If you just woke after a long state of cryopreservation, i.e., frozen in time, and were placed on the water you’d never know its mid-February here on the Texas coast based on the weather and conditions. I don’t think anyone could have predicted that the water temperatures would be warm enough to almost wet wade comfortably just weeks removed from the extremely frigid weather that blasted the coast.
The transition from winter to spring is like the change in mood of a crabby woman. One moment she’s cold and vice versa the next. Don’t blink too long or you’re going to be left wondering how things changed so quickly. Redfish are in their early spring stages but if the weather stays stable more should start moving up shallow regularly. As of right they’re clinging to shallow flats adjacent to deep water; there’s plenty of bait in these same areas. By all accounts the windy season is near.
I had a three day weekend last week and I took full advantage of it, spending three consecutive days on the water. The fog and wind made thing a little more difficult than necessary but the fishing went from fair to good in just a matter of days. The harder the wind blew the better the fishing was.
On Friday, Mark and I started the morning looking for trout deep. The conditions looked great, light winds and moving water, so I was very optimistic. We fished the typical mud and shell deep water winter pattern. The tide was going out strong all morning but the day started off pretty slow. Apparently everybody else also thought that it was a great day to be out on the water as there was lots traffic in the area.
By mid-morning we had only caught a few small reds and small legal trout, so we decided to change locations to look for reds. About this time the fog rolled in thick and didn’t disperse the remainder of the evening. I didn’t want to venture too far from the launch, so we checked out two different areas nearby. The results were only one redfish blowup that missed both of the hooks on my skitterwalk only feet away from me. The tide was coming in steadily and it was getting late in the day, so we decided to check out one more area to see if we could possibly pick some more trout before dark.
We managed to get lost in the fog and took us longer than I expected to get the area that I wanted to fish. By the time we arrived at our location the water was near peak level. We fished for about an hour before it got dark on us. We managed to catch a handful of trout in that time up to 22″. We made the decision to head in because it was almost completely dark and the fog had already blanketed us. Thank goodness of technology. With the use of the compass on my phone and Mark’s GPS we made in back to launch safely after a longer than normal run in.
I slept in Saturday after the marathon, sunup to sundown, day prior. My lack of success on the water lately has driven me crazy; I had to get back on the water to redeem myself. It’s been a long time since I’ve had such a long dry spell. I only had a two hour window to get out in the evening, so I decided to fish a reef close to home. It was a little windy and foggy when I arrived to my location but not too bad. For the first hour I had only a couple of bites and only two sand trout.
I decide to change tactics and lures and that made all the difference. I switch from a small lure (TTF Flats Minnow) to a larger plastic (TTF Hackberry Hustler) and started working the bait a much faster pace with exaggerated twitches. In the next hour I picked up a several trout to 23″. I made the paddle back in the fog and dark again, but this time I was able to follow the shoreline all the way in so it was easy to navigate my way back.
On Sunday I was torn between two spots, but waking up a little late and the wind already blowing at a steady clip, the decision easy. I chose to stay close to home and first the same spot as the night before in hopes that the new tactics would continue to produce. I arrived a little after sunup and wind was blowing but manageable. Fishing started off slow and I was only able to catch some pretty big sandies up to 17″. Moved around a little bit and settled in on one area that has been reliable in the past, but it was more of the same but at a much faster pace. I was catching sand trout every few casts. Not exactly was I was looking for but it was action nonetheless.
By now the wind had picked up was howling out of the SE at about 20+ with gusts much higher. I was about to move locations but I started picking up some solid keep trout to 21″, so I stayed put. I moved around the reef a little but the action stayed consistent in the area for the rest of the day. I was catching about 5 sandies to every trout. I ended day with a barely legal flounder, at least a limit of trout to 25″ and too many sand trout to remember.
I started off throwing TTF Hackberry Hustler’s in morning glory but I ran through the remaining few I had left so I tied on a Gambler Flap’n Shad, the lure I had with the closet resemblance to the HH. I ran through a whole bag of those as well. I didn’t have any more big lures in morning glory so I tied on only large dark lure I had left, a TTF Big Mino in Roach. I caught nearly half my fish on that lure and would have only used one if I didn’t send one sailing on a cast. I will admit, I have only used the Big Mino sparingly with fair success since it came out last winter, but I can definitely see it becoming a favorite in the arsenal during the cold months.
I was fishing the ledge of a reef casting out at far as I could and waiting to twitch the bait until I knew it was on the bottom. After the lure hit the bottom I was working the lure back with several hard twitches followed by very short pause. Most of the time the fish would attack the lure on the pause but I did catch quite a few fish that hit the lure while it was moving fast. I worked my lures at a fast clip because I didn’t want to give the fish a chance to think twice about eating and I was seeking out the more aggressive fish. I also used a large lure to weed out the smaller fish and entice the larger fish to bite, but I still managed to catch a fair number of fish that weren’t much bigger than my lure. Also, water levels are back up to or slightly above predicted levels right now.
Three bags of plastic later, I would say yesterday was a pretty good day considering the conditions and my recent success, or lack thereof.
Mark paddling in the fog…
Boat running slowly in the fog…
