The good news with this type of fishing is that most anglers and tackle shops are willing to share locations and techniques.  It’s almost impossible to pry a snook or grouper hole from local anglers, but ask and they will point you in the right direction for a good Spanish mackerel bite.  As a general rule most of our inshore fishing for this mixed bag occurs in depths less than ten feet and more than four. Fish will hold over a particular area for one reason, food, it’s important to look for areas that look “alive”. In other words, look for activity, birds (gulls, terns, cormorants, pelicans) are a good indication, they also are hanging in an area for one thing, food.  To attract the food, or bait, and attract the gamefish, an area must meet a few qualifications. First, we need tide or water movement, it doesn’t need to be at full force as we see in the Gulf Passes, but it should have a pronounced flow.  Take the time to learn how to read local tide charts. Remember, the strongest water movements will be in areas where the water gets bottlenecked (think of the gulf passes), for this type of fishing I generally concentrate over waters adjacent to long, shallow bars with a marbled bottom or a mix of sand and grass. Polarized sunglasses are a must to help read the bottom type and locate the shallow bars.