Morning surface water temperatures have dropped to about 70 degrees inshore in Little River and the ocean water is dirty.  

Even if the species are a bit re-arranged this week it’s still wide open fishing at the top of South Carolina coast, and Captain Buddy Love of Captain Smiley Fishing Charters (843-361-7445) reports that it’s hard to find a tide right now when the redfish are not chomping.  He’s catching them on the high fall, the low fall, and throughout the rising tide. They are even catching them on dead low sight-fishing in a foot of water or less when they see fish pushing water. Overall, live finger mullet, cut mullet, Vudu Shrimp and more are all working.   

Most of the fish they have been catching are in the slot or over, but there are also still tons of smaller redfish around.  If you fish shrimp or smaller pieces of bait you will catch them.   

While not the numbers they will be soon, there are also a few nice trout around.  They are catching them in moving water, generally with live mullet on flounder rigs since they aren’t targeting trout as much yet.  

Speaking of flounder, they are catching less fish right now and the bite is bit tricky.  Perhaps some of the finicky bite is because they are having to use big finger mullet that are harder for the fish to swallow.  Support for that is that, while they are catching less fish, what they are catching has been bigger.  The best place to look for flounder has still been creek mouths on falling tides.  

They are also catching black drum on fresh cut shrimp around rock piles, oyster beds, and creek mouths.  Again, the falling tide is better.   

In the Little River inlet the bull red drum fishing is still hit-or-miss, and it seems like you either strike out or catch 6-10 good fish.  It’s unclear why.  

Finally, before yesterday’s rain there were still some Spanish mackerel off the beaches that could be caught trolling in 15-30 feet of water.  They were also catching some casting at schooling fish.  However, this bite can’t last much longer.    

Morning surface water temperatures have dropped into the low 70s inshore in Little River.   

Water temperatures dropped fast at the north end of South Carolina’s coast, and Captain Buddy Love of Captain Smiley Fishing Charters (843-361-7445) reports that the fishing has really turned on at the same time.  The big red drum run has started, and they are catching them in the inlet around the jetties in 15-30 feet of water with cut bait on the bottom.  They are also picking up some nice bluefish on this pattern, and you should keep an eye open for Spanish mackerel chasing mullet.   

Inside the creeks there is still an abundance of small slot-sized redfish everywhere, as well as a decent number of fish up to 23 inches.  Finger mullet, shrimp, cut mullet, mud minnows and more will all work.  The dropping tide down to low tide when the fish are concentrating has been most productive, particularly around creek mouths, oyster bars and indentations.  They are also picking up black drum on cut shrimp in the same areas.  

There are some nice flounder being caught in both North Carolina and South Carolina, and the best time to fish for them has been from the top of the dropping tide down at creeks mouths and oyster beds as water drains out.  Finger mullet and mud minnows are both working.  

Some random trout are being caught, so they are around, but the numbers aren’t great right now.