In both
fresh and saltwater the word transition gets thrown around quite often. If
there ever was a transitional pattern, March is certainly a month with a lot
going on. Depending on how soon or late the water starts warming and forage
starts to arrive, will determine where to concentrate your efforts. Our local
year round population of redfish, sheepshead, speckled trout, whiting and sea
bass will all be biting very well…somewhere. Migratory species such as cobia,
triple tail and sharks should start to trickle in towards the latter part of
the month.
One of
Georgia’s most sought after species; the speckled trout will certainly be one of
the most transitional fish this month. If the water temperature stays below 58
degrees, continue to concentrate your efforts in 6-18 feet of water. The periods
around either side of low tide as the water slows should be prime feeding time.
Smaller profile soft plastics like the D.O.A C.A.L curl tail, sinking hard
baits, and live shrimp drifted on an adjustable float rig should all produce.
If possible, down size your baits and work them very slow, on or very near the
bottom. Limit your search to smaller creeks, rivers and tributaries that hold
deep water. The sounds, ICW, and open water will just not offer the comfort for
trout yet. If we have a substantial warming trend, trout will move out to more
open water and begin to feed shallow, especially at the higher tide stages. Trout
tend to have a westerly movement on our coast in the cooler months, so don’t be
afraid to try drops closer to the I-95 corridor. The further reaches of the St.
Mary’s, Satilla, Little Satilla, White Oak, Turtle and Altamaha systems will
all hold good numbers of trout this time of year. Many savvy anglers catch
redfish, sheepshead and striped bass in these areas too.
March is
typically a month when the larger sheepshead show up both inshore and
nearshore. There will be a lot of fish exceeding the 8 lb. range brought to the
scales this time of year. On the nearshore wrecks, try to avoid days or tide
stages during the day when the current is ripping, or moving fast. Many anglers
get frustrated on the wrecks trying to fight thru black sea bass and oversized
red fish, which is not a bad problem to have on some days. The best strategy to
locate the sheepshead is to move around until you find a piece of structure
that is holding them. The wrecks are made up of different levels of relief and
material, and often sheepshead will isolate in small areas. Once you find a
spot holding these striped bandits, mark it and guard it with your life. You
should be able to record two or three spots per trip. You may be surprised at
what you will find on these smaller pieces of structure as trophy sized summer
trout, flounder, cobia and trigger fish will also separate themselves from the
hordes of sea bass.
Red fish, as
always will seek shallow water. Typically during the cooler months, reds will
feed pretty hard during low tide in the back of creeks and mudflats. As the
water warms, and bait such as mullet, small crabs, blue crabs, mud minnows, and
shrimp become more active, you may find red fish feeding at the top of the
tide, over mudflats. I particularly like mudflats that have a lot of shell and
sparse grass. Take your time, and work slowly and quietly along these areas and
you may even be able to see redfish cruising or even crashing baits. Once you
spot activity, you can usually anchor the boat quietly, and fish that area. The
schools should not be broken up yet, so if there is one, there should be quite
a few more.
For those
close enough to fish the jetties at the mouth of the St. Mary’s this month, the
fishing should be some of the best of the year. Over slot and slot redfish,
sheepshead, whiting, black drum, and sea trout will all show up at this rocky
fish magnet. In fact, black drum in the 20-80 lb. are quite common. Favorite
baits for black and red drum are blue crabs. Simply pop the top off the crab
and remove the legs. The joints where the legs were removed make a great place
for hook placement. You can pin either half or a quarter of the crab on the
hook, and send it to the bottom, anywhere in the vicinity of the rocks.
Finally, March
usually signals the beginning of the whiting run. Usually the deeper holes in
front of the King and Prince on St Simons Island will be one of the first
places the whiting show up. A good rule of thumb is 14-20 ft. in depth. If the
beaches are rough, check the same depth in the rivers and sounds.
By Tim Cutting
It’s about
windows. Heck, it’s always about those windows of opportunity. Here on St Simons Island, those inshore fishing windows can often disappear due to some
pretty wild tide fluctuations. When the moon dictates that we are going to move
8 or 9 feet of water in a 6 hour period, we are going to get heavy current, and
as a result, dirty water. On the other hand, when the tides mellow out, the
fishing can be off the chart. In the winter, give me some daytime low tides,
some clean water, and the window opens wide! That is exactly what happened this
last week here on the Island. Trout, red fish, black drum, whiting, and
sheepshead all fired off this past week. I have had calls from all over the
Georgia Coast with some outstanding reports. We fished 6 out of the last 7
days, and even yesterday in the pouring rain,
the bite continued. Speckled trout were caught in water depths averaging 6-14
ft. on soft plastics and live shrimp, red fish were a tad more finicky and
fresh live shrimp worked best. I usually snap the tail off the shrimp and
impale them on a jig head. The trick here is to run the point of the hook into
the shrimp where you have removed the tail and thread it all the way to the jig
head. This will not only emit more scent, it will be head forward for a streamlined
cast and when you give it a small twitch, look exactly like a fleeing shrimp.
The whiting and black drum seem to like their shrimp peeled and headed. Seriously!
I also run the hook through the entire shrimp body for these two fish.
Sheepshead will eat a shrimp, but fiddler crabs seem to be their favorite.
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