# fishin' Pawley's



## shutterfish (Apr 11, 2006)

hey all... heading down to pawley's next week. Every year, this time of year when I fish, I spend hours and hours with nary a nibble it seems, so I have a couple of questions...

-is the incoming tide always better to fish than the outgoing? And if so, is the outgoing tide even worth fishing?

-i like to use live mullet and find I usually catch a few larger fish on these, but fish like whiting and such go for the shrimp. Would you suggest live mullet or shrimp? (Or maybe on a two hook presentation, one of each?  )

thanks for the help- I want to maximize my fishing time but I dont want to roll out of bed at sunrise if I am not fishing in the right conditions 

Oh, one more thing- are the north and south inlets worth going to vs fishing off the rock groins? 

happy fishin'


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## SmoothLures (Feb 13, 2008)

Incoming tide is usually better for me, but fish are still caught on the outgoing. 

Nothing's wrong with 2 rods, 1 for small stuff and 1 for big stuff. Whiting like a variety of baits, so 2 different baits on a 2 hook rig always helps, try squid and shrimp. Try one rod in close and out out far, until you see where the fish are. 

Not familiar with the area so I can't help with the inlets and groins.


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## shutterfish (Apr 11, 2006)

thanks for the tips 

one more question- 

how important is the time of day for the bite? I just checked the tide chart and it looks like all the morning and evening fishing will be at dead low tide or receding to dead low... so the incoming and high tide fishing will be around noon to 3... I am traditionally a bass fisherman so that morning and evening bite is really important, but I don't know how that affects ocean fish. 

thanks!
andrew


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## kooler (Nov 2, 2006)

never fished Pawleys either but id say Smooth gave you some good advice. fished hilton head and folly a few times and had success with the fingers your netting, blues, specs.,whiting on the fresh shrimp. like you said roll outta bed early and also fish late afternoons it seems best to me and especially if its a hour or two before and after high tide your odds are up. biggest question right now i think is gonna be the water temp. might still be a little cold but it can change day by day. i called folly pier this a.m. and they said it was a few spots, whiting. i just got back from Navarre fla. last week and i chased the pomps hard for 8 days. i caught one on the seventh day. so i hit it a little early as far as the water temp also but it looks like its warming up so you might hit it right. good luck to you and let us know how you do.


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## kooler (Nov 2, 2006)

the tide is critical, i back up a little on the previous advice. sleep in and load up on sunsreen and hit it at 11 to 5 after reading your tide chart. again im not familiar with pawleys but hhi, etc, beach renourshment has created 'shallow' beaches. try to find a deep hole and dont hesitate to try new spots if it doesnt work. good luck.


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## Hipster Doofus (Oct 4, 2007)

*Pawleys*

* I prefer an incoming tide, but I have caught some nice fish on an outgoing tide at the north inlet.

* I have been fishing shrimp the past couple weeks with not much luck. I did well with mullet last year.

* I love fishing the north inlet. I have heard that people have been catching alot of flounder recently at the south inlet. Keep in mind that they are STILL dredging the marsh behind Pawleys, so the water coming out of both inlets is murky. Because of this, I have been fishing the groins this spring.

* This weekend I fished Saturday evening and watched others catch a trout and a sting ray. I just got a few bites. I did see a large sea turtle swim by. I saw the turtle research team this morning, and they said that the turtle had come ashore to die. I fished today around noon on a falling tide and got nothing. 

I go fishing not by the tides, but when my kids want to go to the beach!


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## SmoothLures (Feb 13, 2008)

No problem. 
I'm an early morning freshwater fisherman, too, but it doesn't seem to matter as much at the beach. Depending on what the tide is doing early morning/late afternoon is usually a good time. Rarely do I see people catching a good number of fish during the heat of the day. 

Also, whiting are very picky and need a variety of baits. I put shrimp and squid out yesterday, and didn't catch one until I put cut mullet out for him.


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## Hannibal (Aug 10, 2007)

If you get bored fishing the beach, try one of the bridges on the two access roads. I had luck on the north causeway road bridge. Lip hooked some finger mullet on a carolina rig and SLOWLY (REAL SLOWLY) dragged it across the bottom. Landed a few flounders in a short time. 

You can also cast net for finger mullet there as well.


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## shutterfish (Apr 11, 2006)

thanks for all the replies, guys. You have given me plenty of ideas about how I want to try fishing this year. I really want to be productive out there for once  There is one groin that I did well at a few years ago that I'll try to hit- and I'll try it with a variety of baits as suggested.

By the way, that year I caught a few spadefish- I had never caught them before (and never caught them since) and they were a BLAST to fight (dinner plate size). Are those around often? I think this groin has a deep hole and supposedly an old part of the groin that got slurped out by hugo sits about 50 yards offshore (from what I was told).


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## bluefish1928 (Jun 9, 2007)

well at the north end, cast out that rocky point with pieces of shrimp will sometimes result with spadefish( somewhat rarely though).


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## Fireline20 (Oct 2, 2007)

Incomming two hours after low or outgoing two hours after high are always killer times for me. If they aint bitting during that time,,,they aint bitting,,,pack it up and go home


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## LiteTackleChamp (Jul 29, 2005)

consider stoping by pawleys island outdoors and asking hutch where the fish are, hes the guy that looks like santa, he fishes down there all the time and has alot of local knowledge


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## shutterfish (Apr 11, 2006)

hey all- I had a great trip to South Carolina- always a wonderful place to vacation.

I didn't catch a lot of fish this year, but I did manage to pull two nice flounder out on cut mullet fished close to the edge of a groin near the high tides. I also caught a whiting and lost two pretty nice feeling fish (both pulled like flounder or skates). Overall it was a success because for some reason in all my years fishing pawleys I have never caught a flounder (I have caught *everything* else) and I finally got two for the dinner table. 

Thanks for your input- it is much appreciated. Happy fishing...


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