 Hot Carolina Fishing; Flounder, Redfish, Spanish and Tarpon-report
Hello Folks, is this summer going by fast for you? It sure is for me, they say time flies when you’re having fun. I guess I’m having a fun summer, fishing that is. Hey thank God we are not paying four+ dollars a gallon of gas like last year at this time!! Let’s talk some good fishing!
The last couple of weeks the fishing has been pretty good just off the beach. The Spanish Mackerel have been biting very good most days and the fish are a really nice grade. Some fish over six pounds, that’s a good pull on light tackle! Early morning seems to be the best bite, but some fish have stayed around all day on some days.
Most of the Spanish are biting Clark spoons trolled behind #1 planner’s. The Clark spoons that are working the best for us are sizes; 00 and 0 in plan silver and pink flash. When the Spanish are on top feeding and jumping, Maria jig spoons have been the trick. The colors that seem to be working are pink, green and blue in sizes seven & fourteen gram. We have also caught a few very nice Spanish on the fly rod too.
We are starting to catch Flounder pretty good; we are seeing a few fish inshore as well on the near shore reefs and wrecks. Most of the flounder inshore are mixed in size, but the fish in the ocean are a little better in size. Live bait and grubs are the best bet. Carolina rigs for the live bait and heavy jig heads for the grubs. I prefer bright grubs; Saltwater Assassin’s sea shads in colors chart/diamond and silver mullet work real well. Watch out when fishing in the ocean for the flounders; we’ve had some very nice fish eaten by Barracudas just under the boat. It’s not a fun thing!!
I’m still seeing a few Tarpon around the inlets and off the shoals; the Tarpon should stay around till mid September. We fish for Tarpon on the bottom using, live and fresh dead baits like; spots, bluefish and Menhaden. We rig these baits on fish finder rigs, with three to five feet of 80 to 100 pound mono leaders. Circle hooks are the best bet for good hook ups and landings for Tarpon in hook sizes 7/0 to 9/0 depending what hook series you like. We’ve caught some very nice bluefish and Spanish while Tarpon fishing lately.
The Shark fishing is still going very strong most days. Very nice sharks in the forty to over two hundred pounds are mostly what we are seeing. We’ve been using light tackle and fly rods to catch these powerful sharks. When we use spinning reels we use; 300+ yards of thirty and forty pound Spider wire super line and a good fast tipped rod. They are a lot of fun on spinning tackle!
We’ve caught a few Reds this last two weeks, not as good as I would like it to be but still getting a hand full. One thing we have in this area is a lot of pressure on the Redfish. So how do you catch them when lots of other people are out there doing the same thing?? (Time) put it in, get out and look for them, don’t go to the same old spots you always go, go look for new spots. Put in the time and you will catch Reds! “Tip of the week”
Thanks so much for reading this report, and don’t forget to take a kid or someone new fishing! Good fishing to ya!
Fishing gear we use;
Gear used: Redfish, Flounder and Sheephead: reels Penn Sargus SG2000 and SG4000 Rods: Ugly Stick Lite 7'0" Med light and Med act. Line: Fire Line crystal in 10 and 20 pound test. Sharks and Tarpon Penn spinning reel 760L (Live Liner) and Penn Torque 100TRQ. Rods: Penn Torque 6’6” 30-80 class spinning and Torque 6’ 80-130 casting.
Capt. Jot Owens
Ranger Boats and
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