Peak Inshore Fishing Time for Georgia Coast

Although we have been plagued by wind, rain, and cold weather, the fishing has still been somewhere between good and excellent on most days. Except for a couple of days when the water clarity was pretty nasty due to a combination of weather factors and extreme tides we have been doing really well on both Trout and Redfish.

For the next several weeks I expect that we will continue to have some great days as long as we can get decent weather during the prime tides.

Sheepshead are starting to become a regular catch while fishing for Trout and Redfish and we are still catching the occasional Flounder. During the coldest months of the year we start to see more and more “Sheepies” hanging around heavy structure such as docks, laydowns, rip rap, and even shell mounds.

You can never really tell what the fish will do ahead of time, but if history is any indication of what we can expect, generally we should see some great fishing in December and January.

If you are planning a trip to the coast and would like to book a charter or you are planning on doing some fishing on your own, here are a couple of options that should be available to you.

1. Light tackle Trout and Redfish. Usually as it gets colder you will start to find that the Trout become more concentrated. They tend to move into deeper holes and holding around structure. This will typically require a bit of “spot checking” to find a solid bite, but once you locate the fish they will most likely be stacked up and ready to eat.

2. Redfish on the flats. The later into winter it gets, the more we will see some awesome water clarity. This means excellent sight fishing opportunities. If you like the idea of “see fish, catch fish” you should consider hitting the flats this winter with fly or spin tackle. This is all catch and release fishing and we can accommodate up to 2 anglers per boat. You’ll have to pack light as we will be in a technical poling skiff that weighs only 850 pounds enabling us to reach the shallowest flats.

Tackle Tip for the Week

I was asked by a Facebook follower to create a video for rigging up Billy Bay Lowcountry Lightning popping corks. These corks are rigged the same as you would rig any adjustable cork such as a Thill or an old school Float Hi. Even if you have been fishing with adjustable depth corks for a long time, you might want to give this video a look. There are a couple of tweaks that I use to minimize tangles and get more bites.