Winter and Spring Fishing in Hilton Head
So far we have had plenty of cold weather this winter and the water temps are currently in the upper 40s low 50s. The redfish have been seen in massive schools, bright sunshiny days between cold fronts are great times to go sight fish for these reds. They have been willing to eat when you put a bait in front of them.
Many think there isn’t much to fish for during winter time on Hilton Head but you would be surprised what our inshore and nearshore waters can offer up in the winter especially on a nice weather day. Sight fishing adds a whole new aspect to fishing and brings in a lot of characteristics from hunting too. You have to move along quietly and slowly looking for subtle movement in the water and this is a clue that there could be upwards of 100 fish in a tightly grouped school enjoying the warmer water up on the mud flat.
Live baits like shrimp and mud minnows have been working great but artificial lures have also produced plenty of fish for us if you can place it in the right place and work it correctly. Fishing like this should continue for a while and we will also have opportunities some days to go sheepshead fishing either inshore or at nearshore wrecks with shrimp and or fiddler crabs for bait. This type of fishing is good in Hilton Head January through March and even into April.
The start to the year has been fun and spring time is starting to book up already especially around peoples spring breaks so book your trips sooner rather than later and lets go make some memories!
The Fall Bite is Here!
The typical fall weather pattern is here and the fish are all about it. The bait is very active and the bigger predators are too, our water temperatures are around 78 degrees and trending down fast as some more cold fronts make their way. This time of year all the way through November gives us a lot of opportunity to catch redfish, sea trout, flounder, and black drum.
As water temperatures drop the fish go into eating mode where they start to try and bulk up for the winter, when there is far less food available. We have been fishing with pogeys, mud minnows, shrimp, and mullet. They have all produced nicely for us as long as we can find the fish. Creeks flushing out during a falling tide bring all of the bait out of our marshes along with it and the redfish have been schooling up and feeding aggressively on most anything including artificial lures.
We have had our fair share of weather this late summer/early fall season already but Hilton Head is in great shape and the fish really don’t mind the wind and rain as much as we do. There have been plenty of opportunities on our flood tides and low tides to sight fish for redfish. This is an exhilarating way to hunt down some reds as you have to make accurate casts to land in front of the fish.
Things are looking great here for October and coming into the holiday season, come on out and make some memories with us if you’re in town. The bite is surely not to disappoint and we will do our best to make sure you and your crew have a great time on the water with us. We strive to give you the best experience we can because we want to see you back time and time again as clients and friends, not just customers.
Be sure to follow along on social media to see what we are catching on a regular basis! There’s a link on the bottom of the page.
Late summer coming into fall
The bite has been great all summer long. It has been a while since I have updated the fishing report because we have been extremely busy. Schools are starting to go back now but the best time of year is just beginning here in Hilton Head.
Late summer offers up a ton of variety heading into the fall. Bait is plentiful and there are a lot of opportunities. We had hurricane Debby pass over us a couple of week ago and ever since that rain the mullet have started running big time and so have the bull redfish! The bite has been fantastic since, the fish don’t seem to mind the weather events as much as we think they do.
Business is slowing down but the bite is still on and should be getting better as things start to cool off in a few weeks. Until then we will keep fishing the hot summer bite for jack crevalle, bull reds, sea trout, and flounder with some opportunities at some tarpon mixed in there.
Come make some memories with us and hook em up! This time of year we have some flexibility in our schedules and are even better able to cater to each individual client. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you want to talk about a charter and we can make it right for you.
Summertime fishing!
We are starting to see a lot of our summer time fish show up! Jack Crevalle and Cobia have made their way in along with a healthy number of sharks. The inshore bite in the creeks continues to provide us with solid action.
Summertime is one of our favorite times of year to fish because we can fish for such a variety of species allowing us to break trips up. We may start with redfish in the creeks and then move our way to some deeper waters if the weather allows for some sharks, bull redfish , cobia, and jack crevalle.
We expect the bite to continue to flourish as more and more bait is showing up in our waters. Lately we have been using shrimp and mullet in the creeks and then pogies, whiting and mullet nearshore for some of those larger fish.
Summer break is almost here and trips are booking up so secure the spot you want today!
Nonstop Action!
March has been action packed in the creeks! We have been using live shrimp to catch most of our fish lately. I try to go out between trips to load up the live wells with shrimp because we sure do burn through some shrimp right now.
We have mostly been catching redfish and black drum in the creeks and we have seen some sea trout, flounder, and sheepshead mixed in there as well. Over the last week or so we have even started to fish deeper waters when the weather allows for it and we are starting to catch some sharks too!
Things are really coming to life as the water temps are up significantly. The birds are finding more bait to eat and we have been seeing a lot of mullet and shrimp in and around our fishing spots.
We expect the bite to continue being stellar providing us a lot of opportunities on our trips this month (April). We will continue fishing the creeks and will also venture out in the sound some to catch some sharks and bull redfish as they make a run in the spring.
Book a trip and come make some memories with us! We are happy to cater to you and your crews wants on the water like, staying in calmer waters or targeting certain fish over others.
Sheepshead Bite!
February provided us with some really solid action on the sheepshead! They are terrific table fare if you catch legal size fish. These fish have funny looking mouths that they use to eat hard crustaceans like crabs, mussels, oysters, and barnacles.
We expect the sheepshead bite to stay solid through the month of March and into early April. The redfish bite has been good with plenty of lower slot fish being caught along with a couple of chances at some really large ones which are a blast on light tackle!
We have been mostly catching and releasing the redfish. These fish are basically residents of our local waters and it’s important that we take care of them so we have a healthy population for generations to come. These fish are a lot of fun to catch and are under pressure throughout the year so we try to make an effort to never take an excessive amount of fish and to handle them carefully.
According to The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources our redfish numbers have rebounded some in the last year or so which is fantastic! We want to keep this trend going and will do our part in this.
Later in March we will see some of the large Black Drum coming nearshore to spawn as well as some bull redfish starting to show up late March through April. As the water continues to warm up things should really start to come to life!
We look forward to taking our clients out every week and strive to give them the best experience. Please call, text or email us with any questions. We are happy to help you out any way we can! Contact Us here!
Epic Inshore Bite!
We caught plenty of redfish and they sure were happy to eat about anything we threw at them for 3 hours. They ate live shrimp, mud minnows, and artificial baits. We fished the inshore water of Hilton Head.
We fished the inshore waters of Hilton Head Island and caught a large quantity of fish keeping busy for three hours! During those three hours we threw live shrimp, live mud minnows, and artificial baits. It did not matter what we threw at them they wanted it all!
We targeted creek mouths as the tide was falling and we could see shrimp and other baits getting sucked out of the creeks. This caused a feeding frenzy of birds and fish for quite some time.
We mostly used a popping cork with a short leader to suspend our baits over the oysters where the redfish and flounder were staging up to ambush the bait as it flushed out. We were using light tackle Star Rods with Shimanos new Stradic 3000FM reels and what a combo those are. We threw quite a few ZMAN artificials too.
Stay tuned for fishing reports in the near future! We suspect the bite to continue to be good through the fall and into early winter as fish feed to bulk themselves up for the colder months.
https://fish.shimano.com/en-US/product/reels/spinning/frontdrag/a075f00003slvodqas.html
https://www.starfishingtackle.com/stellar-lite-spinning-fast-taper