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August 31, 2026

Fresh bait, even fresh cut bait, is a requirement for successful tarpon fishing.

Use fresh bait

Tarpon with a hearty appetite migrate up the eastern seaboard in the summer in search of large schools of mullet and menhaden. […]

Fiddler crabs and trimmed sea urchins are top sheepshead baits.

Best sheepshead baits

Jerry Dilsaver

Most fishermen think of fiddler crabs as the top sheepshead bait, and they catch fish with them. Fiddler crabs are most often seen just above the water’s edge in salt and brackish estuaries. […]

The waters around Georgetown teem with bait, which draw the attention of migrating tarpon.

Rolling versus feeding behavior

Jeff Burleson

Tarpon rise to the surface for several reasons, alerting onlookers at great distances. Most of the time, tarpon breach the surface gulping air — otherwise known as “rolling.” […]

A sheepshead’s dental work is suited perfectly to cracking crabs, barnacles and mollusks.

Sheepshead – the convict fish

Jerry Dilsaver

Sheepshead, Archosargus probatocephalus, are often called convict fish due to the vertical black bars on their sides. […]

Bringing a big tarpon to the boat successfully can be the highlight of a fisherman’s career.

Typically, tarpon tackle in the Carolinas is fairly simple, with some big, strong hooks and a livewell stocked with spunky 8-inch mullet, but Capt. Steve Roff routinely catches tarpon on artificial lures. […]

Big, sow trout will produce millions of eggs during one summer spawn, so releasing them will help the speck population.

Release spawners

Jeff Burleson

In North Carolina, speckled trout begin spawning in April and will continue through September. […]

Take care not to have a jack out of the water long between the catch and the release.

Catch and release

Bryan Bowers

Hard-fighting fish like jacks expend a lot of energy trying to evade capture, sometimes to the point of critical exhaustion. […]

Golden tilefish prefer muddy bottoms along the slopes into canyons where they can ambush passing prey.

Future of golden tilefish looks bright

Bob Goldstein

There appears to be no danger of golden tilefish being fished out under current management. The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s recently concluded stock assessment resulted in a doubling of the commercial allocation. Can expanded recreational fishing be far behind? […]

Frog baits come in several styles, from hollow-body (top) to keel-design (foreground).

Frogs and toads

Glenn Corley

Even though Ryan McMurtury only uses a soft-plastic green frog on Lake Russell, he has boxes of different types of frogs in various colors that he uses in different situations. […]

Golden tilefish rigs consist of a 2-pound weight and a single, 12/0 to 18/0 circle hook.

Biggest recorded fish kill involved tiles

Bob Goldstein

Golden tilefish suffered the largest-recorded Atlantic fish kill in March 1882, when billions were killed by an easterly shift of the Gulf Stream, chilling them in their habitat at the edge of the Continental Shelf where they had always been protected by warm Gulf waters. […]