[Quantum5565]

Hello,

First time poster here. I'm planning a fishing trip to the Golden Isles for sometime between late April and the end of June. It'll be my first time there. I don't have a boat or kayak and will be fishing piers, causeway bridges, and the beaches. What would be the best time to go in my window?

More info: I'm a pretty experienced fisherman, but will have some less experienced family with me. Ideally we'd be targeting fish that we could eat or take back home with us. Based on what I've seen for the surf, it appears the Golden Isles are full of sharks and rays. Do people catch a lot of whiting, flounder, reds and trout in the Golden Isles without a boat?

Any tips will be appreciated. Thank you!

 

[poppop1]

Welcome to the forum, not familiar with that area, but that time frame should be good, of course it all depends on ocean temps. Get fresh shrimp, or sand fleas, fishbites, use on a River rig for whiting, and remember most every fish likes shrimp. If you can net some finger mullet use them whole, cut or filleted for some bigger fish hopefully. I do not use my own advice as far as ocean temps, I go just to keep my sanity, good luck, let us know how you did,...pop.

 

[Quantum5565]

Thanks Pop. We'll definitely pick up some fishbites/fishgum and frozen shrimp and squid from the local bait store. If they have live shrimp I'll definitely pick some up as well. One person coming has a cast net, so if anyone has any tips on where to find bait shrimp and wants to share it would be appreciated. Based on Youtube videos it seems we might just be able to cast into the surf and get a few here and there. That might not be worth the effort for a couple shrimp each cast.

I also plan to bring soft plastic swimbaits for reds/trout/flounder in the creeks. We'll see how it goes. Looking like late April now.

 

[Trevfishin]

Is Golden Isles St Simons? Not familiar with it, so when I googled it, it listed a group of islands.

Looks like piers and bridges would be your best option with double drop rigs. If you want finger mullet I’d check the accessible creeks close to where you are staying. Use a fish finder rig with live or cut bait.

Looks like an old roadway turned into pier on the south west side of the island that would be good to soak some bait.

Get a sabiki rig with 1/0 hooks, typically comes with 6 hooks per rig. Cut it in half and use the appropriate weight based on current and tip it with shrimp or squid to keep the kids busy. If you catch a small pinfish put it on a bigger rig alive and toss it out there to see if anything picks it up.

You can use the sabiki the same in the surf too.

 

[dboyd]

Instead of buying frozen shrimp at a bait shop get some fresh eating shrimp from a fish market. Will be much better bait, will stay on the hook better and you can eat your bait for dinner if need be.

 

[Quantum5565]

All good tips thank you. Yes, Saint Simons is part of the GA Golden Isles. Also included are Jekyll Island, Brunswick, etc. It's just a name for that general area. We'll probably be doing most of our fishing on Saint Simons and Jekyll.