Tripletail join the mix from April through September.
Great fishing for 1-pound average whiting (southern kingfish) runs January through March in the Golden Isles. Spawning whiting are caught with dead shrimp in inlets and sounds in water from 10 to 15 feet deep.
Golden Isles inshore fishing is excellent May through September for jack crevalle, bluefish and Spanish mackerel, but they’re highly migratory. Here today, there tomorrow.
One of the most interesting, fun-to-catch nearshore fish in Georgia is the tripletail, and it’s all sight-casting for free-swimming fish in water 5 to 20 feet deep along barrier islands.
Tripletail show in March, but the weather is unstable so most anglers don’t hunt them until April. Once spring winds subside and warm weather begins, tripletail are pretty easy to find through August and sometimes into September. Most weigh 8 to 12 pounds, with plenty of fish over 15 pounds, and some reaching 20. It’s not unusual to see two or three dozen tripletail in a day’s fishing. Some fish are caught around channel markers, buoys and tideline rips off inlets and sounds. But most of those places get some fishing pressure. So the best and the most overlooked tripletail action is close to shore for free-swimming fish in water that can be just a few feet deep. Much of the tripletail action is near St. Simons Island., with Cumberland, Wolf, Sea, Blackbeard and Sapelo islands, and Doboy and Altamaha sounds also holding fishable numbers.
To cut to the chase, locals chum with menhaden to draw man-sized tarpon exceeding 150 pounds.
Virtually every tripletail I’ve caught, or seen elsewhere for that matter, has been related to some type of object—buoy, channel marker, oil rig, crab trap float or weedline. But here it’s sight-casting for free-swimming tripletail, in water just a few feet deep! Many anglers believe Golden Isles tripletail are in some type of spawning stage. A group of fish will include one large specimen, believed to be a female followed by the smaller males. In this situation multiple hookups are common. Often when a school like that is found you can hook two or three fish simultaneously. While live shrimp are the most available bait for tripletail, menhaden and finger mullet work well. Fished just a few feet under the surface, with a float, they’re deadly. Small grubtail or bucktail jigs and silver spoons work well, too. Redfish, seatrout, flounder and black drum fishing also is outstanding throughout the Golden Isles area, but seasonal. March through May and September through November are best times in inshore creekmouths, sand bars, shell bars and inlets.
World-class surf fishing action for red drum in the 20- to 40-pound range takes place from October through December. The breakers near the mouth of Altamaha Sound just off Wolf Island are prime. Good surf fishing for reds also is available at Pelican Spit (located at the mouth of the Hampton River at the north end of Sea Island), and at Rainbow Beach (off Little St. Simons Island). Fall and winter are best seasons for spotted seatrout, which run 1 to 3 pounds. Plastic-tail grub jigs, minnow-like plugs and live shrimp all score on trout near creekmouths and oyster bars. And fish are extremely abundant.
So follow in the footsteps of America’s legendary upper crust by setting your fishing sights on Georgia’s Golden Isles. Tell ‘em Rockefeller sent you.
