not as much as you would think but you will have much better success overall if the areas you are fishing are within the salinity levels specks prefer.
specks get very particular when spawning because they need salinity to float their eggs but the rest of the time in general you will still catch them in lower salinities then is normal for them but they do need certain levels to be happy or they move out of the area to find those salinities.
I don't think reds care one way or the other, I have caught them in such low salinity areas it was damn near straight fresh water before.
in short, its like the tides, it is very important to pay attention to for speck fishing but I don't think you should plan your trips around it. there are exceptions so it is not always needed to be where the book says it needs to be in order to catch fish.
I have been catching regular limits of specks on the west side of lake ponchartrain where the salinity is NEVER close to the salinity the book says you need for specks to live yet they are there year round. maybe they just visit and go back to saltier areas but they are constant populations of good fish there all the time.
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