North Myrtle/Little River – April 2024
Greg, of Dave’s Outpost, reports that anglers are starting to see good amounts of live bait showing up, a sign that spring action is on the edge of turning on.
Red drum action has been steady, with fish broken out of winter schools and fairly spread out in the area.
Speckled trout are moving out of their wintertime holdover areas and heading towards the ICW and rivers. April tends to be a really good month to target trout before water temperatures get too warm and boat traffic picks up.
Steve Cargal, of High Point, NC, caught this blackfin tuna near the Winyah Scarp using a cedar plug. He was fishing with Capt. Bevan Hunter of Chilly Water Fishing Charters.
Chris, of Fine Catch Fishing Charters, reports that fishing action in the ICW and up in the river has been getting good. Bait has seemed to be showing a bit more in these areas versus closer to the inlet.
Anglers are using early spring tactics, which means doing a lot of dock hopping, to target the red drum, black drum, and scattered sheepshead. For all three species, anglers can’t go wrong by getting their hands on live shrimp. If not, some bait shrimp or even mud minnows (for the redfish) will work fine.
Red drum can also be found in the backs of creeks. The best times to target these areas are on warmer days when these schools will be pushed up onto the flats. Having a low tide can also help you key in on where the schools are.
Some quality speckled trout are around, and they’re mostly being caught by drifting live shrimp under a slip cork in some of the deeper areas.
Anglers fishing near the bottom are also catching a couple flounder.
Out on the jetties, anglers are having success with the shrimp and slip cork setups. Catches include black drum and a bigger class of speckled trout.
When the winds are lighter, anglers can run out to the 3-10 mile reefs for black sea bass, sheepshead, and some black drum.
Buddy, of Captain Smiley Fishing Charters, reports that Atlantic bonito have already shown up. These fish haven’t been busting the surface much, with anglers having the best success trolling to pick up a strike. Clarkspoons behind a planer just can’t be beat when targeting areas in the 3-5 mile range. Some anglers running deeper are finding even better numbers the further out you go. The key to this bite has been to focus on the water color and clarity. The bonito have really stuck to that pretty green water and are avoiding the brown water.
Back inside, the speckled trout bite is starting to get better, with warmer water getting these fish moving around. The quality of fish has been good and typically only gets better through April.
Red drum are mixed in with the trout, with many anglers finding a majority of fish in that 15-17” class (with larger ones more scattered).
The first few flounder of the year have started to show up. These early flatfish have been smaller and likely winter holdovers.
Anglers targeting structure with shrimp are doing well finding black drum.
Capt. Chris Ossmann, of Fine Catch Fishing Charters, reeled in this red drum fishing a creek mouth in the waterway near Little River. He was using a Vudu shrimp.
Bob, of Strange Magic Fishing Charters, reports that red drum have started to split up out of their larger winter schools and are acting really hungry. They’ve been striking at just about anything, from mud minnows and fresh shrimp to artificials or cut crab sections. The retrieve pattern is still slow, with artificials only needing slight twitches on their way back to the boat, and natural baits are best just sitting and allowing scent to bring in the reds. Target docks, marsh drains, creek intersections, and grass lines that run into oyster beds. On higher tides, anglers should be targeting the shorelines, and when water is low, drop back and fish more holes.
Flounder should start showing up in better numbers now that water temperatures have broken that 60-degree mark.
Striped bass are being caught with deep diving hard baits around some of the area’s bridges.
The jetties are starting to produce some fish for anglers bottom fishing with live mud minnows and cut bait.
For all the inshore species, securing some live shrimp will really help strike numbers.
Bevan, of Chilly Water Fishing, reports that keeper black sea bass are scattered everywhere in the 60-100’ range.
If targeting the deeper side of that range, some vermilion snapper are mixed in.
Triggerfish are also around, though most of that bite is over structures in the 100’+ areas.
Anglers have been catching (and releasing) grouper while targeting these same deeper bottoms.
Larry, of Voyager Fishing Charters, reports that anglers targeting the 10-mile area bottoms are catching plenty of black sea bass and some porgies.
Trolling trips out to the break are producing nice-sized wahoo and blackfin tuna.
Anglers running out to bottom fish the deeper, less pressured structure will return with catches of vermilion snapper, larger triggerfish, amberjacks, grunts, and black sea bass.
Targeting the beachfront should be finding Atlantic bonito and even spanish mackerel by the end of the month.
Scott, of Apache Pier, reports that bottom fishing efforts are starting to produce better numbers of whiting.
Black drum have also been mixed in the catches, and they are very keyed into the same shrimp offerings used for targeting whiting.
A few red drum have shown up.
Ed, of Cherry Grove Pier, reports that predicted catches (based on surf reports in the area) once the pier opens should include whiting, croakers, and black drum, and all three species will likely fall for bottom-rigged shrimp and Fishbites.
