Freshwater Fishing trends & Saltwater Fishing Trends

Information on fishing trends provided courtesy of www.AnglersHeadquarters.com, South Carolina's premier fishing report source. Customers of the Angler's Headquarters online tackle store have access to daily updates and full-length reports on its site.DHEC Fish Consumption Advisories: www.scdhec.gov/environment/water/fish

Freshwater Fishing Report for the Santee Cooper System
Bass: Fair to good. Steve Harmon reports that fish have settled into a normal summer pattern. Early in the morning fish can be caught in shallow water where they will take topwater lures, but later in the day the best action is in deeper water. When conditions are calm soft plastics are working best for the deeper fish, and when it is windy spinnerbaits work better.
Catfish: Fair to good. Captain Jim Glenn (843-825-4239) reports that catfish the bite for numbers of small blue catfish continues to be strong, and more 20-40 pound fish are also being caught drifting cut bait during the day and at night in a variety of depth ranges.
Crappie: Fair to good. Captain Steve English (843-729-4044) reports that crappie fishing remains pretty good, particularly in the lower lake. Fish have not gone super-deep and they are being caught over brush in 12-14 feet of water on minnows.
Bream: Fair. Captain Steve English reports that the bream bite is inexplicably down, although some bluegill and shellcracker have been caught shallow in both lakes.

Saltwater Report:
Edisto Island - Inshore: Captain Ron Davis Jr. (843-513-0143) reports that when you can locate redfish on the flats or in the creeks the bite has been good, although numbers of bigger fish are still down. 8-10 inch fish are abundant and with the creeks full of shrimp, live shrimp are tough to beat. Trout fishing is good with live shrimp fished 3-5 feet under a popping cork, and flounder fishing is above average with mud minnows and finger mullet fished on the bottom. Sheepshead fishing is good on fiddler crabs around structure.
Nearshore: Just off the beaches anglers can catch Spanish mackerel by following the birds and casting spoons or trolling, and at local hotspots tarpon are around in pretty good numbers. They will eat blue crabs and mullet.
Little River/North Myrtle Beach - Inshore: Captain Patrick “Smiley” Kelly (843-361-7445) reports that trout fishing has been good on topwaters as well as live shrimp fished under a popping cork. Tons of small black drum as well as some good-sized sheepshead have been falling prey to live shrimp, and nice flounder have been caught on live minnows, menhaden and Gulp! baits. Slot-sized reds have been a little hard to locate but big fish over the slot are being caught on large menhaden in the channels.
Beaufort - Redfish: Fair to good. Bay Street Outfitters (843-524-5250) reports that on the last set of tailing tides fishing was good in the short grass, but stained water conditions have made for a tough bite for anglers trying to target individual fish on low tide. Blind fishing with cut mullet, mud minnows and live shrimp has been the best pattern lately.
Trout: Fair. Bay Street Outfitters reports that diminished water clarity has killed the topwater bite, but casting grubs and fishing shrimp or mud minnows under a floating cork has caught fish.
Jacks, ladyfish and some early tripletail are starting to show up.
Hunting Island Pier (843-838-7437) reports that whiting and stingray have comprised the main catch lately.
Charleston - Inshore: The Charleston Angler (www.thecharlestonangler.com) reports inshore fishing for redfish, trout and flounder. For redfish, fly fishermen have been using brightly colored crab flies due to increased levels of rain muddying the water on high tides and small shrimp or darker colored patterns for low tide situations. The speckled trout bite is very strong in both shallow and deep water. Larger than average size trout have been caught since spring. Reports of flounder and sheepshead have been excellent using live bait.
Nearshore and Offshore: As usual this time of year, bull redfish and plenty of sharks have been caught. Several anglers have reported jumping tarpon with a few successful landings. If you're looking for a fight the amberjack bite is extremely popular this time of year. The appearance of Spanish mackerel schooling up nearshore and inshore have been reported in abundance. Finally, several triple tail have been caught using live shrimp.