The following seminars will be held at Haddrell’s Point this month:
“Nearshore Shark Fishing” with Capt Mike Waller of Saltfisher charters.
April 17th 2012, 6 pm at Haddrell’s Point (West Ashley)
Seminar is free of charge but please RSVP 843-574-3474.
Inshore:
It may be only the latter part of February right now, but we are definately starting to see a spring time pattern begin to develop in the inshore fishery. Large winter schools of redfish have begun to split off into smaller pods of fish (4-12 fish in a group) and while you may not be on tremendous numbers of fish in a given location, this means in turn though that the reds are readily available in many different types of locations. While many anglers are still targeting fish up the shallow flats, we have been getting some solid reports of reds at the jetties, docks, rock piles, etc. Live shrimp, blue crab, or cut mullet are easy natural baits of choice. If you like to throw artificials, go with a Zman PaddlerZ, gulp jerkshad, or Yo-Zuri HD shrimp. Sheepshead continue to be found around the bridges and rock piles using fiddler crabs, and a more consistent trout bite has started to unfold in the past couple weeks around shell rakes in 4-7ft of water.
Offshore:
A handful of calm weather days allowed several different boats to slip out on the big pond recently. Reports of quality wahoo have come in from around the southwest banks area of the ledge, as well as some blackfin holding around georgetown hole. If you don’t mind a pretty good run down to the south, several different sources have told me this week of a great blackfin bite off of the beaufort/savannah area down around the “triple ledge” and “deli” areas. Pull smaller baits for the blackfin such as the jr sized cedar plugs or small ballyhoo behind a sea witch skirt.
Scott Hammond
Manager – Haddrell’s Point
843-573-3474
The following seminars will be held at Haddrell’s Point this month:
“Fishing Artificials in the spring time” with Capt Jeff Yates at Haddrell’s Point.
March 13th 2012, 6pm at Haddrell’s Point (Mount Pleasant)
Capt Jeff will teach you how to work artificial baits properly and show you his go-to baits that time of year. Capt Jeff has been guiding this area for many many years and would be a great way to key in on how to fool the fish!!
Seminar is free of charge but please RSVP 843-881-3644.
“Surf Fishing Seminar” with Capt Dee Oliver of HPWA.
March 27th 2012, 6 pm at Haddrell’s Point (West Ashley)
Seminar is free of charge but please RSVP 843-574-3474.
Inshore:
Can anyone else believe that here we are in the first week of Feb and we have water temps pushing the upper 50′s in the afternoons right now? Crazy, but welcomed! Though the redfish are probably a little confused as to what time of the year it actually ia right now, it has not slowed down their feeding habits at all. Have had several reports in this week of anglers finding schools of reds numbering in the hundreds, and the fish were feeding as well. Some anglers were producing 25-35 nice reds in only a couple hours. The larger schools are still being found around low tide on the shallow mud flats, and when working these mud flats look for areas of the flat that have a few oyster points mixed in…this is typically where the reds will stage up. Throw live minnows, shrimp, or a chunk of blue crab if you like to fish natural baits.If you like to throw artificials, throw a ZMAN ultra shrimp or Gulp swimming mullet. I know this sounds like a broken record lately, but the sheepshead bite is still going well on fiddler crabs and live shrimp fished around heavy structure in 8-15ft of water as well as the Charleston Harbor jetties. Have also heard several encouraging reports this week of anglers finding a fair number of trout here and there in 6-12ft of water Try free-lining a DOA shrimp with a rattle in it, hard to beat this technique and bait when the trout get a little sluggish during the cooler months.
Offshore:
While most of the offshore anglers are spending most of their free time getting all their equipment ready for spring right now, a handful of boats have slipped out in the last week during some good weather. Reports of good numbers of blackfin were coming in from the south (southern edisto banks, deli, etc), with many of these tuna being caught jigging butterfly jigs after marking the fish down deep along the ledge. Even had a gentleman in yesterday that was saying he got into a fantastic topwater blackfin blitz during the late afternoon just a few days ago around the northern end of the Deli. Did not hear of any real consistent wahoo bite, though there were a few caught from 140-300ft of water, most of which were in 30-45 pound range Sheepshead reports from the nearshore reefs seemingly slowed the past week and half, with most of the anglers who ventured out to the reefs saying they could not get a bait past the black sea bass long enough for a sheepshead to be able to take it. My recommendation if looking to fish one of our many artificial reefs would be to target the shallower reefs right now until we get a little closer to March, meaning the reefs in 25-35ft of water. You should be less likely to get over-run by sea bass on these shallower reefs, and there should be good numbers of black drum and sheepshead ready to take a fiddler or live shrimp at these type reefs.
Scott Hammond
Manager – Haddrell’s Point
843-573-3474
Fist off I will have to say that NE wind was blowing hard! I finally had the chance to play and catch a few fish for myself. I fished with long time friend and fellow guide Capt. Addison Rupert. While pulling up to the first spot we could see large numbers of reds pushing water and actually gray houding in the shallow waters. This would only last a minute or two then the school would settle down. Being an over cast and extremely windy day, sight fishing wasnt in the cards for us. Busted out the trusty blue crabs and mullet and proceeded to slam a few slob reds. (Nothing remotely close to the slot for the Lowcountry Redfish Cup) Pulled away from the first spot trying to let the other boats catch a few. We went scouting in new areas looking for new schools. Found some very nice areas but produced only a few fish. All in all a good day on the water with a long time friend filled with redfish and good times. Get out on the water ASAP. The redfish are biting every day, even if its blowing 20-25 out of the NE.
We have a huge inventory of old and new parts in stock for sale. If you’re looking for a part, and it is on this list, email repairs@haddrellspoint.com for information.
We have a huge inventory of old and new parts in stock for sale. If you’re looking for a part, and it is on this list, email repairs@haddrellspoint.com for information.
I took two guys from Atlanta out for a four hour trip in search of redfish. The weather wasn’t ideal but the tides were perfect. We started out fishing a grass edge where schooling redfish cruise up and down the bank. Since it was an over cast day we couldn’t do much sight fishing, so we put out some quartered up blue crabs and cut muttle on a 2/0 3/8oz cirlce hook jighead. We picked at them slowly until the tide dropped out. After moving spots we got on the fish pretty well. The quartered blue crabs was the bait of chioce! We did catch a few on cut mullet. Ended the day with 15 total fish, biggest being 12 pounds and had a few doubles. Great day on the water with a few really great guys. Can’t wait to get back out. Come stop by either Haddrells location and pick up some blue crabs and circle hook jigheads before your next trip out on the water.
Inshore:
Definately not trying to jinx us here in the lowcountry, but I just don’t think we could ask for much prettier weather for January than what we have been experiecing! Best part is that the fishing has matched the great weather. Large schools of reds have been all over the shallow water flats, and with water clarity extremely good right now, the sight fishing just could not get a much better for redfish. Smokey Shad ZMAN PaddlerZ and the GULP jerkshad in black bass color have been the hottest baits going right now for us. Not into throwing artificials? Set up with some cut mullet on the same type shallow flat near a good oyster point and hang on. Sheepshead fishing still continues to produce a LOT of double digit fish, with almost all of the larger ones coming from our inshore waters. Heavy structure in 8-20ft of water should be your best bet for tangling into some convicts, and fiddler crabs are still the bait of choice. As a little bit of a side note, I did get a solid report from the jetties the other day where one of our good customers was catching good numbers of black drum on cut shrimp at the end of the jetties where the rocks become submerged leading into the ocean. A falling tide is going to be your best time to target these drum at the points of the jetties, and take a few mud minnows with you as well as there are still some medium sized redfish hanging around in this area as well.
HPTWA employee Michael Johnson slipped out late one evening by himself and got into a nice school of reds before the sun went down. Well done Mikey!
Offshore:
A couple of boats slipped out last week and did a little winter trolling for wahoo, and while there were no big numbers of fish to report, there were a few very nice sized wahoo caught in the 40-60lb range. Just outside the ledge in 200-350ft of water is where they were holding last week. Though not officially an “offshore” report, our closer artificial reefs (lowcountry angler reef, north edisto nearshore,charleston nearshore, etc) have been producing a lot of small to medium sized sheepshead and some black drum in the 14-24″ range. Fiddlers again are the bait of choice, but don’t hesitate to drop some live shrimp down as well on a standard type carolina rig.
Scott Hammond
Manager – Haddrell’s Point
843-573-3474
I had the chance to take Joey Prochazka from Z-man Lures fishing on Saturday. (1-20-2012) We fished the ICW north of IOP. We had a killer day on the water. We caught the last few hours of the falling tide and the begining of the incoming tide. Beautiful weather and lots of hungry redfish! The bait of choice for us was the Z-man paddlerz in the 4inch and 5inch. Color preference varied from smokey shad to redbone to houdini. We had these baits rigged on a 3/16 oz Gamakatsu jighead and an 1/8 oz weighted worm hook. This makes for a very soft presentation. Both styles of rigging proved to be deadly. We fished the shallow waters right on the edges of the ICW looking for schooling redfish. When we would approach a school, we took turns making long casts in front of the schools. By giving the lure a few small twitches with the rod tip to create some action and reeling up the slack made for a perfect presentation. We fished hard and it sure payed off. Ending the day with 30 redfish ranging from 25inches to 32 inches and about 12 pounds. I can’t wait to get back on that hot bite. Come stop by either location and check out the wide selection of Zman lures on the walls.
