Myrtle Beach Tide Chart

Myrtle Beach is a pier town: half a dozen public piers put you over the sandbars without a boat, and the fall mullet run turns the whole strand into a feeding lane.

What runs when

• King mackerel: the pier fishery, May through October — live bait off the end of Apache or 2nd Avenue pier on the morning tide change.
• Pompano & whiting: the spring and fall surf staples; pompano want the first trough on a rising tide.
• Red drum: the fall run (September-November) when mullet schools push down the beach and drum crash them in the surf at dawn.
• Spanish mackerel & bluefish: summer, anything shiny retrieved fast from the pier rails.

Where to cast

2nd Avenue Pier for kings; the surf north of the Golden Mile for pompano. On big spring tides, fish the creek mouths at the north end near Cherry Grove on the outgoing.

Tide timing here

Pier king fishermen set up around the start of the outgoing — bait slides off the bar and kings follow. Surf fishermen want the last two hours of the rise into the trough. Both windows are on this page daily.

Rules to know

No license needed on licensed piers; the surf requires a SC saltwater license. Drum and pompano have size/bag rules — see SCDNR.