Gregg Holshouser outdoors column | Spring is in the air, but for how long?

Even the saltiest old-timer would be sure to tell you, the winter of 2011-12 has been one of the mildest in memory along the S.C. coast, thus far.

Now this is the reason so many now-local residents moved “down here.”

But, what a difference a year makes. About a year ago, on Feb. 3, the surface temperature in the Atlantic Ocean in Myrtle Beach according to the Apache Pier data station was 46.07 degrees on Feb. 3, 2011 after dropping below 44 degrees in late January, 2011.

Earlier this week, the surface reading was almost 10 degrees warmer – at 55.43 degrees early Wednesday afternoon. Now the Big Pond doesn’t cool off or heat up too quickly, and a nearly 10-degree difference in water temperature for the same time of year, from one year to the next is significant, especially in the dead of winter.

One of the duties of S.C. DNR biologist Kris Reynolds is to conduct field surveys with fishermen at local boat landings from Awendaw northward to the N.C. state line.

“In my opinion the weather is a complete 180, from one extreme to another,” said Reynolds, reflecting on the conditions a year ago compared to now. “From my own personal observations, it seems like it’s been a very, very mild, warm winter – the warmest or second warmest I’ve seen in the 21 years that I’ve been here.”

Instead of being concerned with whether spotted seatrout and white shrimp are surviving frigid water temperatures as has been the case the last two winters, anglers have had an early case of spring fever and have even been catching trout right on into February. Commercial crabbers also have had success through January when typically crabs go dormant in December because of colder water temperatures.

I also witnessed a couple of keeper flounder landed in the backwaters of Murrells Inlet earlier this week.

“There’s no question warmer water has kept fish biting through the winter,” said S.C. DNR regional biologist Dean Cain.

But there are still 39 days of winter to go – spring arrives on March 20 – so Old Man Winter is sure to make his presence felt again.

“I’ve been noticing some blooming, some of the deciduous hardwoods are getting some buds early,” said Cain. “I think it’s safe to assume things are a little early this year because of the warm weather. We’ve got another couple of months, eight weeks really, to go and we generally get a slug of cold weather in March.

“Lord forbid we get a lot of new growth and then have a hard freeze, we could be in trouble.”

Shad season

Shad season started in most local rivers on Feb. 1, and the returns are mixed said Cain, who works out of the Samworth Wildlife Management Area office.

Cain reports catches have not been good in the Santee River basin along the Georgetown-Charleston County border due to high tides and high water around the full moon at the start of the season. The good news is some of the most productive areas for commercial shad fishermen using trammel nets have been locally in the Waccamaw and Pee Dee river basins.

“Not nearly as much water comes up the Waccamaw and the Pee Dee as comes up the Santees,” said Cain.

Warmer-than-normal water temperatures may have played a role in how shad catches have played out thus far with at least some fish moving well upriver before the season started.

“We probably had a slug of fish moving up in January,” said Cain. “(Fishermen) in the lower reaches of the river weren’t catching much and the guys 20-30 miles up the river was where they were catching most of the fish during the first few days of the season.”

Seacoast Anglers

The Seacoast Anglers Association will meet Monday, Feb. 20, 6:30 p.m., at VFW Post 10804, at Hwys. 57 and 9 in Little River. Happy Hour precedes the meeting at 5:30 p.m.