Sizzling temps bring hot fishing bite!

Several days of record high temperatures have late spring feeling more like late summer. The weather is hot. For those willing to brave the heat, the nearshore bite is hot, too! Bull redfish and Spanish mackerel are congregating in large numbers at the entrance to the jetties. Black sea bass and spadefish are stacked up over the artificial reefs.

On Saturday, I set out to catch one of each species. My neighbor, Luke Bishop, and my brother, Dave, joined me. First on our list was bull redfish. After a quick run to the mouth of the jetties, we began casting Z-Man 4-inch Jerk ShadZ on 3/8-ounce jigs to the rocks. This technique is highly effective, but you do lose a few jigs. In short order, Spanish mackerel, black sea bass and bull redfish were checked off our list.

The fish were still biting when we decided to run out to the Charleston 60 artificial reef and target spadefish. Before leaving the jetties, we scooped up several Cannonball jellyfish. Spadefish love Cannonball jellyfish. With calm wave conditions, our 22-foot Pathfinder made the 14-mile run very quickly.

Upon arrival at the reef, I deployed the trolling motor and moved about the reef looking for spadefish on the depth finder. The first few sections of the reef were devoid of spadefish. After a bit of looking, we found a small section of the reef with spadefish galore. A quick tap of the trolling motor Spot-Lock button kept us right above the fish. Dave quickly dropped a jelly ball teaser down to the spadefish. Luke baited up a small 1/0 circle hook with a piece of jelly ball and dropped it into the water. Dave then slowly raised the teaser until the spadefish were near Luke’s bait. Boom! Spadefish on. Luke was a bit surprised by how powerful the spadefish was. On 20-pound class spinning tackle, a good size spadefish will provide a sporting fight. Luke was up to the task (he is a very good angler) and soon the fish was on the deck. Our nearshore species list was complete. However, we were having so much fun, we kept on fishing. We released several more spadefish then left them still biting to look around the reef for cobia. When you are catching fish, it does not seem that hot. When you are looking for fish, the heat is unbearable. So, our search for a cobia was short-lived.

On the ride back home, big smiles and mild sunburns announced the arrival of summer.

Contact Captain Greg Peralta at captgregp@gmail.com or call (843) 224-0099.

Daniel Island Publishing

225 Seven Farms Drive
Unit 108
Daniel Island, SC 29492 

Office Number: 843-856-1999
Fax Number: 843-856-8555

 

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