Reds are Rocking at Little River

Cool weather kills trout bite, sets redfish on fire

Guide Mark Dickson of Shallow Minded Charters turned to the jetties on either side of Little River Inlet when last week’s cold weather shut down a great speckled trout bite.

What he found were plenty of the juvenile channel bass/red drum that fishermen refer to as spottails, redfish or puppy drum.

“We’re still catching flounder at the Sunset Beach Bridge, at Cherry Grove and Tubbs Inlet, but most of those fish have been on the small side,” said Dickson (843-280-7099). “So we’ve basically replaced the specks we were catching with redfish that have been around the jetties.”

Little River Inlet lies along the North Carolina/South Carolina border, so recreational saltwater fishing licenses from both states may be required for any fishermen looking to take advantage of the jetties, which reach out several hundred yards into the ocean on either side of the inlet’s channel.

Dickson said that decent-sized schools of fish have been moving from jetty to jetty; finding them has been a matter of covering a lot of water and working an area thoroughly when fish are finally located.

“They’ve been on both jetties; you’re having to move around until you hit ‘em,” Dickson said. “We were catching them Tuesday on the inside of the south jetty but Monday, they were on the outside of the north jetty.

“They’re in there feeding on glass minnows. The inlet is just full of glass minnows.”

A key has been fishing during periods of moving water – with the tide either rising or falling. Slack-water periods have been unproductive, Dickson said.

Live mud minnows fished on a float rig have been the ticket for Dickson, who has tried to position his boat about 50 feet off the jetties, anchoring up and allowing his guide parties to cast to within four or five feet of the rocks.

“We’re using anywhere from 4 to 6 feet of leader under the corks,” Dickson said. “We’re anchoring up and fishing for about 15 or 20 minutes, and if they’re not there, we’re moving back and forth until we find them.”

Live shrimp has been a very effective bait, Dickson said, but extremely difficult to come by, so most of the damage he’s done has been with live mud minnows.