# October Report....GC/Murrells Inlet



## flathead (Dec 18, 2003)

Been fishing this area since the late '70s and have spent the entire month of October there the last 8-10 years. The fishing in the surf this October was the worst in all those years. There are around 9-10 of us fishing the same area every year and all said the same thing. For the entire month, the total legal catch for the entire group consisted of half a dozen flounder,half a dozen puppy drum(spottails), one spanish, one speckled trout, three blues and a couple whiting. Lots of hand sized pompano.Sharks and rays were in abundance. Got tired of catching them, even when a couple tourist ladies videoed me catching a nice one. On the other hand, I fished the inlet proper and caught quite a few flounder, black drum, and red drum.But, the inlet was also full of large sharks and rays. Saw quite a few bulls. Hope Smoothlures sees this as he lives down there and can answer a question. The water from South Myrtle up to Cherry Grove was a beautiful blue/green the entire month. Had a friend caught lots of kings and spanish off a pier. But the water from GCP down to the jetty was dirty and murky 29 days out of 31.Now, the shrimp boats were working less than a mile off shore but they only worked a couple days due to the wind. As I said, worst October fishing in the last 40+ years.


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## poppop1 (Feb 16, 2004)

I experienced the same for the last 10 days of Oct. at North Topsail Beach, NC. Thank God the weather was beautiful though!...pop.


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## slosh (Jul 1, 2017)

Matches my experience at S. Topsail a couple of weeks ago. Beautiful weather, but fishing not so hot. Managed a lot of the hand-sized pompano too.


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## SmoothLures (Feb 13, 2008)

Not sure, maybe a north current or a bad wind. The coast has a big curve to it so the wind will have it a bit different on the south vs north end of the Grand Strand. The water coming out of MI can definitely make the beach muddy. That's why HBSP is usually muddy with the south current. Good place to troll for Spanish on the mud line though.

Not surprised about the pompano, there were billions of 1-2" pompano fry in mid-May when we got a beach house. You could catch them with your hands at night and feel them swimming into your ankles. 2021 should be a great pomp year...

I had the same kind of results in the OBX...hand size pompano, tiny black drum, but some jumbo whiting. Sitting on the edge of a hole with no bites is very unusual up there and no one was catching up and down the beaches. Slow year for some reason. I know the piers have been catching tons of drum and Apache has been doing great on the kings. Plenty of Spanish. That's when I usually say enough is enough and do a charter.  I did see one guy got 2 kings kite fishing off of the south jetty one day 2nd week of Oct.

Give me a holler next time you come down we'll chase some trout. I'll be making some trips in a couple weeks. Won't be long before they stack up on the jetties.


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## flathead (Dec 18, 2003)

Thanks. MI was so dirty I didn't fly fish the entire month and only threw Gulps about 2-3 days. Caught some large sharks in the inlet as well as the largest ray I have ever seen much less caught, and I have caught some big ones off Hatteras. Caught two specks the entire month both in my cast net. One was 3" and one about 8-9". Got my limit of shrimp three days and nothing the other 28.Same for black drum. Caught some nice ones for three days and none the other 28. And I caught the black drum the three days the shrimp were in the inlet......In addition, got my feet tangled in a lost shark rig in the surf and cut a couple toes. Not fun.


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