The Shifting Seafloor: How Hurricanes Create New Fishing Hotspots

Something we get asked a lot: What happens to your spots when a major hurricane barrels through? Anglers often worry about what it means for their favorite offshore spots. It’s true that a storm’s power can be destructive, but it’s also one of nature’s most effective remodeling tools. Beneath the waves, a hurricane acts like a giant hydraulic dredge, burying some habitats while simultaneously blasting others clean, creating brand new, fish-attracting structures where none existed before.

The process is one of powerful give-and-take. A hurricane’s winds generate immense waves, creating deep, churning currents that lift and move tons of sand across the seafloor. In some areas, this results in deposition, where sand settles and buries once-productive ledges and rockpiles under a thick, barren blanket. An angler returning to their go-to grouper spot might find it has vanished, replaced by a featureless desert.

But this is only half the story. That same sand had to come from somewhere. Nearby, those same powerful currents are doing the opposite: they are scouring the seafloor. Areas that were previously covered by feet of sand and sediment are pressure-washed clean by the turbulent water. This erosive force strips away the soft bottom, uncovering hard-bottom structures, limestone outcroppings, and forgotten ledges that may have been hidden for decades. While your old spot might be gone, the storm may have just unwrapped a brand-new one a short distance away.

For structure-oriented fish like grouper and red snapper, this is a game of musical chairs. When their home reef is buried, they are forced to evacuate and seek new territory. Their survival instinct drives them to find the nearest suitable structure that offers shelter and ambush points for hunting. The newly scoured ledges and rockpiles are prime real estate. Displaced fish from the surrounding area will quickly converge on these freshly exposed habitats, creating a new, concentrated population.

The key for post-hurricane fishing is exploration. Your old GPS numbers might lead to a sandy wasteland, but the fish haven’t left the area—they’ve just moved next door. By using your bottom machine to search around the edges of those now-buried spots, you can be the first to find the newly uncovered structures. A hurricane doesn’t just destroy fishing spots; it rearranges the board and creates new opportunities for the angler willing to look.