A Little Info Please About Hilton Head

[Oregon Native]

I hope I get this right but the end of October some time my wife and I and maybe my son,his wife and my two grandsons are heading to Hilton Head. We have a good deal on a condo and so were going to go on a much needed and hoped for vacation. Would like to do a little fishing off the bank for either salt or fresh to kill some time as I haven't done any fishing since I got this pancreas stuff three months ago. (did go last week for four hours for bluegill and overdid it!!)

Anyway, not asking for seceret spots but can a person be entertained off the bank with light tackle. Would love to be in the bass boat but that ain't happening for awhile accorded to doctor. Will know more a little later where we will be staying for sure. I just know its a condo by a golf coarse!! Will be my first time seeing the Atlantic Ocean. I've only seen the Pacific.

Tight Lines

[buzzed bait]

Sorry I can't answer your fishing questions, but while in Hilton Head you gotta try the Skull Creek Boat House Restaurant... Best food around, but like ALL restaurants in that area you better get there early and plan on waiting for a table.  Good luck fishing!

[wakeeater]

oregon, 

 

i haven't done any fishing from the shore.  if you get the chance, i highly recommend Brian @ off the hook charters.  he is rated the top inshore guy in the area.  my uncle & i had a blast with him.  he's great with the kids too.  check out his videos on youtube.  also,  he told me about a "locals" restaurant call "roast fish cornbread".  it's the best place i've eaten down there, not too pricey either.  google it.  the absolute best fish i've ever had in my life.  take these suggestions for what u want, just make sure y'all have a blast down there!

[Sam]

All I remember is that there are alligators all over the place.

 

Be careful.

[Oregon Native]

Thank you .....good restaurants are awesome. I like the little hole in the wall places. I guess we will be at Westin Hilton Head Resort. This will definitly be a new adventure.

[jacktgi@aol.com]

I vacationed on the Outer Banks a couple of times but it was over 20 years ago.  There were big piers that stretched a long way from the beach out into the ocean.  There was a structure built on the piers at the part nearest the beach.  They rented fishing tackle and sold bait.  There were lots of fishermen on the piers and some were very friendly and willing to chew the fat about fishing and would give you all the information you wanted.

 

If I was taking my own equipment I would take a heavy duty rod, seven feet or longer, a high line capacity reel spooled with at least 16 lb line.

A leader would be helpful as almost everything you catch has teeth of some sort.

 

Large catches are difficult to land.  For landing nets they used nets that, as near as I recall, were about 3 feet or more in diameter.  These nets resembled a coffee filter with a heavy wire rim around the edge.  The nets were lowered into the water on a stout line and the catch was maneuvered over the net and then the net was pulled up.

 

I saw small sharks on the pier and rays that had been caught.  Mostly I caught some kind of saltwater catfish they called "hardheads" I think.

 

I fished from the piers mostly at night when my family was settled in their beds for the night.

 

Jack

 

[randerson5103]

I haven't fished a ton in Hilton Head but have had decent luck in the Palmetto Dunes Lagoon system near our condo. Yesterday I caught a pretty nice redfish using a Reel Keel gold crankbait right behind our condo, Last year i also caught some flounder in the same location using mud minnows fished on the bottom. There is a tackle shop right of the island in moss creek that sells them and they are very easy to keep alive mine survived for the whole 10 days I was there in a bait bucket i left in the water tied off to a tree. The best times are near sunrise/sunset and i hear overcast days are decent also.  

[TERRY AFB-15]

I go to Hilton Head from time to time and love to fish the ponds on the golf course at Moss Creek Plantation. Using cut bait, I catch mostly black drums but I also catch bass on top water spooks. I have talked to others who live there and they tell me that these ponds may have anything. Blue crabs drive me crazy steeling my bait. 

[Lil'Gunner]

I don't know that area intimately, but you should do well on redfish anywhere you can access a saltwater creek. Check tide tables and fish on a falling tide. Fish em' just like bass with soft plastics, preferably a jig head with some kind of swim-tail trailer; don't waste time and money with special rigs, cutting up shrimp and other nonsense; not needed. They're completely unfussy, and the most excellent eating.

 

Just about every pond here has bass in it. The deeper the better. The surface geology here is all sand - very acidic and nutrient poor -- so shallow ponds have small, skinny bass. Deeper ponds cut into subsurface limestone and are very rich and produce monsters. Look for ponds with lots of straight edges and square corners - many of these are old mines and cut a lot deeper. 

 

Good luck..