Big redfish have invaded Winyah Bay

Drifting live finger mullet has been ticket

Lots of big, bull redfish have shown up in Winyah Bay over the past week, according to Capt. Steve Hedrick of Reel EZ Guide Service in Georgetown, and the result has been some excellent action for fishermen drifting live bait.

Lots of big, bull redfish have shown up in Winyah Bay over the past week, according to Capt. Steve Hedrick of Reel EZ Guide Service in Georgetown, and the result has been some excellent action for fishermen drifting live bait.

“With this full moon and the tides, Winyah Bay has been full of big redfish,” said Hedrick (843-344-3474). “Guys have been drifting big finger mullet, five or six inches long, drifting on the incoming tide, drifting shell banks that have been dredged.”

Hedrick said most fishermen are drifting with a 6- or 7-ounce bank sinker, with a dropper loop a foot or so above the hook, with a piece of 40- to 50-pound test fluorocarbon tied to a 2/0 or larger hook.

“Just letting the tide drift you upcurrent, they’ve been really hitting ‘em hard,” said Hedrick, who said that the bay has also been producing a lot of nice whiting (sea mullet) and smaller redfish.

“We’re catching a lot of whiting, as nice as I’ve seen here in the past four or five years, catching them on live shrimp,” he said. “The bay is just loaded with shrimp, and some of these fish we’re catching, they look like they’re growing whiskers – they’ve got so many shrimp hanging out of their mouth.”

Hedrick said that smaller redfish have been on the move, starting to concentrate around the mouth of small feeder creeks.

About Dan Kibler 887 Articles
Dan Kibler is the former managing editor of Carolina Sportsman Magazine. If every fish were a redfish and every big-game animal a wild turkey, he wouldn’t ever complain. His writing and photography skills have earned him numerous awards throughout his career.

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