North Myrtle Beach – September 10, 2015
Patrick, of Capt. Smiley’s Fishing Charters, reports that anglers are still connecting with solid numbers of speckled trout while fishing around the Little River jetties and at grass and shell banks in the ICW and area’s creeks and marshes. The bite should get even better as fall arrives and the water temperatures begin to drop. Fishing live shrimp on float rigs is the best way to connect with the specks, and it’s important to fish during moving tides so the shrimp drift along naturally beneath the floats. Anglers can also cast Vudu or Billy Bay shrimp imitations along with a variety of other lures to the trout with success.
Black drum are looking for meals around inshore structure like Tilghman’s dock and shell beds in the marshes. Anglers can fool the striped drum on live shrimp as well, but they’ll also take fresh and cut shrimp. Unlike the specks, it’s best to fish shrimp on the bottom with Carolina or other weighted rigs to produce the best results with the drum.
Flounder and red drum are feeding in Tubbs Inlet and the marshes closer to Little River. Both will pounce on live finger mullet or shrimp fished along the bottom. Anglers can also cast Gulp shrimp and other artificials with success.
Will Gardner (age 13), of Hamlet, NC, with his first sheepshead, a 5 lb. fish that bit a live fiddler crab at the Jim Caudle Reef off Little River Inlet.
Mark, of Shallow Minded Inshore Fishing Charters, reports that anglers are still connecting with flounder while dropping baits to structure off Little River Inlet like the Jim Caudle and Ron McManus reefs. Live finger mullet are fooling most of the flatfish.
Anglers are also picking up a few flounder around the Little River jetties while fishing finger mullet near the rocks.
Josh Griffin, of Calabash, NC, with a red drum he hooked on a live finger mullet while fishing near Tilghman’s Point.
Some speckled trout are also looking for meals near the rock jetties, where anglers can tempt them to bite live shrimp fished under floats.
Spanish mackerel are chasing mullet in the inlet, especially on falling tides. Anglers can free-line live mullet to the fish to hook up or cast topwater plugs and suspending lures like MirrOminnows to fish they spot attacking bait on the surface with success. Either way, a short, light wire leader will keep anglers from losing fish or expensive plugs to the spaniards’ sharp teeth.
Tracey Watts with a red drum that she hooked on a live finger mullet near Sunset Beach while fishing with her husband.
Matt, of Cherry Grove Fishing Pier, reports that king fishermen have had great success the past few weeks. Several 25-30 lb. kings have been caught off the end of the pier using live bluefish. King fishermen have also been catching larger spanish mackerel while using live croaker. Several tarpon have been hooked and landed on live baits over the past week as well.
Spanish and blues have been caught in large numbers using gold hook rigs in the early morning hours with a few limits in recent days.
Flounder fishermen have had a good week catching many doormats in the 3-5 lb. range. These flounder are being fooled by live mud minnows, finger mullet, and tiger minnows on Carolina rigs.
Bottom fishermen have been keeping some legal black drum as well as spot, croaker, and pinfish. These fish are being caught on bottom rigs using shrimp and bloodworms. Bottom fishermen have been focused on high tides while fishing around the pilings.
