Prospecting tide lines has been key for Bulls Bay trout

Guide says specks have been feeding just behind breakers on color change

Prospecting and striking it rich. That’s what Capt. Todd Stamps of MyFish Guide Service in Charleston has been doing the past week around the Bulls Bay area – and he’s been rewarded with some fine catches of spotted sea trout.

“We’ve been fishing outside the breakers on the ocean side of Bulls Island; the specks have been out there,” said Stamps (803-212-8224). “It’s been good for a while.”

Prospecting is what Stamps does when he first arrives. He tries to cover a lot of water, fishing a “Bite-A-Bait” stickbait in black/silver. When he gets a few bites, he sets up and changes to a live mullet minnow fished under a Cajun Thunder popping cork. That’s what has produced the lion’s share of his trout, which have ranged from “schoolie” size to much bigger fish.

“We’ve been fishing in 5 or 6 feet of water, and we’ve been running the bait down about 3 feet under the cork, with a split shot about 8 inches above a No. 1 Octopus hook,” Stamps said.

The best tide has been falling out of high. “I like to come in at high and catch it falling – it gives me more time to fish,” he said. “You get that dirty water off the beach mixing with the ocean water, and it gives you a more defined tide line. That’s where we’ve been catching ’em.”

Stamps believes the trout have been feeding on glass minnows and menhaden that have been congregating along the tide line the past few weeks.