April 23

Morning surface water temperatures are about 70 degrees at the mouth of Port Royal Sound and visibility got tough this week. 

Things should be looking up as the weekend approaches, but Captain Kai Williams with Awesome Adventure Charters(843-816-7475) reports that it was a pretty tough week for inshore fishing. First they had some really big tides from the new moon that messed up visibility, then the wind started blowing and wouldn’t stop, bringing in even more water, and then they were inundated with sticks and mud most everywhere. All the while the temperature dropped. They did pick up some sheepshead and occasional trout inshore, but basically the fishing has nowhere to go but up next week!

Naturally Captain Trent Malphrus with Palmetto Lagoon Charters (843-301-4634) sought relief inside the Palmetto Dunes Lagoon part of the week, but inshore he continued to find the outgoing tide the strongest for redfish. When water was coming out of smaller creeks then reds were still stacking up waiting for bait to be flushed out, but he also had much better success free-lining live bait when water conditions were cleaner.  In dirtier water they had to use cut mullet but found a slower bite.

But the big change, especially later this week, was that they started to see a few nice trout mixed in with the reds. All of these were caught on the later end of the incoming tide, mostly around points where you could find some rare clean, green water.  

 

April 16 

Morning surface water temperatures are about 70 degrees at the mouth of Port Royal Sound and the water is still relatively clear – especially after weak tides last week. 

It’s Heritage week at Hilton Head, and the author thought that would mean a crazy week of guiding for local captains. But it actually makes sense that that’s not the case, as people are primarily focused on golf all day and it’s not as much of a family event as spring break. Anyway… after fishing a ton last week with so many spring breaks taking place, and then running a normal number of trips this week, our guides are still on top of things despite no Heritage crush. And we thought it would be good to lead off with trout instead of redfish for a change of pace after a winter of reds.  

Captain Kai Williams with Awesome Adventure Charters (843-816-7475) reports that the inshore trout bite has gotten really good, and he’s mostly targeting them with DOA shrimp under a popping cork, although live shrimp would no doubt work as well or better – he just hasn’t needed them yet. The fish are biting on moving water in both directions, with the best bite at higher tides along grass edges on steep cut banks and on lower tides when the water is coming in and out of creek mouths. 

Meanwhile, Captain Trent Malphrus with Palmetto Lagoon Charters (843-301-4634) has also been targeting trout a little but mostly inside the Palmetto Dunes Lagoon, where he has been catching some monsters up to 7 pounds!

But inshore he’s been focused almost exclusively on redfish in the rivers and major creeks, and interestingly every single fish he has caught in the past few weeks has been over the slot. Early in the morning it’s been an excellent topwater bite and then the rest of the day they are throwing swimbaits on the artificial side. Bait-wise, cut mullet has been really good in dirty water while in clean green water live finger mullet are working the best. Menhaden are also around but a little on the small side for bait. 

Overall the outgoing tide has been the strongest tide, with reds stacking up waiting for bait to be flushed out of the smaller creeks. When you see birds waiting you know you’re in the right spot!   

Sharks have also showed up on the flats, both bonnetheads and sand tigers. The latter are big, up to 200 plus pounds, and while clients love to see them in action when they get turned on you just have to move to fish somewhere else. 

In both the Calibogue and Port Royal sounds the large black drum are still around, and Captain Kai reports that they can be caught on both shrimp and crabs. Captain Trent also tried deep one day for bull reds but most of the time there was spent when a client hooked a 200 plus pound dusky shark he wanted to see that took almost two hours to land!

Finally, at the nearshore reefs sheepshead are stacked up and taking fiddler crabs while there are very few good ones inshore.  

April 3

Morning surface water temperatures are about 66 degrees at the mouth of Port Royal Sound and the water is still relatively clear.  

The inshore fishing has been pretty good for redfish recently, and Captain Kai Williams with Awesome Adventure Charters (843-816-7475) reports that fish are breaking out of their winter schools and moving basically into summer patterns. He has been having the best success fishing around structure, and low tide has been much more consistent than higher tides when fish can really spread out – especially on these big moon tides. Shrimp, crab, and mullet are all working well.

But perhaps the most exciting bite is in the sounds, and in both the Calibogue and Port Royal Sound the large black drum have moved in. They can be caught on both shrimp and crabs. 

At the nearshore reefs sheepshead are stacked up and taking fiddler crabs.  

March 27

Morning surface water temperatures are about 63 degrees at the mouth of Port Royal Sound and water clarity is dropping.  

As promised, we have an update from Captain Trent Malphrus with Palmetto Lagoon Charters (843-301-4634) after a couple of days fishing inshore for redfish. Captain Trent reports that he has been able to pick off some reds on the incoming tide, but the bite has been significantly better on the outgoing tide. The mullet that are around are generally too big to fish live, and so he has been fishing a mix of cut mullet and assorted smaller live baits. There is nothing special about the areas he is finding fish, basically shallow mud flats, but he is usually seeing birds and fish working them before stopping.

March 25

Morning surface water temperatures are about 62 degrees at the mouth of Port Royal Sound and water clarity is dropping.  

With the inshore water clarity down sight-fishing for redfish on the flats has gotten a lot harder, and Captain Kai Williams with Awesome Adventure Charters (843-816-7475) reports that to compound difficulties the fish are moving around all the time. They are still picking up some reds, but the most reliable bite has actually been with sheepshead and black drum.  They are finding them around all the structure including rocks, docks, and more where they catch redfish at other times, but by fishing with fiddler crabs they are catching fish they would never even have known were there just using live or dead finfish baits. 

With a lot of the breeding-size sheepshead and drum offshore much of the catch is juvenile fish, both above and below legal size, but it has been really fun fishing.

More to follow from Captain Trent Malphrus with Palmetto Lagoon Charters (843-301-4634).

March 11

Morning surface water temperatures are about 60 degrees at the mouth of Port Royal Sound and warmer in the creeks. Bait is arriving.  

It’s been a strong week or two in the warm weather for Captain Trent Malphrus with Palmetto Lagoon Charters (843-301-4634), who reports that they have found the best inshore bite around low tide. In particular two hours before low until two hours into the rising have been the best window, and even though they are still seeing fish on higher tides they seem to just want to sit in the grass and not feed. 

With water temperatures as high as 63 in the mornings they have found a really good topwater bite “walking the dog” when the low tide window is early. Gulp! shrimp on a ¼ ounce jighead and swimbaits have been productive throughout the day, and cut mullet has also been working for clients who can’t or don’t want to fish artificials.

There is nothing special in terms of structure about the spots that are producing, and they are basically just straight banks instead of creek mouths, points, or the like. However, the common denominator is that they are all holding bait. When Captain Trent sees an area where finger mullet are jumping it’s almost a sure thing that redfish are nearby. 

February 26

Morning surface water temperatures are about 53 degrees at the mouth of Port Royal Sound and water clarity is still very high even with strong winds and big moon tides.  

It continues to be a pretty steady inshore bite on low tide for Captain Kai Williams with Awesome Adventure Charters (843-816-7475), who reports that the recent cold weather seems to be keeping the redfish predictable. Fish are still grouped up in big schools on the flats, and he doesn’t anticipate that fundamentally changing for a couple more weeks. They have been willing to eat soft plastics about as well as natural baits and so Captain Kai is sticking to artificials for now.

That’s consistent with the report from Captain Trent Malphrus with Palmetto Lagoon Charters (843-301-4634), who has also found low tide better than higher tides. However, he has a relatively low number of schools to fish right now and he wonders if some other people are working hard on the same schools because the fish have been so spooky. When they are casting at the fish they flee, and so you have to wait for them to come back and then move the jig a little when they get on top of it. On low tide he is basically exclusively fishing Gulp! shrimp on a ¼ ounce jighead. 

They have been able to pick up a few fish on high tide, mostly casting mullet chunks into the grass and letting the fish find it and then eat. 

Neither captain has been targeting trout but when conditions warm they will probably start to fish for them again.

February 12

Morning surface water temperatures are about 48 degrees at the mouth of Port Royal Sound and water clarity is very high. 

It continues to be a pretty steady inshore bite for Captain Kai Williams with Awesome Adventure Charters (843-816-7475), who reports that he’s still sticking to the old reliable pattern and fishing for schooled up redfish on the low tide flats. But it’s a feast-or-famine pattern, where you can go for long stretches without finding fish but then get healthy very quickly. For that reason Captain Kai doesn’t have any photos this week, as the action is so fast and furious when they are catching that they don’t want to waste time. While natural baits would probably work, Zman StreakZ in red bone color have been catching fish on Kai’s boat. 

While still targeting redfish Captain Trent Malphrus with Palmetto Lagoon Charters (843-301-4634) has fished higher water a few times, and he has found a rewarding bite. The fish can be harder to locate than on low water, but if you look for signs like herons, egrets, and other birds they will often point the way to the bait. And as Captain Trent usually notes in the winter, being near bait is his key to locating fish – especially outside of low water.

Although Trent usually throws 5-inch swimbaits, with temperatures in the 40s he is having more success with 3-inch swimbaits and downsized tackle. They are retrieving slow and steady and making the longest casts possible to avoid being seen, but recently when they hook a fish the whole school will follow it to the boat and so they have to wait for the school to set up again between. Still, to get bit on higher water at these temperatures it’s well worth the wait!

No word on trout from either captain. 

February 5

Morning surface water temperatures are about 46-47 degrees at the mouth of Port Royal Sound and water clarity is very high. 

It’s been a really good inshore bite for Captain Kai Williams with Awesome Adventure Charters (843-816-7475), who reports that even after the weekend’s storm the redfish are still biting really well. Captain Kai is mostly targeting fish on low water, and they are in massive schools on the flats. While there are other baits they will take he has been doing very well with a simple Ned rig.

Even on higher stages of the tide redfish aren’t really leaving their schools, and so if you aren’t able to go at low water you can look for schools along the grass edges or even inside of it. But at those times Kai recommends fishing a mud minnow under a float.

  

They have not seen any more signs of a trout kill, and so Kai is optimistic that it had already gotten so cold for the area that fish had moved to deeper water even before last weekend’s shock.

It’s a similar report from Captain Trent Malphrus with Palmetto Lagoon Charters (843-301-4634), who like Kai is having a blast sight-fishing at low water. Captain Trent notes that he has been surprised just how much bait is around, particularly mullet of all sizes.

As is often the case in the winter when bait is limited, he is having by far the best success in areas where they do find mullet. Fish have been very willing to take a fly. 

January 29

Morning surface water temperatures are about 49 degrees at the mouth of Port Royal Sound and water clarity is very high. 

Yesterday fishing inshore the water temperatures started out in the upper 40s, and Captain Kai Williams with Awesome Adventure Charters (843-816-7475) reports that the warmest he saw all day was 50 degrees on top of the flats. Regardless he found the fish pretty cooperative, although it was a weird experience which he has rarely seen to catch a redfish early that essentially did not fight on the way to the boat. 

All in all they ended up catching a half-dozen nice redfish casting into low tide schools that were hanging over white shell flats, with everything coming on artificial lures and even a couple on the fly. On pleasant days sight-fishing the low tide flats is still an effective pattern.

The one bad sign yesterday was that Captain Kai saw a nearly-dead trout floating on its back. While it’s impossible to say the cold got it, there was no one else fishing in the area who could have gut-hooked it and with temperatures expected to drop significantly over the weekend there is no good news on the way.

January 22

Morning surface water temperatures are about 52 degrees at the mouth of Port Royal Sound and water clarity is very high. 

On the water yesterday inshore fishing, Captain Trent Malphrus with Palmetto Lagoon Charters (843-301-4634) reports that fish are so grouped up when you find one you can get healthy fast. On the high outgoing tide he found slot-sized redfish grouped up in a creek mouth, and while they wouldn’t take the big 5-inch swimbaits they were throwing for larger fish by down-sizing to 3-inch baits it was one on almost every cast for about thirty minutes! 

The one big red they caught yesterday came sight-fishing, and while the sun was out in the clear conditions they saw a group of about 10 fish off a point. They caught the big one below on the first cast, but then the fish moved off (seemingly never to return) and it got harder to see schools as the wind also picked up when cloud cover rolled in.

While it’s a good time for sight-fishing, if you can locate fish that you can’t see – and can’t see you! – it’s often more productive as fish have gotten fairly finicky this late in the season. 

No trout reports, but we hope to be able to provide a positive update next week and that the temperatures are more moderate than expected. 

January 8

Morning surface water temperatures are about 56 degrees at the mouth of Port Royal Sound and water clarity is very high. 

We are coming off an unusual period of winter inshore fishing for Captain Trent Malphrus with Palmetto Lagoon Charters (843-301-4634), who reports that extreme tides made it hard to locate the big schools of redfish on the low tides flats. And at high tide they have been extremely dispersed with so much water. As a result he has concentrated his efforts on the outgoing tide, when mid-tide has been producing the best action. Almost all of the submerged shell mounds just off of the bank have been holding fish.

The best approach has been throwing swimbaits to cover as much as water as possible during the peak feeding period. 

Meanwhile trout are around, but the bite has only been fair for Captain Trent. The best location should be deeper holes back in the creeks, but he has only had fair success throwing jigs into them.

Coming into a period with more moderate tides expect patterns to evolve and the fishing to improve.