Fishing School
Finding Fish [95/5]
Welcome to the Advanced Level module of the Insider Club Curriculum!
These lessons will help ensure that you can always put yourself in good spots to catch inshore saltwater fish even if fishing areas you’ve never been to before.
And please know that the strategies you’ll see apply to you regardless if you’re fishing by foot, kayak, or boat.
Note: Make sure to watch to the end because you’ll see some tricks for finding great spots from online maps even in areas with very murky water.
Finding Spots In The Warmer Months
Finding Spots In The Cold Months
Related Links:
How do you decide when the current flow is too much to fish and you should move out of a main channel to a place with less current flow. Is there any rule of thumb? For example, when should I fish the bridge at Snow’s cut in NC and when should I not fish the bridge since the current is too fast?
My rule of thumb is that if the current is slow enough for me to feel the bottom with my Prawn USA jigs, then I’ll be fishing it. But once the current flow is to strong to feel what’s going on down there, I’m going to a different spot out of the main current flow.
There is a bridge in Snow’s Cut near Carolina Beach NC which gets to 20+ ft deep. Is there a depth I should be targeting to fish in or should I try to get bait/lures down to the 20 ft depth? Not sure if fishing the less deep places next to a deep channel is better
It’s more about structure than depth. When fishing bridges, I like using Prawn USA lures rigged on jigheads that can allow me to feel the bottom for structure while catching fish (or if you have a good depth finder, that can show the zones with structure too). Here’s an example of how to get into a lot of action around bridges: https://wp-staging.saltstrong.com/articles/bridge-fishing-with-new-shrimp-lure/
Just joined today. There’s a lot of really great information here, but I have to say I’m a bit disappointed. Living in near Ozello and there is absolutely no assistance from the 1 ft. contour at Ozello, Fort Island, or Yankeetown creeks/marshes. The great detail of information largely surrounds boat channels, which is not an ideal situation to fish from a kayak or shore/wade. I understand that this is likely very difficult to map and high volume areas make sense, but all the videos and promos show such excellent detail that it seems like the information should be available regardless of the region. I’m back to comparing Google maps and taking educated guesses on how quickly the depth changes. I will compliment the fishing schools, as it is very informative and will help guide my upcoming trips. Using what I learned should improve my catch rate, but I was hoping for at least some guidance in the creeks
Melvin
Hey guys, I just joined. I’ve been a pretty serious fisherman growing up here in South Florida my whole life now living in Port Charlotte I consider myself an extremely avid fisherman, but I’m always looking to learn new ways and techniques… looking forward to diving deep into this website, I’ve been off off and on following Luke since he was posting videos from his paddleboard many years back..
Thanks for making time to post the nice comment Chad! We’re thrilled to have you in the Insider Club Family.
I’m just joining yall I’m looking forward to using the maps for Biloxi back bay areas
How do you add a waypoint from your preplanning that you can easily find on the water?
Here’s a video showing how to use Waypoints. Once you add a waypoint, it’ll show on your main map making it easy to find when out on the water.
https://wp-staging.saltstrong.com/fishing-tip/smart-fishing-spots-crash-course/#waypoints
I will try this out tomorrow around a couple of islands in my area! Depth goes from 1.0 down to 9 feet. Great video, the drones really make it nice too!
Glad to see that you enjoyed this lesson! I hope you have a great trip out on the water tomorrow.
Excellent lesson! Factoring wind and current flow around structure makes so much sense. Luke is the rock star of fishing 😎
Completed the warm weather module. Most of the information was validating what I already was aware of (very gratifying) however, the “golden nugget” for me was the importance of being aware of and applying wind direction on hot days. The typical school of thought is get out of the wind, find the protected areas. I had never connected the DO2 factor with the wind and wave action. It makes perfect sense, though. When you said that part about what separates those who catch quality fish consistently from those who are hit and miss, that was when the bell went off in my head. I am good, I usually catch a quality fish or two, but I am always saying to myself that I need to figure out how to consistently catch more quality fish, to optimize my time on the water.
Glad to see that you enjoyed this lesson! Yes, the wind factor is huge in the summer. The windy zones will almost always outproduce the wind protection zones… especially when fishing during the hotter times of the day. Also, the bigger fish are much easier to fool in the churned up water compared to the glass calm water, so hopefully you find that your quantity and quality goes up as you focus more on the windy zones.
Quick clarification if you could Luke – understand your comment, but I have also seen videos you guys have that talk about leeward side of the island where the fish hang. After watching the winter video as well, is it safe to say that there is a shift that occurs wind-wise that we need to be aware of? Winter months when we need to seek out warmer waters fish more leeward sides and summer months when we need cooler waters and more current, fish windward side? Just want to be sure I know what to target seasonally. Thanks and great videos – love your stuff!
Yes, the season plays a very big factor in deciding which areas to fish relative to the wind.