Coastal Carolina University

College Ambassador: John Avery

Species

Redfish: Redfish are the number one gamefish to target here. During the mullet run, redfish stay close to the jetties, so club members love this time of year. Bull reds move in around September and thirty-plus pound redfish can be caught right off the surf.

Speckled Trout: Speckled trout bite best when the weather cools down. Kayaking into creeks works best in late fall and early winter when they really start to school up.

Black Drum and Sheepshead: Black drum and sheepshead invade the jetties in the fall and stay there well into winter. Fiddler crab and shrimp do the trick to catch them. It’s not uncommon to see five-plus pound sheepshead caught here.

Spanish Mackerel: You can find Spanish mackerel running down the beach and blitzing on small glass minnows in the spring until fall when the water is very clear. Casting over the blow-ups with epoxy jigs or Kastmasters and reeling in as fast as you can is the ticket to catching them. When they’re fired up on the piers or along the beach you are sure to fill the cooler.

Flounder: There is a consistent year-round bite for flounder on the coast of South Carolina. Slow drifting live bait or bumping the bottom with swimbaits always works up a bite.

Shark: All types of sharks are caught by club members off the beaches. Although shark fishing is outlawed from Myrtle Beach, all the way up to North Carolina, it is perfectly legal where the saltwater anglers club fishes. Blacktip, sandbar, spinner, and sand tiger shark are the most common types of shark caught by the club. Whether kayaking whole baits out or just casting cut bait a few yards out, you are almost guaranteed to reel in a shark (if you’ve got the right tackle). You might even run into a surprise tarpon doing this too!

Accessibility

Murrells Inlet Jetties: During the mullet run (August-October), club members flock to the jetties of Murrells Inlet to surf fish for bull redfish, blacktip shark, gator speckled trout, Spanish mackerel, and even a few tarpon mixed in every year. During the mullet run, it is not uncommon to see club members out there every day of the week after their classes end, especially on “Fishing Fridays”, when twenty-plus members spend the whole day (and night) on the beach fishing. To get to the part of the jetty where the club fishes, it is about a 30-minute car ride from campus. For incoming students who may not have a car with them, members of the Saltwater Anglers Club are always willing to carpool wherever it may be.

Murrells Inlet Creeks: Located just inside the inlet and the same driving distance, there are miles of creeks to explore and fish inside Murrells Inlet. Once the mullet run ends and water temps cool off, redfish, speckled trout, flounder, and sheepshead make their way into creeks and around residential docks, and more often than not they are schooled up. Club members can still fish from shore, but most rent kayaks from the University’s Outdoor Recreation Center to really get on the fish. 

Pawleys Island: If the bite isn’t working out in Murrells Inlet, you can hop in the car and head south to Pawleys Island. There are two smaller inlets to fish that can hold really good bites if you time the tides right.

Wilmington/Charleston: The best part about Coastal Carolina’s location is that Wilmington, North Carolina, and Charleston are less than a two-hour drive away from campus. When the bite slows down locally, club members take day trips up north to Wilmington to fish for striped bass on the Cape Fear River, or go down to Charleston for more redfish and trout. 

Community

The Saltwater Anglers Club here at Coastal Carolina University is an amazing place to find a community of other anglers with all sorts of backgrounds. People from all over the country with different levels of fishing experience join the club to meet others to fish with. It is these friendships that last well after graduation. There are also captains up and down the coast of South Carolina who are club alumni who still come back to speak to new members about how to fish the area. There is definitely no shortage of other anglers to meet and fish with.

Many anglers that go to Coastal Carolina end up joining a tight-knit community within the University. There are two fishing clubs on campus, the Bass Team and the Saltwater Anglers Club. Most people are in both clubs, and friends are made. Speaking from three years of being at Coastal, it has been great to see the members every day either on campus, at football games, or hanging out at night.

Bait Shops

There are several bait shops in the area that are run by either current members or club alumni. Stalvey’s Bait and Tackle in downtown Conway is a great spot for everything fishing-related. Just a five-minute drive from campus, Stalvey’s is run by Logan, a past club member. Stalvey’s has all the tackle for both fresh and saltwater fishing. There are old-timers that are super knowledgeable about the local bites as well and are always willing to help out.

Another bait shop that club members frequent is Perry’s Bait and Tackle in Murrells Inlet. Perry’s is mainly a saltwater tackle shop, and they are the best spot for live bait like mullet, shrimp, and fiddler crab, as well as big frozen baits. There are several active club members that work at Perry’s, and familiar faces in both places often result in a good discount!