Subject: Shallow Saltwater Report, South Carolina

Submitted by Delta Guide Service (ip 24.88.84.146)

• Fished on 5/29/04

  Water Temperature: 80
  Water Clarity: Fair
  Seas: Moderate
  Weather: Hot
  Fishing_for: red drum & sea trout
  Boat: Hewes 18' flats boat
  captain: Gene Dickson
  

  Report:
  South Carolina Shallow Saltwater Fishing Report 05-01-04 through 05-31-04 This May seems to have been a lot warmer than previous Mays. Warm weather and warm water have scattered the fish into their normal summer patterns. A few here, a few there and tons of live bait in between just to add another difficulty factor. No rain to speak of, which may or may not affect the spawning of the sea trout. We’re told there is a narrow range of salinity level that they require in order for their spawn to be effective. Year before last, it was too salty, last year it was too fresh and now, again this year it seems it may be too salty again. We still manage to catch some, but not as many as in years past. For this month, our biggest catch of trout was 11 one day along with 4 reds. In the “good old days,” we could have caught 11 by accident! Reds seem to still be here in good numbers, they just have so much food available, it’s hard to find a hungry fish: typical for this time of the season. Fly rodders have had it tough here this month. It’s been very windy and the water has been murky to muddy. Tides have given us another problem in that they have been much lower than normal tides. For over a month now, the high tides have only gotten about half as high as normal and when it goes out, look out, it really goes out! We’ve seen sandbars and oyster bars that we have never seen before. We’ve also seen quite a few boats hit the slightly submerged ones that they could run across on a normal low tide. I emailed NOAA and asked if there was a reason for it but never got a response. If any of you know why, I’d love to here it. We had a couple of decent days with fly rods, but no big numbers of fish. One day we had 3, another day had 4, two days had 2 each day and two days had the dreaded and despised 0. We fared much better with artificials and live bait. Several days had more than 10 reds per day and some of the fish were in the 12 to 16 pound class. We’ve not had any of the really big ones show on the coast as of now, but it shouldn’t be too long before they start to show. Good fishing! Gene Dickson Delta Guide Service http:// www.deltaguideservice.com/index.html Georgetown, SC 843-546-3645

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