When it comes to successful fall and winter inshore fishing, your depth recorder can be your best friend. During these early fall months the fishing is fairly easy with fish gorging themselves, but we know just as the fish know, that the amount of bait in the water is getting ready to drop off dramatically and the cooler water temperatures will make these same fish become a little more lethargic and do not expend nearly as much energy chasing food. If you are currently in an area where the fishing is good this same area may also produce good results during the tougher winter months. Paying close attention to your depth recorder now will help you determine where to fish when old man winter sets in.
As I said earlier, most of these fish do not care to work too hard for their food when the water gets cold. This means they are probably not going to travel very far to find a source of food. Our nighttime temperatures can drop well over 20 degrees from the daytime highs in the winter. So a night that was 30 degrees can often result in a high temperature of 50-60 degrees or even higher on a sunny day. This fluctuation in air temperature affects the water temperature, especially shallow water. A fish will find daytime temperatures in shallow water to be quite attractive and will move into shallow water, given the sun has come out and warmed the shallow. The same fish will seek deeper water as the shallow water temperatures cool down because the deeper water is not affected as much by outside temperatures and will be warmer.
Remembering that these fish are not interested in traveling long distances, they will normally find holes that are close to shallow water to give them the best of both worlds. The great thing about the lowcountry is that we have plenty of creeks and rivers and plenty of big mud and sand flats. We also have plenty of little holes in and around these areas that provide thermal protection for the fish and great spots for anglers to catch fish. Finding these spots is the key and efficient use of yo