Caranchua Reef...I think we missed it

[CantCatchNuthin]

Ok, first post. I've been lurking these forums for a while, but after getting basically skunked all weekend, I'm going to get proactive.

My family has a house in Sea Isle on the Island, and we've got a NauticStar 17' that we fish the bay with when we have a time. We are very casual anglers and frankly...we suck...never really locked into some good fish in West Bay.

This weekend we headed out to Caranchua Saturday morning in beautiful water conditions. On the way we stopped at Snake Island and fished it up and down with no luck. So we moved on to Caranchua with plans of drifting over the top of it a few times.

I don't think we ever got on top of it though (or at least that's my suspicion). The water depth never dropped below four feet, and according to the maps I was looking at it should have been shallower than that. We fished live shrimp all over the water column and caught a perch and a croaker in 2 hours. I'm guessing that we passed it up running in, and with an incoming tide, drifted further away from it as time went on.

So, how do you guy locate Caranchua? And how do you fish it? Certainly not interested in secrets or anything like that, but just some basic pointers would be great.

Thank you very much in advance.

Take care,
Phillip

[WestEndAngler]

Phillip, have you check out our Map page?? Confederate Reef (what I call confederates) runs parallel to the Old ICW. There's a channel marker that says "West Bay Shell Reef Marker" or something like that...

The Reef sits on the South side of the old ICW and is smack in the middle of the bay running roughly West to East.

http://www.fishwestend.com/general/map

On our map, zoom in and you'll see Confederates reef it has a wishbone look to it and sits West of North & South Deer Islands

[Kent St Skiff]

Phillip,

I feel your pain..........We too have a house in Sea Isle and are also very casual anglers. I can say that my wife and 14 yr old son each caught a keeper trout this past weekend but my 19 yr old and I caught nothing but stingrays and one small black drum. My oldest son is getting frustruated at not seeming to ever find a spot where we get repeated bites. We fished the coves just West of Sea Isle this weekend as it was the first time I had the boat in the water in months. We fished off the pier Saturday night with no success. Heres to future success for both our families as we learn more about this thing called FISHING!

[kenny]

Phillip,

I feel your pain..........We too have a house in Sea Isle and are also very casual anglers. I can say that my wife and 14 yr old son each caught a keeper trout this past weekend but my 19 yr old and I caught nothing but stingrays and one small black drum. My oldest son is getting frustruated at not seeming to ever find a spot where we get repeated bites. We fished the coves just West of Sea Isle this weekend as it was the first time I had the boat in the water in months. We fished off the pier Saturday night with no success. Heres to future success for both our families as we learn more about this thing called FISHING!

I fish this area almost every day and it has been spotty at best in the last month or so. I have a few ideas about what you might want to do.

1. Fishing on major holidays is almost never productive.

2. Get up and out fishing as close to dawn as is safely done and fish late in the evening or at night.

3. Get a hotspots/topspots map of West bay and study it. Enter the coordinates for the reefs, etc. into your GPS.

4. This is my best advice. Hire a professional guide to take you out for a day and explain that you want to learn on the trip, not just spots but structure, cover, bait, tides, etc.

[HarryK]

We waded the whole C reef last weekend and only picked up a couple trout. beautiful morning though and hardly any wind. Seemed it would be better given the conditions, but it was Memorial day weekend.

[Hogie70]

My advice is to hire Capt. Greg Francis AKA "AQUA PIMP" a few times... This is a good way to learn the bay... If you are having a problem finding Caranchua Reef you should look into learning the bay system...

[WestEndAngler]

Wow I just misread the post I saw Confederates not "Carranchua" sorry lol

[CantCatchNuthin]

Thank you everyone for the responses. Regarding not being able to locate the precise location of Caranchua, I know we were in the right area, right in front of Jamaica, but we had a hard time locating the reef-proper, or perhaps better stated, reading all of the pilings in the water. Many of the posts aren't marked and such, so we couldn't tell what they were marking. I know there are posts in there marking the old IC waterway.

Any foolproof way of spotting the reef?

[Sneekypete]

Get a 12foot closet rod and prob the bottom...aka cajun depth finder, when you get in the area,or use a good depth sounder and the different colors will tell you whether the bottom is soft or hard shell.You'll see the oyster shell come up by 6 inches or so on the depth finder.A hotspot map should give you some coornidates as well.Go to the cut on the North shorline and work your way out with the 12' pole.

[WestEndAngler]

There are some stakes or used to be for the most part people drive right over that reef and never know they crossed it it sits deeper than most shell reefs in West Bay. It runs North to South relatively and yes it goes out of Jamaica all the way across the bay more or less... I tend to fish the Northern section of Carranchua for me its easier to spot the shallow area.

[Race1Mopar]

What they said, plus key in to 2-4 feet of water with structure and bait near. Times of tidal movement are a plus.
Joe

[Robalo]

x2 to what Joe and Kenny said. Your best off using your gps and depthfinder. Try Shell Island-the reef that usually stick outta water between Sea Isle and Jamaica Beach. Soak live shrimp under a cork in 2-4' of water anchored by the reef.