"Spring is probably the toughest time to catch them. The fish seem less consistent. They are moving around quite a bit when all of the bait begins showing up. This is the time of the year you usually have to experiment daily with different baits to get the fish to eat," Brown said.

Brown notes that as the waters warm different baits arrive.

"Little menhaden show up first," he said, "followed by finger mullet, which is my favorite live bait for spottails.

"When the water is cold during the winter, the fish form very large schools," Brown explained. "As spring arrives, the schools break up, and most people think it stays that way until things cool back down again.

"But I actually think the fish get back together again once the finger mullet arrive."

Brown said he finds spottails from the hot days of mid-June to August up on flats. He said these low-tide flats may only have 2 feet of water or less. Good examples of areas characterized by these flats are the large cove near Fort Johnson on the south side of Charleston Harbor near the mouth and a flat near the Wando Terminal.

"I usually fish these flats with live bait," Brown said. "One rig uses a float setup, like a Cajun Thunder, with a 1- to 1 1/2-foot fluorocarbon leader. Another option is to use a Carolina rig with two split shots and a circle hook.

"If it's windy, the Carolina rig will work best. The wind will constantly push the float rig out of the zone, and you will constantly recast to reposition the bait. With all of that recasting, there is a good chance of spooking the fish."

Brown will tip either rig with a 4- to 6-inch finger mullet. When asked about trash fish, such as pinfish, destroying the bait, he responded that those fish usually don't bother such a large bait. He did admit that you will catch an occasional skate or shark, though.

"Besides a finger mullet, I might also use half of a blue crab," Brown said. "It really seems to be a good bait from mid-April to the end of May."

Brown's strategy is that he waits for the fish to leave the grass and get on the flat.

"I'll pole until we see one fish, and then set up. It is usually always a good-sized fish that you catch with finger mullet as opposed to shrimp. I will switch to some shrimp as we get closer to fall because shrimp are more numerous in the creeks. At that time, the catch is a mix of older fish and the younger slot-sized fish."

On high tide, Brown will still use live bait but also might cast artificial baits. Hard plastics that resemble baitfish are recommended as well as scent-impregnated soft-plastic baits rigged with flutter hooks. The flutter hooks allow for fishing over structure without snagging.

SPOTTED SEATROUT
The second-most popular inshore saltwater fish is the spotted seatrout. You might hear a few locals call them winter trout or an even smaller minority refer to them as specks.

No matter what you call them, they are beautiful fish. Resembling silver torpedoes, seatrout have eye-popping spots along their upper sides.