Fishing is certainly feeling like fall, with lowering water temps and worries about hurricanes seemingly every week. Post Hurricane Irene, the inshore saltwater fishing in Brunswick County has gotten much better.

The best news is that the big red drum have shown up out at the Little River Jetties on time. This is usually a September fishery. It is hard to call these fish redfish, they are more like the channel bass caught in the winter at the Outer Banks. Red drum 40 inches and up are caught this time of the year in northern SC.

Heavy tackle is needed for these red drum, both to land them and because you don’t want to use light tackle since it tires the drum out and this is a catch-and-release only fishery. We don’t have these big ‘channel bass’ all year so now is the time.

Inshore the smaller reds (you can call these fish redfish, or spot-tail bass) are hitting in the creeks and shallows, running the tide and gorging on the finger mullet and blue crabs. Finger mullet on a fishfinder rig is a spot-on live bait. Gulp shrimp and shad bodies on lead heads work really well for these fish too. I love to use Fishbites scented paddletails on this size redfish.

Fish the last few hours of low tide and the first few of the rising tide. The only bad fishing time for these redfish is the few hours of high tide, when mullet and crabs are really dispersed and the spot-tails stop feeding.

Flounder are also being caught in decent numbers for the trollers, drifters, and those anchoring up near structure. Big flounder are out there. The piers have gotten some fat ones too. Finger mullet or mud minnows on the bottom are perfect now; inshore you can catch them on Gulp and Fishbites scented soft baits.

If you are passing up the Intracoastal Waterway docks as you speed by them now you are making a mistake. Schools of finger mullet are running around the docks in the shallows, and blue crabs are gathered there. That makes them prime flounder and redfish territory right now. Some of the biggest flounder of the season are waiting under those lonely looking docks.

The surf has some nice pompano. You should fish for them with sand fleas while the sand fleas are still around. Otherwise use very fresh cut shrimp. Remember the gold hooks. Big pompano will even hit small gold spoons and shiny small Gotcha plugs.

There are also some bluefish and Spanish mackerel nearshore and off the beach. They are running at the piers occasionally, very unpredictable and not in great numbers yet. If you are pier fishing it is hard to beat a red-headed Gotcha for the blues and a gold hook rig for the Spanish. This is mostly an early morning fishery at the piers now, by about 9 a.m. the bite really is gone.

The big disappointment seems a lack of speckled trout. Hopefully the bite will increase as the water cools. The winter kill last year might have done more damage than we thought.

Some sheepshead are being caught around inshore structure and black drum hit at the same places at night. There have been a few spot on the piers but they have been silver spot and no ‘yellow-bellies’ yet. We’ll all be watching for them in the coming weeks.

Also my new book “Surf and Inshore Saltwater Fishing in the Carolinas” has just been released. You can find it on Amazon.com by searching “jeffrey weeks fishing.” Very comprehensive book about Carolina inshore fishing and nice priced as well. A few tips and stories are in there that have not made the columns or reports.

If the hurricanes stay away this week join me at the MAD 6 event Saturday at Oak Island. They still need some volunteers so go to the MAD website and help out if you can.