Fishing Hot Spots

Lake guides for this map

Month-by-month patterns, fish, ramps and rules for each water:

All fishing guides →

Fishing Hot Spots by area

Sounds, inlets, piers and barrier-island beaches with good fishing water. Tap one to fly to it on the map.

Redfish in the marsh, bull reds at the inlets and cobia in the sounds

This coast is a maze of salt marsh, tidal creeks and deep sounds between barrier islands, with some of the biggest tides on the East Coast (7 to 9 feet around Savannah and Hilton Head). Redfish are the main fish: they push up onto the flooded marsh grass on big high tides to feed on fiddler crabs, and school around oyster bars and creek mouths on the low tide. Speckled trout, flounder, sheepshead and black drum are around the docks, rocks and oyster shell, and big bull redfish and sharks gather at the inlets and sound mouths in the fall. In late spring, cobia move into Port Royal Sound and St. Helena Sound. Offshore, Gray's Reef and the artificial reefs hold black sea bass, snapper and grouper, and the Gulf Stream, 50 to 70 miles out, has mahi-mahi, wahoo and sailfish. The piers at Tybee, Jekyll, St. Simons, Folly Beach and along the Grand Strand catch whiting, croaker, spot, pompano, flounder and Spanish mackerel.

Georgia and South Carolina each have their own saltwater licenses, size limits and seasons, and cobia, redfish and trout have special rules. Seabird sanctuaries such as Crab Bank, Deveaux Bank and Bird Key are closed to landing, and parts of Cape Romain and Cumberland Island have their own rules. Check Georgia DNR Coastal Resources and South Carolina DNR before you go.