Appreciate Fall traffic on the underwater highway: shrimp, crabs, mullet are running

A few years ago, I likened underwater highways to the maze of roads, underpasses and overpasses you might find in a city like Los Angeles. Except these highways open around the middle of September and stay open only until sometime in November.

Putting a local, visual twist to this, it looks a lot like Highway 278 on Saturdays during the peak tourist season. Starting around 8 a.m. on any given Saturday, it’s bumper to bumper as visitors head west, back to their homes all around the country. Then, just past noon, a new crop of cars and minivans piled high with bicycles and luggage heads east onto Hilton Head. It’s the same scene at other resort destinations in the Lowcountry. Most of the time, traffic is backed up for miles.

Now try to envision our maze of rivers and estuaries right about now. Taking it one step further, imagine for just a moment what might be there if the water disappeared. What you would see would make summer Saturday traffic jams a joke.

Our pristine estuaries are the birthplace of just about every fish or crustacean that swims in our oceans. With cooler weather creeping in and the water temperature dropping ever so slightly, these subtle changes have triggered the beginning of a mass migration so large it is almost indescribable.

Shrimp that were the size of a pencil lead three months ago are now the width of your hand. By the millions, they are staging for their run into the ocean with hopes of finding warmer water to winter in. The same goes for crabs, now full grown, and also with mullet, with small snappers and groupers, and a list of other critters too numerous to list.

Going back to my analogy using summer traffic patterns, those leaving this promised land far outnumber those heading this way. For a short period the comers and goers are bound to meet head-on, and casualties are going to be massive.

Waiting where the ocean meets the sounds and estuaries are every manner of toothy critters whose only goal is to eat like there is no tomorrow. Sharks, trout and dozens of other predators are creating roadblocks, and it sure isn’t to check licenses or proof of insurance.

If you have never witnessed the annual mullet run, it is absolute mayhem. Packed together like sardines in schools numbering in the thousands, the mullets’ dash toward the ocean looks like the water is boiling as sharks, large jacks and many other types of fish blast through the fleeing mullet. It is a spectacle you’ll never, ever forget.

These migrations are just now beginning. It’s time to get out on the water, and it is only going to get better each day.

Don’t let the fish do all fattening up. Get out there, folks, because the pickin’s are there for the taking!