Fishwish,
As I mentioned in my post on your thread, I went down to MI and had a guide to give me fishing instruction, and show me the type of areas to look for fish, and which fish. I made it clear I wasn’t after his honey holes, but I wanted tracks to the jetty and back.
We spent about 3 hr in the creeks, and he showed me what to look out for in terms of navigation in the area, using my chart as a reference. We purposely went out at low tide, and came back in while the tide was still up. It was as much about where not to go at high tide, and what to avoid. We looked at so many potential fishing spots, I began to see the similarities between each.
The other three hrs were spent on 3 mile reef. He showed me rigging, how he stores his rigging, and other tackle. HE also discussed options for fishing the reef, including stuff like speed for trolling. Of course, we went into species specific rigging and techniques. HE also showed me how to modify my anchor to save it if it gets stuck, and how to anchor off of the reef. Since 3 mile no longer has a marker, he had a old bass fishing marker with him so we had a reference point.That tip is just a good example of little things that make the fishing much easier.
We also spent some time at the jetty, and the one mistake I may have made, would be losing an anchor set at the jetty and hitting the rocks before I realized.
Basically, he gave me information for the entire 6 hours. We did catch fish at the reef (too many sharks and sea bass), but we were specifically after sheephead, and struck out.
I’ve been back down twice, and the money was well spent. Lots of good tips made my trips more productive.
BTW, I spoke with about 5 guides before I selected this guy. Turned out giving instruction was right up his alley. Next fall I hope to hire a guide to do the same thing at Winyah. The LR guide didn’t respond to my calls and emails until the day before our scheduled date. Still may try LR a little later in the spring.