photo provided

Brian Garris

Fishing inshore in the June heat can be difficult. Don't be turned away, however, as the fish are still biting and there are plenty to go around. June begins the perfect time of the year for catching spotted sea trout, especially at sunrise at high or low tide. If you are looking for great topwater bite, try early in the morning. You can produce a good bite by utilizing a top-water plug with the walk-the-dog action along the grass line or around oyster bars. To improve your chance of success, you can also try using a popping cork around the grass line at high tide or oyster bars at low tide. Live shrimp, mud minnows, or plastic lures like the Z-man Ultra Shrimp can produce great results, as well. The 3" Z-man Ultra Shrimp in New Penny and White have been working exceptionally well this month. SCDNR asked that spotted sea trout be released back to spawn during the earlier, colder months, helping the trout rebuild it's population from the winter kill-off related to the cold water temperatures.

The redfish bite can also be hot this time of year. You can increase your likelihood of success by fishing structures such as docks, rock groins, and oyster bars when the tide is moving. It's best to use a Carolina rig with live shrimp, mud minnows, and cut-bait around such structures. With the menhaden showing up in the last couple months, redfish have been really keying in on them as bait. Whether cut or live, they have been producing some really good action. In the last few weeks, I've noticed that the redfish have also been showing themselves on the flooded flats, tailing while feeding. This is tougher way to catch them, but a great sight to see if you haven't seen one tailing.

As summer rolls into the Lowcountry, so visit the sharks to Charleston Harbor. I've been catching a lot of Atlantic sharpnose and bonnetheads the last couple of weeks. I use a typical Carolina Rig with a 2 oz egg weight, 80# Steelon Wire Leader by Berkeley with a 6/0 Circle Hook. Any type of fresh cut bait or whole menhaden will do the trick for the bait. Just last week we caught several Sandbar Sharks, Scalloped hammerheads, and Black Tips sharks. The biggest being around 6 feet in length.

(Visit www.thereeldealcharters.com).