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Includes Myrtle Beach fishing report, Surfside Beach fishing report, Garden City fishing report, Murrells Inlet fishing report, Litchfield fishing report, and Pawley’s Island fishing report.

The Grand Strand region of South Carolina refers to an arc of Atlantic Ocean beach land extending more than 60 miles from Little River, SC along the North Carolina border in the north to Winyah Bay outside of Georgetown to the south.  It includes both Horry County and Georgetown Counties and is perhaps the most popular tourist destination in South Carolina.  This region almost certainly attracts more sun-and-fun beach tourists each year than any other part of South Carolina.  This “South Grand Strand” fishing report covers the area from Myrtle Beach south to Pawley’s Island.  Moving from north to south, it includes the beaches of Myrtle Beach, Surfside Beach, Garden City, Litchfield, and Pawley’s Island.  While not an island Murrells Inlet, the fishing village and tourist destination located about halfway between Myrtle Beach and Pawley’s Island, is central to this area both geographically and as a focal point for local fishing.

When anglers thing of Murrells Inlet they often think of flounder first, but there is far more to this region.  Redfish (also known as spottail bass, red drum, and other names) can be caught inshore along the Grand Strand the year round, as usually can spotted seatrout (also known as speckled seatrout, winter trout, and more) – although trout are also migratory in the region.  Sheepshead and black drum can also be found inshore most of the year, although in late winter the mature fish generally head offshore to spawn.  There are also an abundance of essentially migratory species that generally come in the warmer months – a broad category in South Carolina – and leave when temperatures cool.  These include croaker, pompano, spot, whiting and of course flounder (juveniles of both species may be present all year), bluefish, tarpon, weakfish, spadefish, cobia, Spanish mackerel, king mackerel, sharks and more.  Bottom species including black sea bass, triggerfish, porgies, and various species of snapper and grouper can always be found off the coast at varying depths, while dolphin, tuna and even marlin are seasonal offshore species.  Wahoo can generally be caught the year round in the Gulf Stream off South Carolina.  Note that species can seasonally come to South Carolina via north/south migration along the Atlantic coast, or they can seasonally move closer to the coast and then farther out via east/west migration, as well as a combination of the two.  In addition to spawning patterns and water temperature preference, some of these migrations are driven at least in part by bait availability, including shrimp, mullet, menhaden and more.