SC

[summersoff]

Headed down to South Carolina for the weekend to do a little kayak camping. Arrived mid-day today at Hunting Island State Park. Nice campground right on the beach. Launch is down at the end of the island near the inlet next to Fripp Island. If your one of those guys who plans trips scouring Google Maps searching for possible launch sites, realize SC is one of those private island beach states, and Fripp is one of them. You ain’t allowed on. Bitch all you want about not being able to walk on certain beaches on Martha’s Vineyard, how about not being allowed on the bridge! Welcome to SC. I love this state for kayaking, but man, I have been stopped at the bridge on three different islands. OH well, Hunter is a nice one. I arrived late and was only able to wet my whistle for an hour on high tide, which I despise! I only managed two dinky trout, but tomorrow’s low tide is perfect and I wil keep you posted. 6C366704-7C17-42EC-BEFA-2D3092FC79D8.jpg

[Slobber Bob]

Cool trip. I wish you luck!

I honeymooned on one of those private islands not too far north of where you're at now. It was Edingsville Beach. It's the only time I've ever been on the other side of the gates to the private islands. Not gonna lie and say I didn't enjoy having the beach to ourselves We caught a bunch of bull reds in the surf along with some puppy reds, blacks, and specks.

[mjkeith13]

How did your second day go? I've always wanted to do the tent camp/kayak fish trip there. I've taken my kayak down to Pawleys Island, further north, but lots of houses on the marsh. It was good fishing but Hunting Island looks much better. Were you able to stay at one of the tent sites or did you have to get an RV/tent site?

[summersoff]

Yesterday was tough slog. I started the day with a good plan, but quickly found myself running down a rabbit hole, or I should say paddling down a small creek. I arrived at the launch around 7:00, a little later than intended, but I did not realize, there ain't nuttin to eat on Hunting island, and it's about 15-minute drive to the nearest gas station/Twinkie. I was still on track because low tide wasn't until 11:40, so there was time for me to put on an extra layer for the mid-forties start. My plan was to leapfrog the various creek outflows hoping to find the elusive school of reds that were set up with their mouths open as the bait was being pushed out. It was a good plan, and a standard attack on reds in the fall/winter. HOWEVER, as soon as I left the launch i headed straight to the nearest creek. Since it was mid-tide, I decided to head up the creek hoping to find a unicorn. Essentially the unicorn is a pod of reds that decided to stay in the creek, becoming trapped in an oyster pool. Maybe they decide to stay because there was a ton of bait, or more simply they're a bunch of lazy bastards, either way it becomes a fishing in a barrel session. I have come across two of such pools and it is glorious sight to see. Although, you almost feel guilty, like if you find a hundred bill on the ground and no one is around kind of guilty. I just felt like today was going to be one of those unicorn days.
Well, if you talk to any southerner, they will tell you, when the tide is high, you have to follow the creek until it stops, because the reds will be chasing the bait all the way to the end. It's a good plan. But what they don't tell the yankees, the creek is a twenty-mile-long snake that is impossible to cast in. And yesterday, it felt like I was chasing an anaconda. Holy crap, I thought I was going to find Livingston. It kept on going and going, and I kept paddling and paddling hoping to find that unicorn. Well, after about an hour and half of wasting the prime outflow and donating at least a half dozen rigs to the oyster and cordgrass gods, I decided the hunt was over and I had to get back to the original plan. Unfortunately, the southern waters had a better plan. One thing about Georgia and South Carolina, they both make the greatest fried chicken and they also have the greatest tide changes. They have Bay Fundy type tides. They can have a seven-foot tide change on an average day, leaving you to survive on oysters for six hours. I have been blow-away by how fast the tide changes in the south. Once or twice, I literally have had to run down the beaches chasing my yak as it was being sucked out. Yesterday was no different. I was scraping oysters the entire way back.
Finally, when I got back to the main channel, I began to hit the outflows. I hit about five different feeders, continually trying different retrieves, tails, sizes, weights, with no luck. The deck of my yak looked like a BPS exploded, and my hands would permanently smell like Pro-Cure. I went up the inlet because some birds were working but realizing halfway that I wasn’t fishing stripers crashing bait, but rather slow-moving reds hiding in the lazy parts of the river. After a couple tosses, I headed back to another creek. On the way I passes a broken-up fishing pier and bridge, both would be prime sheepshead territory – not my quarry on a yak to fight currents and tying up to oyster pilings.
The creek was longer and wider, and the water was still moving. I casted to all the obvious spot along the way but was only able to pick up about a dozen small, 16” and under, trout. All of the trout hit really slow, almost to the point that I was saying, ‘wait, is that a fish?’ kinda of hit. And they came randomly. It wasn’t the typical, find one, you’ve found the school specks. Nope, they were the one-here, one-there variety. Between the small bites, and randomness, it turned out to be a ‘meh’ day. Pulling in around four, I talked to a couple flats guys and they said the same, making me feel a little better.
Couple things about the area. The campground is really nice, right on the beach. The island itself is some kind of nature preserve, so you’re not sandwich around houses, it’s just you and other tree-huggers. This makes it a nice place to try car camping with the family with lots of trail hiking but remember it’s a little drive to food and stuff, except a couple bar restaurants. As for the fishing, well, you are in prime fishing area, and that entire hundred-mile area is an awesome fish factory. However, I personally passed ten launches I’d rather fish at on my way to the island. I’m not saying it’s not great area, but it’s one of those areas I’d rather have a flats boat than a yak with its big river crossing, and longer-wider creeks. Sure, if you’re a local, it is probably one those beeline to prime spots places. Bottom-line, I obviously need to study it more than three days to dial it in to appreciate it more, but like I said, there are already twenty areas down there I already appreciate that it will make it hard for me to go back. But then again, it may just be that the grapes were a bit sour.
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[mjkeith13]

Thanks Jay for the great report and can commiserate with you on the long, never ending, narrow creeks in SC. Had similar experience in the marsh creeks around Murrells inlet, SC. I mis-timed the tide one late afternoon and had a joyful time pulling my Slayer out of the pluff mud.

I'm thinking of trying the launches around Port Royal and Parris Island, which may be included in the launches you said you passed on the way to Hunting park.
Hope you have better success on your next trip south!

[summersoff]

^^^^
How did you like MI? I have gone there twice, one time had to wait a couple hours for the tide to come in, the other time had i to dragged the yak through mud. The launch is basically at the end of a mud creek. Below is not a new construction site in Arizona, that's the MI launch. Fishing was fine-ish
MI_IMG_4481.jpg

[mjkeith13]

MI was just ok. I have only gone twice as well. Laughed my arse off seeing your picture. Looks exactly like one I have but can't find of the Morse Park landing I launched from once. Thats where I returned to a big mud pie as it was getting pretty dark. Next time I launched from the public boat ramp. Had better luck there but like you said, it good but not great. Specks were good but mostly rat reds. Crowded too. There were quite a few flat boats out working the oyster beds.

I liked Pawleys Island better. You've probably fished there already but its about 10 miles south of MI. Good launch at public ramp off 3rd street across the causeway. First time I fished there was my second time kayak fishing. Was using a borrowed paddle kayak and learned the hard way fishing the tides. Nearly got swept out midway inlet with the outgoing tide.
Caught more and bigger specks and my PB red there. Also caught 3 slot flounders there, all over 17" using live finger mullet and mud minnows. Lots of places along the creeks to beach and throw a cast net. I normally use artificial but the bait was just too easy to catch. One of my less than finer moments occurred there when my bait bucket line got tangled in my Slayers prop.