Georgia Saltwater Fishing Report – July 2008

Saltwater: Inshore: Good for some nice-sized trout. “We’re seeing a lot of trout that are 20 to 24 inches,” said Capt. David Newlin. “We’re fishing mostly out in the far end of the sound out toward the ocean and out on the beachfronts. Live shrimp and small finger mullet are real good right now.” He said flounder are common in the same areas where they’re catching the good trout. “There’s a real good run on redfish right now — a fair amount of legal fish and a lot of small fish. We’re using the New Penny Gulp Shrimp for big fish, and the rest are coming on the standard cork rigs with shrimp.”

Nearshore: Excellent for tarpon and sharks. “Most of the tarpon are 1 to 2 miles off the beach,” Capt. Newlin said. “Anywhere you can find a school of poagies, there will be some tarpon out there. There have been some real big fish in the 140- to 150-lb. range. I’ve turned loose 14 fish so far this month, which is real good for the month of June.” He’s fishing a combination of live poagies on top fished under popping corks and dead poagies fished on the bottom. Lots of sharks are also being caught. “Sharks seem to be almost everywhere,” Capt. Newlin said. “Off the beachfront we’re catching a lot of big blacktips and lot of lemon sharks on popping corks. On the bottom we’re catching a lot of big tiger sharks, bull sharks and a few hammerheads. Just any kind of fresh dead fish is working good in the St. Catherine’s channel anywhere between 20 to 50 feet deep.”

Offshore: Good for king mackerel. “Kingfish from 10 pounds to 30 pounds seem to everywhere on the artificial reefs. You can catch them trolling about anything, but we’re mostly trolling cigar minnows and Drone’s Spoons,” Capt. Newlin said. “The J Buoy has had a lot of fish, the CCA Reef, all of the towers have fish on them. There are quite a few barracuda mixed in. We’ve also seen a surprisingly good cobia run on the wrecks. We’re sight fishing with a big yellow jig with a piece of fish on it.” The red-snapper bite has been excellent, and some good fish are being caught shallow for this time of year. “The last eight trips we have limited out on snapper, and we’re seeing a lot of 15- to 20-lb. fish. A lot have been in 40 to 50 feet of water, and we’re fishing anywhere from 40 to 120 feet. Standard bottom rigs with cut squid and fish are working. They haven’t been very picky,” Capt. Newlin said.