When I fished for specs in Murrells Inlet years ago, I came to believe the most important thing was the tide. We always seemed to do better when the tide was turning...dead low or flood. I've come to question that now. Maybe it's because on the White Oak, there aren't so many deep holes for the fish to lay in and the fact that the tide seems more prominate. Or maybe I was just mistaken. Now, I believe the most important factor (where I live anyway) is salinity of the water. If it's not salty enough to find finger mullets, there probably aren't going to be any trout, either. The second biggest factor is water temperature. Next is tide, and a falling tide seems to be more productive than flood, dead or rising. Time of day, early mornings seem best. Questionable weahter may have some effect. Overcast seems a little better than a "blue bird" day...but I'm not sure about that. I've heard air temperature, weather fronts and moon phases are important, but I'm not sure how important they are in coastal waters. I remember catching lots of trout in the surf beside the pier right at daybreak on full moons in October and November but I wonder if this applies, again, to coastal waters.
Now that it's getting cold, I figured, why freeze my fannie off, when I could just ask you guys for your expert opinions and then take the calendar and mark the "perfect" day and just fish that one day each month and catch enough fish to last the rest of the month.
Thanks for your thoughts.