The past few days have been somewhat of a roller coaster for the trout and the redfish bite. Our lodge guests have had to either grind it out all day for the trout without catching any reds, or have happened upon a strong redfish bite without a hint of speckled trout. Oh, and then there were those who ended up catching a little bit of everything. There just didn’t seem to be much of a pattern to the bite at all, except for the fact that there was a bite to be had on nearly every occasion.
Anglers wading this past week with live bait were able to scrape up a mess of nice trout in some of the strong north wind that recently blew through town, while other waders realized fortune with top water baits and plastic tails (dark brown, penny, and chrome all produced). Our guests fishing out of boats this week with live bait have experienced a lot of catching, especially on trout ranging on the smaller end of the scale. Wind has been an issue more than once, so a number of this week’s catches have taken place along protected shorelines all the way from the head of San Antonio Bay to the remote back lakes situated out on Matagorda Island.
It’s understandable that conditions aren’t always going to be perfect on any given day you may have chosen to be out on the bay trying your luck at finding the fish. You can improve your chances as you remember to search for things that indicate there are fish in the area. Some of the things you should try to key-in on are bait activity, slicks, diving birds, structure, and tidal movement. Secondary items to pay attention to would be things like differences in water depths, wind direction, water clarity, and brightness of the day – all of which can quickly become very, very important things for wading anglers to take into consideration when fishing with artificial baits.
Area bay water temperatures will soon be hovering in the magical 70’s as springtime begins giving way to more and more warm days on a regular basis. This will mean pods of baitfish – like mullet – will soon become the norm, and not the exception. Trout and redfish will typically follow the food source, so keep it in mind to always attempt a few casts upon some of those large accumulations of floating mullet if you see them. It’s always fun tossing top water baits at rafts of mullet, but if there’s nothing happening on top, then go beneath the baitfish. Try bouncing a plastic tail below the mullet, or dangle a plastic bait of choice below a rattle cork and see what happens. You might just stumble upon that non-stop bite you were hoping for! Good luck out there, and be careful!
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Capt. Chris Martin, and his wife Deb, permanently reside in Seadrift, Texas.
They are the proud owners and operators of Bay Flats Lodge, which overlooks the pristine waters of San Antonio Bay.
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