Exploring New Water: Only Go As Fast As You Want to Hit Something
Charts, maps, apps, a social media post, or a yarn spun on a bar stool — anything can be the impetus for the next adventure. There's nothing more exciting (and terrifying) than pushing off the dock in an area you've never run before. The discovery of water you've never seen and fish you've never caught — maybe fish no one's ever caught — drives us to take risks.
Risk is a beautiful thing, something America embraces well beyond outdoor pursuits. But you can mitigate it by learning the tides and hazards of a new area. You can check an app, reference charts, read the Local Notice to Mariners, and more. Still, I've found nothing better than talking to a local.
No, don't ask them for a spot — but you can learn valuable things. Does a southwest wind blow the bayou dry? Does a north wind hurt water clarity? Those factors don't just help or hurt the fishing; they're extremely useful when you're navigating.
Once you're on the water, don't forget to read the context clues. A few things I've found useful running a skiff, I learned the hard way. If there are shorebirds walking, you should probably pole instead of run. Crab pots are often dropped along a shelf, a channel edge, or a drop-off — and beware a pot that's sitting out of the water. It may sound obvious, but that means there's only a crab pot's worth of water there, or less. You can also read the direction of a current off the eddy trailing a channel marker.
Note whether the water is up in the marsh grass or the oysters are showing. Sometimes it's the high tide that hides the obstacles in dingy water — which is why the best time to lay a track is often at low tide, when you know you'll be deep enough on anything higher.
And maybe the golden rule, especially somewhere new: only go as fast as you want to hit something. I've seen a lower unit buried in the clay-like mud of a bayou, standing straight up like Excalibur in the stone. You can just picture it — 200 horses skipping a bay boat across the water, then stopping. Or at least the lower unit stopping, while the rest of the motor and the boat kept going for a few more lengths.
One more: if you're in an area full of PVC pipes or bamboo stakes, you're in God's country — the fish abound. But if you didn't put that marker there, you've got no idea whether to pass it on the left or the right the first time by.
Use your chart, use an app — maybe TidalMap — but don't hesitate to phone a friend. Drop $50 or $100 at the local tackle shop and get the lay of the land. It'll be a lot cheaper than a prop, a tow, or a lower unit.
—Greg Barnes