April 24th, 2023

 

We have been enjoying some great weather and some awesome spring fishing. The wind has cooperated for us, so we have spent a lot of time in the ocean. With the water temps in the mid 60s, the Artificial reefs and live bottoms from the beach out to 5 miles were alive with action. Atlantic Bonito or our nearshore sushi have arrived and have been thick this week. Plenty of sight casting opportunities to busting fish, which makes for a super fun day. Few spanish macks are mixed in with the Bonito as well, majority are on the small side but had a few trips that produced some 18-20” macks on the jig. Blue fish have also been thick on the beach as well. For all of these species, I enjoy casting or jigging on light tackle. Clarkspoon stickjigs or minnow jigs from ¾oz to 1oz in pink or blue are my go to baits but really anything shiny will do the trick.  If you would rather troll, clarkspoons and planers and mackerel trees are all great option to catch spanish, blues and bonito. This bite should only continue to improve over the next few weeks!

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We saw a good bite of Grey trout inside our inlet around the port. Jigging light metal jigs off the bottom is a great interactive way to catch greys. I try to look for holes, drop offs, ledges and structural changes that can be used as an ambush point or current breaks for predator fish. Along with grey trout in our inlet, we a saw another good bite this week on Sea mullets and puffer fish. They are phenomenal table fair, and typical easy to catch! A simple 2 hook bottom rig, Sam’s Glitter Rigs, or Speck Rigs all tipped with fresh bait shrimp or fish bites will get you bit. Make sure you are using enough weight to hold bottom contact. Usually 2-3oz is fine depending on tide. Sea mullets are being found drifting the inlet in 45-65ft of water. 

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We are starting to see redfish split up and moving into smaller groups throughout the marsh. The reds are biting on a variety of different baits. I will usually throw the lightest jighead possible to make bottom contact, paired with a zman paddle tail or fluke-style bait in the bad shad color. Never can hurt to add a little procure to your bait as well. Fresh dead shrimp or cut mullet on the bottom is a great option as well. This time of year you can also count on reddrum, blackdrum, sheepshead and grey trout to be hanging around inshore structures like oyster beds, docks, bridges, hard bottom and inlets. The port area is starting to heat up, its a great place with ALOT of different structure and areas to hit for a variety of species.

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This upcoming week we are seeing more spring like temperatures. Trips will be focused on chasing Atlantic Bonito, Spanish Mackerel, Bluefish using metal jigs. I will also be jigging for those same species along with big grey trout around or artificial reefs and hard bottoms. Inshore I will be focusing on our inlets, turnin basis and marshes for drum, grey trout and sea mullet. I am looking forward to seeing what another great week of fishing will bring along the crystal coast and I wish you the best of luck. Spring is here and some phenomenal inshore and nearsfishing is upon us.

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