North Myrtle Beach May 26, 2005
Mark Dickson, of Shallow Minded Charters, reports fishing has finally heated up and just in time for the annual Dixie Chicken Tournament which includes both inshore and offshore species. The cobia have arrived and one of his clients landed an 18 lb. fish on a fly rod. The cobia will be on inshore live bottoms along with the king mackerel. Spanish mackerel in the 17 to 18 inch range are very thick along the beaches and he suggested using a #1 planer with an 00 clark spoon behind 30 feet of leader and you should be ready to go. Also on the live bottoms the spadefish are showing and will eat fresh squid or cut up jelly balls. The jetties and bridges are producing speckled trout, red drum, and flounder while the largest flounder of the season so far came off the Jim Caudle Reef and went 4.6 lbs. Bottom fishing in the 100 to 110 ft. areas are yielding grouper while those trolling are having very good days on dolphin with tuna and wahoo mixed in.
Cherry Grove Fishing Pier reports an 11 lb king mackerel as well as a 25 lb. cobia coming off the end while over the weekend a nice run of 6 to 7 lb. bluefish came through. When the water is clear the spanish are doing okay with a few 16 inch fish to go with the smaller ones. On the bottom there have been good catches of flounder on mud minnows and there have been some whiting caught as well.
