Best Saltwater Fishing Towns in the South

The year’s last quarter finds cooler temperatures stimulating fish activity and offering a pleasant contrast to summer’s departing swelter. Baitfish and shrimp are on the move, predators are eager to capitalize and your rod-bending options are more than you’ll reach in a lifetime.

From the Gulf to the Atlantic, you’ll find opportunities to fill the shortening days will memorable moments and tackle-testing adventures; many of which will deliver fresh seafood dinners. Not to overstate this, but pretty much anywhere you can access inshore/coastal waters with healthy habitat and good water flow, you’ll find plenty of targets.

Appealing destinations can seem like shells on a beach, but if you look closely, you’ll often find a few that stand out. Everyone has their favorites, but consider this roundup of proven producers.

ISLAMORADA, Florida

Any day of the year, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a saltwater destination with greater species diversity and accessibility than this Upper Florida Keys gem. Comprising Plantation, Windley, Upper Matecumbe, and Lower Matecumbe keys, the offshore islands of Indian Key and Lignumvitae Key and the private Tea Table Key, Islamorada brings multiple sport fishing scenarios within the visitor’s reach.

For starters, this island getaway offers tremendous land-based fishing from multiple bridges, especially Channel 2 and Channel 5. Here, anglers find mutton and mangrove snapper, cobia, gag grouper, and colorful tropicals such as parrotfish, doctorfish, filefish and various wrasses.

Step aboard one of the many private charter boats and enjoy the offshore realm of giant groupers (gag, black, scamp, snowy), snapper (mangrove, cubera, mutton, queen, yellowtail), cobia, tuna, dolphin, wahoo and king mackerel. As the water continues to cool, the sailfish bite will improve.

For close-range fun, the world-class bonefishing of yesteryear may have diminished, but the right guide can put you on the right flat at the right tide for a shot at these reel-sizzling speedsters. Stealth is currency, but patient types find that Islamorada still kicks out grey ghosts of boast-worthy proportions.

Not far from those skinny flats, the nearshore patch reefs — isolated limestone/corral structures — bring a taste of the offshore style fishing within range of flats and bay boats. Yellowtail snapper, yellow jack, grunts, and porgies are available most of the year, but fall-winter sees a steady influx of significantly larger snapper and grouper, along with Spanish and King mackerel.

Expanding the opportunity, a run across Florida Bay leads to amazing backcountry action within Everglades National Park. While herons and flamingos wade the shallows and American crocodiles sunbathe on mud flats, a labyrinth of mangrove creeks abound with redfish, snook and juvenile tarpon. (Keep your hands out of the water — bull sharks are notorious for attacking hooked fish at boat side.)

PORT ARANSAS, Texas

Tucked between its namesake bay to the north and Corpus Christi Bay to the south, “Port-A” offers a good launch point for chasing redfish, black drum and speckled trout. With access to oyster bars, marsh edges, and natural and manmade islands, this destination also sits within reach of the vast Laguna Madre grass flats to the south. With Gulf passes few and far between, tides are minimal, so wind plays a significant role in water movement. For jumbo adult redfish over the 28-inch maximum, the jetties at Port O’Connor (Matagorda Shipping Channel) and Port Aransas offer feeding dynamics for the big bulls.

VENICE, Louisiana

Ranking high on many a bucket list, the last populated port on the Mississippi River Delta offers lodging, supplies, bait and tackle, along with several inshore and offshore charter operators. A 24/7/365 food production facility pumping out massive volumes of crabs, shrimp and baitfish, the majestic Delta marsh habitat brims with redfish, trout, flounder, black drum, and sheepshead. Complementing the vast acreage of aquatic vegetation, numerous passes on both sides of the river offer access to coastal bays, barrier islands and nearshore rigs where increasingly larger fish live. Continue downriver to the Head of Passes and the trident of major arteries — Southwest Pass (the main commercial shipping lane), South Pass and Pass A Loutre offer access to deeper Gulf waters. With the continental shelf dropping off close the Delta, anglers in center consoles can pick their days and fish for hefty snapper, giant king mackerel and huge cobia on the platform drilling rigs, or venture farther to the “floaters” for yellowfin tuna, dolphin, wahoo and marlin.

PASCAGOULA, Mississippi

Situated on the eastern side of the state’s coast, this town takes its name from the Choctaw word meaning “bread eaters,” but Pascagoula offers many opportunities to catch a fine fish dinner. River marshes with lots of winding creeks and inner ponds/lakes keep redfish, trout and flounder happy, while sheepshead and black drum like the bridge pilings and seawalls. Coastal waters find mackerel, bluefish, and the usual surf mix of pompano, whiting and croakers. Pascagoula welcomes shore-bound anglers with multiple piers providing surf and marsh access.

ORANGE BEACH, Alabama

Neighboring Florida’s western boundary, Alabama’s premier coastal destination benefits from the Perdido River/Perdido Bay estuarine system. Salt marshes, oyster bars, islands, sand points, creeks, docks — lots of options for redfish, flounder, and speckled trout. Also, proximity to Gulf State Park brings fantastic surf fishing (beach and pier) for pompano, redfish, whiting and croakers into play, while a 45-minute drive west to Fort Morgan’s launch ramp provides access to Mobile Bay’s diverse habitat (including drilling rigs thick with reds, specks and white trout).

TAMPA BAY, Florida

The name’s confusing, but the deeply diverse “Bay Area” comprises multiple cities in Hillsborough County (Tampa, Apollo Beach, Ruskin) to the east, Pinellas County (Safety Harbor, St. Petersburg) to the west, and Manatee County (Terra Ceia, Palma Sola, Bradenton) to the south. Throughout the Bay Area, several launch sites and abundant shore-based access points avail a vibrant fall mix of snook, trout, redfish, flounder, Spanish mackerel, sheepshead, black drum, jacks, ladyfish and mangrove snapper.

Three major bridges cross the bay’s interior, with the famous Sunshine Skyway spanning the Egmont Channel at the Gulf entrance. Inside Tampa Bay, which includes Old Tampa Bay on the west side of the Interbay Peninsula and Hillsborough Bay to the east, you’ll find every inshore habitat you could want — mangroves, oyster bars, grass flats, isolated rock reefs, residential docks, piers, seawalls and multiple rivers.

At the bay’s mouth, west of the Skyway, Fort Desoto Park on Mullet Key offers a multi-faceted angling option with two fishing piers, popular mangrove backwaters and beach/wade fishing opportunities.

JACKSONVILLE, Florida

A rarity, in that it flows north, the St. Johns River sweeps a wealth of angling opportunity through the Sunshine State’s largest city. Along the way, a menu of fish-friendly habitat options includes numerous creeks and residential canals peppered with docks, main river features, multiple bridges, downtown municipal structure (seawalls, storm drains, flow-throughs, etc.), commercial piers, coastal salt marshes and jetties guarding a major Atlantic artery — Mayport Inlet. Top fall targets include speckled trout, redfish, flounder and striped bass. Snoop around the isolated residential backwaters and you might find a hidden oasis where snook and juvenile tarpon rub elbows with largemouth bass.

BRUNSWICK, Georgia

On the grassy median separating U.S. Highway 17 you’ll find Lanier’s Oak; a Georgia historical site so named for Georgia poet Sidney Lanier, who found inspiration for his famous poem, “Marshes of Glynn,” while sitting beneath the shady branches. Lanier’s verses described the majestic Glynn County salt marshes separating Brunswick from the Golden Isles (Jekyll, St. Simons, Little St. Simons and Sea islands), where abundant food sources and seemingly endless habitat (creeks, cuts, mud flats and oyster bars) support abundant redfish, trout and flounder populations. Land-bound anglers enjoy the fishing piers on Jekyll’s Clam Creek and the St. Simons downtown waterfront (south end), while St. Simons’ East Beach and multiple public access spots along Jekyll.

CHARLESTON, South Carolina

History, culture and vast fishing habitat combine for a multi-faceted family vacation or simply a hardcore angling retreat that just happens to have a diverse culinary scene near by. With the Ashley, Cooper, and Wando rivers sprouting a mix of marsh habitat, creeks and oyster bars, redfish are the top draw, but black drum, trout, and flounder also roam these waters. Anglers on foot have multiple option for sampling the Charleston from sites such as the Mount Pleasant Pier (Cooper River), Higgins Pier (Ashley River) and the Folly Beach Pier (Atlantic).

Note: For a smaller, less crowded option with similar angling opportunity, Georgetown/Winyah Bay is the next town up the coast. Comfortably quieter, Georgetown’s local waters are full of redfish.

With either area, beware the dreaded pluff mud — that deep, gooey substance comprising sediment, algae and decaying plant and animal matter, which lines the Lowcountry marshes. Providing important habitat for crustaceans and invertebrates, pluff mud’s unforgiving grasp will trap boats that venture too shallow on falling tides.

BUXTON, North Carolina

Home of the famous Red Drum Tackle, Buxton’s a popular base camp for intrepid types bound for the heralded Outer Banks (OBX) surf. Top target — the big redfish that feed their way through the nearshore bars and troughs. Beaches up and down the OBX see steady redfish action in the fall, but the strong currents around the Hatteras Point area, south of Buxton, tend to gather the most fish and anglers seeking whopper redfish of 30-plus pounds (state record is 94-pound, 2-ounce state record was caught off Hatteras Island). North Carolina allows beach access via 4-wheel drive vehicles and off-road vehicles (ORV), with seasonal restrictions and numbered access points controlling the traffic.

In addition to those giant reds, the OBX surf also offers bluefish, striped bass, whiting, croakers, spot, and trout. To the west of Buxton, Pamlico Sound presents sprawling inshore habitat for juvenile “puppy drum” redfish, trout and flounder.

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