Georgia Saltwater Fishing Report – June 2010

Saltwater: Capt. Bob Barnette reports, “The water temperature has reached 80-plus degrees along the coast, and the water is clear on most days. The redfish are still biting with some very large fish being landed. Flounder are showing up on the mud flats, and tripletail action has started. If shark is your forte, then you can have a blast. Tarpon should be in full swing this month, and cobia are hitting at the near reefs. A few sea trout are being caught, but as a whole they are few and far between. Keep in mind that this may change any day, but as of yet they are biting slowly. Look for tarpon in the mouths of the sound. Try menhaden for bait. For cobia around the near reefs, use menhaden, eels, large prawn shrimp or small crabs. For flounder and redfish, look to the shallow mud flats and creek mouths, using float rigs with live shrimp or mud minnows. Tripletails like small shrimp. They are also biting slowly. There seems to be a lot of them this year. Use a float rig to catch these also, but you will have to be stealthy. Capt. Greg Hildreth reports, “The tripletail fishing off the beaches has been awesome for the past few weeks and should be good until the state waters are opened for the shrimpers to move in. I’ve been sight casting to these fish with live shrimp as well as taking them on a fly rod. My fly patterns are a shrimp imitation that suspends under the surface about a foot. The trout fishing has been hit or miss. I think our fish took a real beating during the cold winter. The big blacktip sharks are moving in behind the shrimp boats and will get better as the water warms. Tarpon should be showing anytime and be on fire by mid June. Capt David Newlin reports, “It seems like everything has turned on. The big redfish seem to be everywhere. The usual live-shrimp rigs are working well. The fish are on all the mud flats and oyster beds on low tide, and then they go in the grass on high tide. On high tide, we have been sight fishing and throwing Gulp baits. The trout bite is real hit and miss. The whiting bite has been hot. Put a piece of shrimp on the bottom, and set the hook. The big sharks are real thick about 2 to 4 miles off the beach. There’s a lot of big blacktips and lemon sharks. Any fresh fish will work for bait. We caught a 60-lb. tarpon off Sapelo. We have seen several big bunches. It should be hot in a few more days. Offshore the kings are here in good numbers. The artificial reefs and towers have had a lot of fish. The best cobia run in recent years is in full swing and should last a few more weeks. June looks good for everything from whiting to big sharks.”