Anchoring on shell pads involves a lot of strategy, according to Forrest Green.
The reefs are not uniformly flat, he explained.
“They have humps, some of them as high as 4 feet,” Green said. “Specks position themselves just upstream from a hump.”
So how does this angler position his anchor?
“Never anchor on the reef itself,” Green said. “First, the anchor won’t hold. Second, if you are on the reef, you will be casting off the reef.
“And by anchoring on the reef, you are messing up everyone else trying to fish the reef.”
Green factors in the wind and the tide’s currents so he is casting onto the reef and retrieving against the current. By retrieving up-current, when he pops his jig off the bottom, the current drops it back to near the same spot rather than sweeping it off, he explained.
Sometimes the reefs get crowded and he has his favorite anchoring spots, so he tries to arrive early to get his choice.
Knowing the details of each reef is important, Green said.
“People say, ‘Mr. Green is a good fisherman.’ It’s really about knowing the reefs,” he said. “I learned the reefs by moving over them with my depth finder.”
