Late August is one of the best months on the Lowcountry calendar, and the reason is the tide. The big flood tides of the season push water up into the spartina grass, and the redfish go with it — tailing in inches of water over a bottom they can only reach a few days a month. Add tarpon in the harbor and it is a genuinely special stretch.
What’s Hitting
Redfish on the flood tide are the marquee event. On the highest tides of the cycle, fish push into the grass to feed on fiddler crabs and can be sight-fished with their tails in the air.
Tarpon are in the harbor and around the nearshore reefs and are the biggest fish available to a Charleston angler right now. Speckled trout are in the creeks and along the oyster edges, best early. Flounder are staging around the structure and the creek mouths. Sharks are thick in the harbor and the sounds, and there are Spanish mackerel and cobia on the nearshore reefs and buoys.
Where to Find Them
Flood-tide redfish are found in the spartina flats behind the barrier islands — the Kiawah, Capers and Dewees area marshes, and the flats off the Wando and Cooper rivers. You need the right tide height, and only a handful of days each month produce it.
Tarpon hold in Charleston Harbor, around the jetties and on the nearshore reefs. Trout and flounder are in the tidal creeks off the Ashley, Wando and Stono rivers, on the oyster bars and creek mouths. The Charleston jetties themselves hold everything from reds to sharks on moving water.
Tides & Conditions
Water temperatures are in the mid 80s in the creeks and marsh. Tidal range here is substantial — five to six feet is routine — and on this coast the tide is the single most important planning variable there is.
Check a tide chart before anything else. Flood-tide fishing requires a predicted high above roughly 5.8 feet to put enough water in the grass, and those tides cluster around the new and full moons. Afternoon thunderstorms have been a daily feature, and they build fast over this much marsh.
Tackle & Tactics
For tailing reds, an 8-weight fly rod with a crab pattern, or a light spinning outfit with a weedless soft plastic or gold spoon. The presentation must land softly and well ahead of the fish — these are the spookiest redfish you will encounter all year, in six inches of water.
Tarpon call for heavy spinning gear, 50- to 65-pound braid and an 80-pound fluorocarbon leader with a live menhaden or mullet on a circle hook. Trout in the creeks eat a soft plastic on a light jighead or a live shrimp under a popping cork. Flounder take a live mud minnow worked slowly along the creek mouth drop-offs.
Local Intel This Week
Ramps and access: the Remleys Point ramp in Mount Pleasant, the Wappoo Cut ramp on the Ashley, the Shem Creek ramp, and the Isle of Palms Marina ramp. Shore anglers can fish the Folly Beach Pier and the shoreline at the Battery and along Shem Creek.
Fish are concentrating in the flooded grass on the highest tides and along the oyster edges on the fall. South Carolina redfish are under a slot limit with a low daily bag, and trout, flounder and cobia all carry their own size and season rules that have been revised in recent years. Check current SCDNR regulations before keeping fish.
This Week’s Tip
On a flood tide, get into position before the water arrives and then stop moving. Pole or wade into the flat as the tide starts to push, pick a lane, and let the redfish come up into the grass around you. Anglers who chase tails across a flooded flat push a wake that clears fish out ahead of them for a hundred yards — the ones who set up and wait get the shots.
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