Saltwater Series: Making the most of Murrells Inlet redfish

Capt. Englis Glover targets redfish in Murrells Inlet waters when the majority of fishermen are trying to catch flounder.

You can’t blame Englis Glover for expressing his love — loud and long — for Murrells Inlet. After all, he grew up barely a long cast from its waters and, except for an interruption of several years while chasing and hitting a little white ball as a golf pro, he’s always called the little fishing village on the lower end of the Grand Strand home.

But there’s the matter of fishing, and Glover, who runs Tee to Sea Charters and is the host of Reelin’ up the Coast, a television fishing show, is ready and willing to explain why his little watery corner of the world takes second place to no other area of South Carolina’s coastline.

“The number of fish you can catch and the short distance you have to travel, that’s what makes Murrells Inlet great,” Glover said. “It’s not like you have to run 15 minutes to get to a spot. The longest run in 3 ½ miles. It’s amazing you can catch that many fish in such tight confines.”

Then, there’s the matter of having a “closed system” — Murrells Inlet being the only area of marsh and backwaters not connected to the Intracoastal Waterway or any coastal rivers.

“And you don’t get any dirty water like you get anywhere else with a river. It’s a completely a saltwater fishery.”

So you’d think Glover would be a little hesitant to share some of his favorite spots in the Murrells Inlet area with complete strangers? Not if you know him. If Murrells Inlet’s chamber of commerce gave a most valuable player award, Glover would have to be a finalist. Here are a few places he’d highlight in a brochure aimed at attracting visiting anglers:

Curlew Point
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Main Creek slithers like a snake through much of the backwaters on Murrells Inlet’s northern end, and Glover calls has several favorite fishing holes along its length.

The first is a marsh bank, a quarter-mile or so in length, in a section of the creek that winds close to the mainland.

“This is a shell bank — there are oyster shells throughout,” Glover said. “The redfish get on it; they will school up and move down the whole bank. I think the bait gets caught in here pretty good, and the places I catch redfish, I catch ‘em around places with a lot of bait.”

Glover likes to start on at the point on the southern end of the long marsh bank, anchor up, cast to the grass and work his way north up the bank, all the way to the far corner.

“A lot of guys will troll through here. I like to fish this place three hours before high tide, before the water touches the grass,” he said. “It’s not a bad spot on a falling tide, but it’s great on a rising tide.”

Glover relies on live bait for 90 percent of his fishing, especially his charters, and he’ll fish a live finger mullet on a Carolina rig on most of his spots.

Capt. Englis Glover of Tee to Sea Charters can be contacted at 843-655-5459.

Editor’s note: This article is part of the Saltwater Series feature in the August issue of South Carolina Sportsman. To find out more Murrells Inlet spots, just download a digital edition of the magazine right to your computer or smartphone.

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