Archive for the ‘Fishing Tips’ Category
Saturday, April 17th, 2010
With water temperatures in the 60’s, fishing action has been great in Charleston all of April. Schools of redfish are breaking up now, but smaller pods of 5-10 are still holding near oyster bars and grass lines. We have been consistently catching redfish on every charter. Mullet are around in all sizes and have been the best bait to use. Mud minnows are still working, but fish are now cruising around more and the scent of fresh cut mullet is hard to beat. I am anticipating the end of the month to be some excellent conditions for late afternoon tailing redfish! Sheepshead fishing has also been solid inshore with catches of 20+ in an hour or two commonplace. Flounder are around too, as well as some early season trout.
Best of luck out there, and check out my website at Avid Angling if you want to get on the water and chase some tailing redfish!
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Friday, March 26th, 2010
I have been running mostly inshore fishing charters on the flats, but with the nice weather we have been having in Charleston lately its just hard to resist heading out on the ocean. We decided to hit Caper’s reef this time. With snapper and grouper season closed (probably for a long time) it seems that seabass and sheepshead may be good winter/early spring species to target. The artificial reef was packed with many anglers that had the same idea, so at first we drifted around and hit some small bumps on the sonar. We did alright catching black and bank seabass, but we knew we could do much better. We kept our eyes out for any boats moving and noticed that one boat pulled anchor and left a barge he had been fishing. We anchored over that and immediately started catching fish. After adjusting the anchor a bit we started catching large spottail pinfish. From numerous diving trips to the wrecks I have noticed that these fish stay close to the wreck. If you start catching these fish, stay where you are and get ready for the sheepshead! Sure enough, we started hooking up to the sheepshead on light tackle. We got around a dozen or so landed and went through bait like crazy trying to set the hook on these “clever” fish. Mixed in of course we plenty of seabass, dogfish and spottail pinfish, a blast to catch on light tackle. Even though we caught a lot of fish, we released all but one (a nice sheepshead that had taken the hook deep). Some of the fish had to be vented to get them to swim back down to the wreck, make sure you carry a venting tool with you if you plan to fish the artificial reefs.
Here’s to your next trip!
Capt. Mike Illig
Avid Angling Fishing Charters
Charleston, SC
Click here for booking information
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Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
I have been fishing for spottails/reds mostly this March, with some days out at the nearshore wrecks mixed in. The sheepshead are definitely out there in good numbers (more pics to follow). Inshore redfishing has been pretty good. I took a vacation so I didn’t fish SC for a week in March, but caught fish steadily throughout the tide cycle on my trips early March and they were still biting when I got back last week. With some of the rain mixed in and wind, sight fishing has been tough on some days. The other day we accidentally threw bait right on top of a school of reds, but a few minutes later we had one on, so they didn’t spook of too bad. We decided to skip the IFA tournament last weekend and go out to the wrecks, but congrats to the many local anglers who participated!
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Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
For the most part, fishing has been a blast throughout Jan-Feb with some great catches of Redfish. Some days the fish have been pretty sluggish and lethargic, and other days the wind has made sight fishing difficult. One day we actually had some sort of small microburst come though the marsh and spook all the reds, it almost looked like a big school of baitfish moving over the water.
I have been using mudminnows and gulps on average days, fiddler crabs on the cold slow days, and on the warm days with active fish it seems like anything will work, including small gold spoons that otherwise might spook the fish. I saw some nice 28-30″ reds busting topwater with this recent nice weather and got them on the flyrod (I’ll post another entry soon with video footage).
Dolphins have been fun to watch, but frustrating at times when they come up and spook the fish. You may not want to give up hope though when they come, I poled up on some dolphins working the reds and as soon as the dolphins moved off our group landed 18 reds in about 45 minutes! These fish had been chased by dolpins just moments before!
In the winter I really like to play the wind to my advantage and fish flats that are in the lee of the wind. Also, I work the flats slowly and keep an eye out for swirls rather than relying on actually seeing the fish. There isn’t much bait around right now so if you see a swirl there is a good chance it’s a spot tail!
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Thursday, January 7th, 2010
Fishing has been great so far this month. The redfish are still biting and the winter clear water is here. The clear water makes for some great scouting opportunities. Redfish school up and are easy to find this time of year. I have been scouting new schools of reds and found some nice pockets holding what I estimate to be about 75-100 fish average. I also found a flat that is holding good numbers of trout. It is really exciting to select a trout and pitch to it. One thing to remember is that the fish become more lethargic in the winter and working baits slowly is usually necessary. Here’s a shot from a trip last week:
We landed 16 redfish this charter with 2 other double headers like this!
The largest fish of the day measured 30″ with all but 2 fish over the slot.
Winter fishing is certainly more challenging in the Lowcountry, but I think the advantages of the cold clear water sightfishing possibilities and smaller crowds on the water make it worth battling the weather!
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Saturday, November 14th, 2009
A few days of bad weather and small craft advisories didn’t slow the trout down in Charleston. I went out to check some old holes and scout for some new ones and hit it just right! The “honey hole” produced 2 nice trout in the first 2 casts so I left them there and went to a similar spot that I have been wanting to try. That spot was going off too! In 7 of 10 casts nice trout were caught and released. One thing I noticed is that the outside of the meanders of the river had better structure (oyster shell banks) and steeper banks due to the faster currents. The trout really seemed to like those spots, wheres good numbers of redfish held on the opposite banks where more flats were formed. I was using shrimp for bait but switched to artificial baits for a while to experiment a bit. More Fishing Reports…
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Sunday, October 18th, 2009
Avid Angling went out and battled some wind and cool weather for some redfish, trout and bluefish on the fly. The highlight of the trip was definitely the bluefish blitz we encountered halfway through the charter. We were able to enjoy some spectacular topwater bites from fly casting topwater plugs to the thrashing bluefish. We also had multiple double hookups with bluefish and trout! Josh, my client, landed his first spotted seatrout, adding to his list of species taken with fly rod. More…
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Monday, September 14th, 2009
We went out for an hour and a half at the jetties for some redfish. After we boated 3 good sized reds and 2 sharks, another huge redfish started screaming off some line. After an incredible fight, we finally got this 48 1/2″ bull red drum to the boat. It weighed 36 pounds! We trimmed 4 broken leaders out of its mouth ranging from 30-50# test line. After reviving the red drum it swam away. Best thing about this fish is that it was caught by my dad! More reports…
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Sunday, August 30th, 2009
Fishing has been great this August, with high catches of redfish! I have been targeting reds a lot lately to try to find some new areas that are holding good numbers. As the weather starts to cool down, reds will school up more and more. Menhaden are everywhere so I have been using them for bait cut into 1″ squares, but about everything else will work if you can’t find find them.
Shark fishing has been a lot of fun this August as well. If you have never battled a shark, it is a blast! They are strong fighters that tend to go crazy and run again and again as they catch sight of the boat.
Feel free to check out my home page for rates or to book a charter.
-Capt. Mike Illig
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Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
Joe Lineberry says:
Absolute perfection! My experience on the water with CAPT Mike Illig of Avid Angling, Charleston, SC left nothing to be desired. Mike’s personable approach for sharing his love and knowledge of fishing proved second to none. He is within the top 5% of charter captains and guides (shallow water, deep sea, near shore) that I have experienced in the past 15 years and 5 countries.
If you want a top quality fishing experience with a seasoned, energetic and knowledgeable guide, CAPT Mike Illig is your man.
Mike, thanks for making my R&R leave from Iraq memorable – I look forward to many more fishing experiences with you.
Tight Lines,
Joseph Lineberry
Lieutenant Colonel
US Army
To book a charter with Avid Angling Fishing Charters, check out Avid Angling for rates and contact info!
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