# Anyone ever fish Kiawah island?



## Thered300zx (Jan 22, 2018)

Hey all,

Heading to Kiawah next week for family vacation, and taking all my gear. There is not a ton of info/surf reports from Kiawah, which I suppose makes sense due to it being a private island where folks mostly golf or continue to age on their screened porches. At any rate, from what I can tell, the beaches stay fairly empty, which will be nice for targeting some larger fish.

Does anyone have any experience with this area?


----------



## poppop1 (Feb 16, 2004)

I was hoping to read some fishing info from this area too, but no replies. Back in the 90's my wife and I looked around in that area, remember seeing two 7-8' alligators laying on a green only 30' or so from the cup, now I'm no golfer, but if I were down there I'd be carrying! How did you do fishing Kiawah?


----------



## oldguy (Sep 15, 2014)

Well 300ZX, since you know so much about Kiawah, in your words "golfers and people aging on their screen porches", it probably is a waste of my time to tell you about fishing there. But since there are others reading who might choose to ignore your notions about the place, I will share my experience there. In the surf, expect to wade out some distance, similar to Hilton Head. The generally popular baits, fish bites, shrimp or cut bait will work. I usually catch on fish bites and cut up my first catch or two. There is a stretch of water under the bridge to the island called "Kiawah River" which is tidal. If you have access to a small boat, reds, trout and flounder are accessible. Plastics on jig heads work well as do mirrowlures. I fished it some years ago while working on a bridge repair job. Used a small 14' Boston. There are also charters available out of Bohicket Marina.
And poppop 1, yes there are gators on the greens and elsewhere. I assume they feed on the aging folks who dare to venture off their screened porches. Tight lines everybody.


----------



## poppop1 (Feb 16, 2004)

Thanks for the info, nice area....the gators would probably spit me out, just ask my wife.


----------



## Thered300zx (Jan 22, 2018)

oldguy said:


> Well 300ZX, since you know so much about Kiawah, in your words "golfers and people aging on their screen porches", it probably is a waste of my time to tell you about fishing there. But since there are others reading who might choose to ignore your notions about the place, I will share my experience there. In the surf, expect to wade out some distance, similar to Hilton Head. The generally popular baits, fish bites, shrimp or cut bait will work. I usually catch on fish bites and cut up my first catch or two. There is a stretch of water under the bridge to the island called "Kiawah River" which is tidal. If you have access to a small boat, reds, trout and flounder are accessible. Plastics on jig heads work well as do mirrowlures. I fished it some years ago while working on a bridge repair job. Used a small 14' Boston. There are also charters available out of Bohicket Marina.
> And poppop 1, yes there are gators on the greens and elsewhere. I assume they feed on the aging folks who dare to venture off their screened porches. Tight lines everybody.



I seem to have struck a nerve there I guess. I was not impressed with Kiawah. The beach was way more crowded than I remembered (read: WAY more crowded!), and mostly with entitled golfer wives that think the beach belongs to them. Having any lines in the water during daylight was frowned upon and I ended up having multiple conversations with beach patrol due to "complaints of fishing where people were swimming". I was also asked to leave the beach one day after beaching my best catch that week.

That being said, the fishing was pretty decent. Had multiple pickups and several good fish on the sand. If I go down there again, it will be during the "off" season, or I will just spend the money to stay in one of the houses that are farther into island where its less dense and will fish one of the golf course beaches.


----------



## oldguy (Sep 15, 2014)

Didn't strike a nerve, but no reason to stereotype an area and the people. Sorry you and the golfer's wives could not get along. There is always the entitlement in some groups. I did not have that problem when I have been there. I did fish early and late when on the beach. And, the inshore creeks were productive. I had a sign made a couple of years ago with the SCDNR or something official on it about fish survey. Just stick it in the sand near my bucket and no one asks anything. Hah ! Just act like you belong there. Fortunately, I have only had to use it twice. Glad you caught some fish.


----------



## Guest (Aug 20, 2018)

Thered300zx said:


> oldguy said:
> 
> 
> > Well 300ZX, since you know so much about Kiawah, in your words "golfers and people aging on their screen porches", it probably is a waste of my time to tell you about fishing there. But since there are others reading who might choose to ignore your notions about the place, I will share my experience there. In the surf, expect to wade out some distance, similar to Hilton Head. The generally popular baits, fish bites, shrimp or cut bait will work. I usually catch on fish bites and cut up my first catch or two. There is a stretch of water under the bridge to the island called "Kiawah River" which is tidal. If you have access to a small boat, reds, trout and flounder are accessible. Plastics on jig heads work well as do mirrowlures. I fished it some years ago while working on a bridge repair job. Used a small 14' Boston. There are also charters available out of Bohicket Marina.
> ...


Not surprising. I can't tell you how many times I've gone far away from people to fish and had people come and set up camp right next to me when there's 100yds of open beach in both directions. Then they give you a look like they can't believe you are actually fishing. One lady let her kids run down in front of me and start messing with my line etc. I was off completely by myself on a wide open beach. The dad was still up in the lot parking the car when I parked up and left. Let's just say I was talking about the shark I saw just a few minutes ago rather loudly. Except it went from the little 3 footer i actually saw to a ravenous 15 footer with giant teeth chasing fish all through the surf. I thought I saw red eyes, yeah that's it, red eyes and I know I heard it snort.... Yeah, Dad was listening intently. Haha! I bet those kids were scared to death.


----------



## ChefRobb (Jan 8, 2016)

My solution when "swimmers" come too close on an otherwise vacant beach is to warn them that I'm fishing for sharks and have been chumming ........


----------

