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Here's a kind of stream-of-consciousness post on fishing. What it lacks in organization, it makes up for in mostly-accurate valuable information. First, Youtube is your friend. You can learn what gear to buy, how to tie knots, what rigs to use, what bait or lures to use. It's all out there, and that is how I learned. There are even a few Savannah-specific channels or videos. Assuming you fish the tidal rivers and creeks, you are most likely going to catch red drum, flounder, spotted sea trout, sheepshead, and whiting. A lot of those fish are temperature/season-sensitive. For example, you are unlikely to catch a red drum from the winter to the spring, until the water temp hits 72-74 degrees. Then they hang out all summer, but get lazy with the heat. Come fall, the bite is back. Flounder is a spring to fall fish. They don't mind the hot water. They are ambush predators, and lay flat on the bottom. They will, for example, setup on the downstream side of a small ridge. They will then wait for the tide to push prey over the ridge, and then attack. Reset, and do it again. So that informs how you fish for them. Spotted sea trout "run" in the fall. Usually around October, give or take a month. That's prime time to catch them. Sheepshead are the winter fish around here. You can drop straight down an just about any structure that has oysters, and there are likely to be sheepshead in the area. They like live crabs, either fiddlers or marsh crabs. As soon as you hook up, they will make a break for the structure to try to break your line, so you have to be aggressive. If you want the highest chance at success, you need live bait. Everyone says shrimp is the ultimate bait, but from my experience, most of the fish I've caught and eaten had stomachs full of minnows. You'll need a bucket and a bubbler. Get some live shrimp (keep 'em cold) or go to Walmart and get a Frabill minnow trap and catch some mud minnows. Put either of those under a popping cork, and you will most likely catch something. Or head to any marshy area and gather some fiddlers and marsh crabs. I'll let you look up how to hook live bait because it isn't the most humane thing in the world. For artificials, the top bait that I've seen are DOA shrimp under a popping cork. I haven't had much luck with them. People typically go for the clear or white, with red highlights being common. I've had luck with these goofy lures under a popping cork. I think they're more effective because when you pull, the shrimp swims backwards, their natural method of escape, vs the DOA that swim forward, totally unnatural. You'll have to do your own research on what rigs and hooks to use. Look up the Carolina rig, the Texas rig, dropshot rig, popping cork. Most people use braided line (Daiwa J-Braid kicks ass). Fluorocarbon leaders. Success can be had with jigheads, from 1/8 to 1/2 oz depending on where you are fishing. Tons of lures work. A lot of people are fixated on the "electric chicken" color scheme. Make sure you get your license, and then get the free SIP (saltwater information permit). Keep your gear clean. Everything you used needs to be rinsed after every outing, or the saltwater will kill it fast. Use an appropriate rod and reel setup. I still use spinning reels, but most people use baitcasting reels. Most people I see on the banks and piers have way too heavy of a rod. Creek and river fishing is not ocean fishing. They must only catch fish that are tired of living, because there is no sensitivity to feel a bite on those 10ft rods. I prefer freshwater-weight stuff. I think I have a 6 and a 6.5 ft medium-light cork Uglystick. I use Pfleuger President freshwater reels, and they last quite a while if you keep them clean. If you like blue crab, consider getting a couple of traps. Most people use rotten chicken as bait. Even if you get skunked with fish, you are likely to catch some crabs. Consider getting and learning how to use a cast net. You can pull in eating-sized shrimp, bait shrimp, and other minnows and small fish for bait. If you need to clean fish, look up Captain Vince Russo on Youtube. He's local, and covers proper cleaning of all the local species. I even met up with him once while we were out fishing. He had me tie up at his dock, and he gave my wife and me a lesson on cleaning local fish. I use his knives, which are great. Oh, tides. Everyone has their preferred tide, and all of them are justifiable. Low tide? Fish are concentrated or trapped. High tide? Fish are actively feeding in areas where they can't go at low tide. Incoming? Yeah, that brings the hungry fish. Outgoing? Fish are concentrating and heading back to deeper water. All of them make sense to me. I'm sure I missed some stuff, and included some irrelevant stuff.