November 3
Morning surface water temperatures are still in the lower 60s inshore around Little River. It’s definitely trout time at the top of the South Carolina coast, and Captain Patrick “Smiley” Kelly (843-361-7445) reports that the fish have arrived right on schedule and now they can be found about everywhere. The best action has been coming with the bait about 4 feet down over 5-10 feet of water around drops and ledges, and moving water on the incoming tide has been fishing the best.
They are mostly using live shrimp on a slip float rig for bait, but you can also use Vudu Shrimp and an assortment of soft plastics.
There are also black drum in all the same areas.
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. Finger mullet are working well too, and they are also picking up some big trout as well as reds in potholes.
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 jetties continue to be slow for big red drum, but they have caught some good trout and slot redfish at the jetties. There are also sheepshead around.
