October 21
Morning surface water temperatures have dropped into the lower 60s inshore around Little River.
The trout fishing continues to pick up on the north end, and Captain Patrick “Smiley” Kelly (843-361-7445) reports that fish are still not as prolific as they will be in a few weeks but the areas that are holding trout are fishing very well. They are catching fish drifting live shrimp on a #6 treble hook under a bobber, and the best action has been coming with the bait about 4 feet down over 5-10 feet of water. Moving water on the incoming tide has been fishing the best.
The trout fishing should get better and better then stay good right through December, or even to February with a mild winter.
There has also been some good fishing for redfish recently, and particularly on the smaller end of the slot they are catching plenty of reds on the shrimp rig. While they can be found in the same areas as the trout, redfish are more commonly found in small potholes, little feeder creeks, along the edges of grass and around rocks right now.
They are also catching lots of black drum on shrimp, and of course the drum will also eat cut shrimp on the bottom.
Reds will also take finger mullet or Gulp! fished on a 3/8 ounce jighead, and particularly when they fish this way on the bottom they are catching some nice keeper flounder. But even though there are flounder around in the same areas as the reds, they are not biting as well as this summer. The area just has really good summer fishing for flounder.
The action for bull red drum has picked up marginally, and while you can catch some fish in the inlet and around the rocks there are also some drum showing up on the beaches. Anywhere there is a bait ball there could be big drum and they will eat live or cut mullet or menhaden.
However, it just hasn’t been a banner year for them and they never showed up in the numbers they usually do.
