By Joe Sheaffer
Many of us have a couple of days a week to fish, if we are lucky. Some of us will check our local tackle shops, online fishing sites, check with fishing buddies for fishing reports, or we will go to the same areas where we have had success before. While this information may be helpful, my experience has been, especially fishing inshore tidal waters, conditions can change day by day and even tide by tide. We are very fortunate to live in a time with so much technology and information at our fingertips. There are all types of free satellite maps that we can access (Google maps, Bing maps, just to name a couple). Spending a few minutes using these tools can help us find very probable fish-holding areas; at the very least, giving us more areas to explore. Add current, seasonal weather patterns, water temperatures, wind, and tidal conditions and we not only can find potentially productive areas, but also eliminate areas that don’t meet certain criteria.
Simply zero in on maps of areas that you plan to fish or have fished in the past and identify possible fish holding structure. The areas that have multiple types of structure increase your odds that fish will be close by. Ask yourself what is structure, what do fish need or want to meet their survival needs. Most inshore species like grass, depth changes, current breaks ( docks, bars, mangroves, points, oyster bars, and many others), potholes, sea walls, rip rap just to name a few. It might take you awhile to figure how to identify these different types of structures on these satellite maps, but my experience has been if it looks different from everything else it is a form of structure. An area that has grass, docks, and some depth changes close by, will have an advantage over an area that just has grass. When I’m planning a trip I like to research maps for productive looking areas to fish during my fishing day. Fishing these areas aren’t always productive, but I have definitely found many more productive areas to fish. It is very satisfying to catch fish in areas that I have found. Doing a little research before each trip may give you an awesome fishing experience.