When a beach has been pumped full of sand it looses the tiny wildlife such as mole crabs. How long does it take for the beach to become healthy with the tiny microorganisms and mole crabs and coquina clams?
What beaches on our SC coast are considered to be healthy?
I want to find a beach where I will expect to find Pompano next summer.
If you release them in a area they will colonize that area. They are on all our beaches as are pompano, they are just confined to certain locations. The pompano are a timing thing but it seemed like there was a decent run this October of good size pompano. Most that I caugh or saw caught were on the back side of the white water on the green water days.
I spoke with a benthic invertebrate expert because I was curious about the answers to your questions too.
He indicated that smaller prey species like coquinas and amphipods do seem to take a hit after renourishment. Variables like time of year, water temperature, and specific beach area have a TON to do with recovery time and make it difficult to tease out the specific impacts from dredging, but he said that a rough estimate of 3-6 months for “recovery” of most species of benthic invertebrate is reasonable.
His recommendation for you is the same as the first poster- Dewees to Cape Romain should be your spot.
They are location specific for sure I can catch them at the same access year after year even after the renourishment they where in the exact same spot. They did renourishment over the winter at that location so I didn’t fish that spot over the winter and they could of disappeared for a while. But they are in that same area everytime I’ve been there and this past fall there was more then ever of all sizes. Typically you see thier ripple pattern, small birds and busted up carcasses in the areas that have them in good numbers. I’ve never caught a thing on them but caught plenty of fish on other baits at the same time. I catch them by scooping a bucket or grabbing handfuls of sand. What did the expert say on catching them in the winter? I’d assume they are like fiddler’s and on warms days with the right tide can be caught.
We use sand fleas, otter island area and off Edisto beach.
Thanks for that info barbawing, didn’t realize they would make a come back so soon. Not sure the reason, there are no where the numbers of sand fleas as many years ago.
Well you we’re in the wrong spot. I’ve found them every year since 2016 in the same spot every fall. They renourished in the winter of 2016 and added rock jetties along front beach. 2017 had plenty of sand fleas same as 2018 and 2019 was loaded. This year they were as thick as you could want them. I’ll probably give the surface a try in a few weeks. I caught small pompano from June to October at folly but folly had a good run in October of big pompano. I saw and heard of plenty of 2# pompano in October from both inlets and the pier. The school up and down the beach so if you want numbers you need multiple rods and to keep your bait off the bottom. They bite best on the green water and I’ve always caught them further out instead of right in the wash like you catch small drum and whiting.