Carolina Fishing Report: Bluefish, Sea Mullet, Redfish

Warmer Carolina temperatures have ignited the bluefish and sea mullet bites, although the most dependable action continues to be on those reliable redfish. A lot of folks are fishing for flounder and the size is slowly getting better but there are still a lot of throwbacks. Overall fishing is starting to rev up for the season.

As they have all year the inshore redfish are providing a lot of action for the guides, the boaters, and folks fishing the grass flats, creeks, and bridges. Red drum are feeding on crabs and baitfish actively and are still decently schooled-up, though they are showing up in more and more places. Some are even in the surf now.

But the best action for redfish is to fish the tides inshore. Catch a moving tide and offer them your bait of choice: mud minnows, cut blue crab, cut mullet, or those synthetic soft baits like Gulp and Fishbites lures. Red drum are running the tides inside and feeding as the current moves, and they are also biting very well on the last few hours of the lowering tide in the creeks and marsh grass areas.

Flounder are being caught both inshore and in the surf from the piers, but the size is not really there yet. There are plenty of people trying inshore, though, drifting the inlets with mud minnows. A better technique is to anchor up near structure like the docks and bridges and cast mud minnows or Gulp soft baits to try and tempt the bigger flatties.

Bluefish are hitting off and on at the piers now and Gotcha-style plugs will catch them. The red head/white body Gotcha is tried and true but there are many color combinations that will work. Fishing a plug with a trailer jig will catch snapper blues when nothing else will.

The sea mullet (whiting) are in the surf as well and being caught from pier and shore. The size is varying considerably, and remember that they are one fish that loves to stage a bite after dark. Fresh cut shrimp is hard to beat but folks are catching them on squid, bloodworms, and Fishbites bloodworms.

There have also been a few spring spot caught ocean-side, and as usual the black drum are around the docks and bridges at night if you want to go after them.

For more fishing articles and reports see my blog A Dash of Salty and my website Surf and Salt