Murrells Inlet fishing charters: the deepest fleet on the Strand

The docks

Where do the boats leave from in Murrells Inlet?

Almost all of them from the MarshWalk and the working docks either side of it, on the creek that runs behind the restaurants. It is about twenty minutes south of Myrtle Beach on Highway 17, and it is the reason so many "Myrtle Beach" charters have a Murrells Inlet departure address in the confirmation email. Check that address before you book, not the morning of.

The practical advantage of the MarshWalk is that you can go look. Boards outside the offices list the day's trips and what came in yesterday. Walk it the evening before, ask two captains the same question, and book the one whose answer you liked. That is a better filter than any listing page, this one included.

Park early on summer weekends. The lots fill for dinner, and a 5:30am departure means leaving your rental at 4:45.

The inlet at the end of the day

The MarshWalk runs about half a mile along the creek, and the hour before sunset is when it fills up, whether or not anyone has been on a boat. The spartina goes gold and then orange, and the water holds that light for a while after the sky has let go of it.

The noise is the other half of it. Great blue herons and egrets work the mud flats at low tide. Osprey come over the creek carrying fish. Brown pelicans sit on the pilings doing very little. Dolphins push in on the incoming tide often enough that people stop mid-sentence and point. Under all of that there is live music going from four or five decks at once, kids running the boardwalk ahead of their parents, and boats coming back in with the day's catch while somebody's family waits on the dock to see what they got.

It is worth timing a trip around. An afternoon charter that has you back at the dock by five leaves you exactly where you want to be for the two hours after it.

Murrells Inlet or Little River: which should you sail from?

Murrells Inlet if you want choice. Deeper fleet, every trip type, shorter drive from Myrtle Beach proper, and somewhere to eat when you get off the boat.

Little River if the trip is the Gulf Stream. It has quicker ocean access from the north end, which means less of a twelve-hour day spent motoring through an inlet. If you are staying in North Myrtle Beach, the drive is shorter too.

For everything else (inshore, nearshore, shark, standard full-day offshore) the difference is drive time and not much else. Book the one you can reach in fifteen minutes at 5am.

When should you book a Murrells Inlet charter?

Later than you would for the Strand overall, and that is a real difference rather than a rounding error. Search demand for Murrells Inlet charters swings about 13.8 times between its low and high months, and unlike the Grand Strand as a whole it shows no March planning spike. People search this town once they are already on holiday.

Which means two things. If you are the sort who books ahead, you have more room here than the headline Strand numbers suggest. And if you are reading this from a rental with sand still on the floor, you have not missed your window. Call in the morning for a next-day inshore trip and you will usually find a boat, midweek especially.

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