbers, however they are not as skittish as they have been, due to the climbing water temperature as bait is getting to be more plentiful. Tight lines. - Capt. Steve

Fishing Report: 4/01/08

Fishing is good the last few days in the Ashepoo/Coosaw cut. The trout catch is great! All of them where keepers, even a few nice gators in the double digits. Redfish are schooling in the low tide. Closer to high tide the larger ones seem to be scattered and the smaller ones seem to be next to the bank, hitting on Gulp swimming mullet (camo) and mud minnows under a cork. Managed to grab a keeper flounder, (an early treat) made a great crispy scoured delight with a little honeydew, pineapple chutney, for me and the wife, KEEP YOUR BAIT FRESH!
- Capt. Steve

Fishing Report: 4/29/08

Caught 14 mahi-mahi (unfortunatetly no pics of them). However I have a nice picture of a 53 lbs. wahoo, triple tail, and an eagle, caught triple tail and a handfull of dolphin around a Home Depot shopping cart floating around, we fished S.W. of the deli.
Let's go fishing! - Capt. Steve
(See Photo Gallery)

Fishing Report: 05/01/08 
Shopping Cart Full of Fish

Had a great offshore trip over the weekend with my friend Capt. Mike Sackman. We decided to fish south of the Deli. Things started a bit slow. We trolled for about 90 minutes, catching only one Dolphin. Finally we spotted a floater (it was a Home Depot shopping cart), as we trolled by it, I noticed there were Triple Tail all over and in it. As we went by it all 4 lines started screaming, Dolphin on everyone. We boated two of the four.

After getting reorganized, we went back to the shopping cart and free-lined for Dolphin. I caught my first Triple Tail of the year. All in all, we brought back 14 Dolphin, three of which were 25 lbs, 3 Triple Tails and I hooked and landed a 53 lbs. Wahoo- a reel treat!

Thanks Mike for a great trip.

The inshore bite is as expected for this time of the year. There are a lot of early Flounder in the creek mouths and around structure. The Trout have finally turned on. They are excited with the increasing H20 temp.

I’ve been Cobia fishing twice and but no luck yet. There have been a handful of 25 pounders around the bridge. I can assure you; I will put one or two in the boat this week.

Call me to make your Cobia reservations now.

Tight Lines,
Capt. Steve

Fishing Report: 05/13/08
Birthday Brownie

The Cobia have finally invaded the Broad River. They are stacked up at the Bridge, the Cobia Hole and the Turtle and the boats are too. It's no secret when those Brownies arrive, any avid South Carolina angler knows when the water hits 68' they're here! The bigger ones seem to follow shortly thereafter. People drive here from all over the state, pros to amateurs. You will see some of the finest equipment on the water, as well as some of the not so fine. We saw a john boat almost sink at the bridge last Thursday. Anyway, let's get to the point; we caught about a dozen last week. My longtime friend Tim Kemp, from Calabash, N.C, came to visit for a few days. He is a Kingfish specialist who fishes the SKA and FLW. Tim caught a nice 45 pounder. Yesterday was my birthday and all I wanted to do was catch a cobia. Even though the water was nasty 3-4 foot chop, we went anyway and bagged a decent 25 pounder; brought him home for a nice birthday dinner.

Give me a call if you want a 2008 cobia.

Capt. Steve
(See Photo Gallery)

Fishing Report: 06/09/08
Atack of the Cobias

They are still here in good numbers. The big challenge has been keeping the bait out of the jaws of the Sharkys! Sighting is the way to go for 'em. These fish will stick around a few more weeks and I've been averaging a few in the box each trip. The Silver Kings (Tarpoon) are slowly arriving in the sound and will soon be stacking up. They are a lot easier to catch when they first arrive in the sound and before they head up into the creeks. Rumors of few landed already; I will be posting Tarpoon pictures soon!

Fished the Annual Beaufort Water Festival Tournament last Saturday with Barry, an old friend of mine I use to work with at Budweiser. We caught many Reds, mostly 18 and 19 inchers. Did manage to grab a 23 1/2 incher so he had to go back in the water. Barry specializes in Flounder, so we caught many Flattys, unfortunately a 1.6 lbs. only got us 3rd place. If we had weighed in earlier it would have gotten us 2nd (we tied). Also weighed in a nice Trout, about 2 lbs. It was fun day, always nice to learn new flounder tricks. They are mostly in the creeks and will be as long as the bait fish stay there and then they will head out for structure such as jettys, piers, docks, etc.

LETS FISH !
Capt. Steve

Fishing Report: 08/04/08
SIZZLIN HOT SUMMER BITE

It's getting to be the middle of the summer and the bite is sizzlin hot, just like the weather. I can't begin to tell you how many redfish and trout we have caught in the last month, mostly in the creek mouths around oyster beds. The Reds have been really good in the grass around high tide, and the trout have been hanging around the grass line. Flounder are strong and starting to move out of the creeks and in to and around structure, mainly rocks and docks. It's a great time of year to catch flounder. I spend a lot of time sweating over structure for flat fish in the afternoon when it is toasty outside. On the larger side, Tarpon are here thick. I see them rolling and jumping on an almost daily basis. They are enjoying the buffets of Menhaden, which are scattered throughout the sound and the Broad River in very large schools. Just look for the diving pelicans. You can find Tarpon from St. Helena Sound to the Port Royal Sound and all the way up to Grays Hill and past. A few Cobia still hanging out, but not many. Caught one in a rip near Hilton Head last week.

Due to my friends from Tennessee (Phillip and Dave) corks are no longer corks and floats are no longer floats, they are now known as Strike Indicators. Give me a call and let's go wet a line...

Capt. Steve

Fishing Report:
Fripp Flounder Frenzy 
August 18, 2008

I have always enjoyed Flounder fishing at Fripp Island.  The Flounder show up once the weather is good and hot.  I have hit it about once a week since July always producing a handful of fish, until today.  Absolutely crushed it today!  Kept count up to 20- caught 15-20 more after that.  I started out using mud minnows and mullet, caught one Flounder and on Trout.  Then I decided to go with ole faithful, Gulp Swimming Mullet (rootbeer & white).  Almost every cast produced a flounder with a few nice trout mixed in.  The Flat Fish Bite at Fripp is finally here!  Called my friend Capt. Mike Sackman- just to tell a few fish tales- to which he labeled me the Flounder Pounder. Kinda like that one.

Had an all day trip with Gregg from Texas last Saturday.  He told me he does a lot of fishing in Venice.  I told him “please not have Venice expectations”.  We had pretty close to a Venice day.  Caught about 2 dozen redfish, a nice pompano and a fat trout.  Almost all the reds were keepers.  Used an array of bait from shrimp with a cork, peanut pogies, mullet and the trusty, always smelling good Gulp.  Look forward to Gregg moving here in the Spring and showing him a few more spots as well as some Cobia Tactics.
 
Catch you on the next tide,
 
Capt. Steve