Early fall continues to be productive for nearshore and inshore anglers along the South Carolina coast, and guide James LaVanway is proud to count himself among the recent beneficiaries. A few weeks ago while fishing off Fort Moultrie near Charleston, one of his clients reeled in a 35-pound, 50-inch redfish. This week, plenty of weakfish have joined in the fray.
LaVanway’s five clients boated 40 weakfish on Wednesday, ranging from 1 1/2 up to 3 pounds in size.
“We were working a nearshore reef in about 35 feet of water,” said LaVanway, of Reel Fish Finder Charters (www.reelfishfinder.com, 843-697-2081). “One angler caught five weakfish on one mullet – it didn’t even matter that the mulllet was dead by his second fish.”
Mullet and shrimp are the primary baits now, LaVanway said, and he rigs them on a Carolina rig. He’ll let the rig drop to the bottom, then crank up so the bait is about 3 feet off the bottom.
“You’d better carry a bunch of weights with you because they’re going to get tangled up (in the artificial reef),” LaVanway said. “But it’s worth it because the fish are there.”
On the same day, the anglers also caught black drum, bluefish, sheepshead and an 85-pound blacktip shark.
“We got there about an hour before high tide, and as soon as we got there and dropped, they were blistering them,” LaVanway said. “It’s really fun right now.”
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