Redfish and Speckled Trout Fishing Like a Machine
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
By Captain Kyle Tomek
Not everyone will have the fondest memories of the Spring 2008 fishing season but a few will smile. It was definitely the windiest February through May in my lifetime. For a select few middle coast guides and anglers, a certain breed of baitfish saved many days from the 20-30 mph winds that became a dreaded norm last year.
Like the surf in summer, or migration of shrimp in fall, a highlight of springtime is the annual arrival of the almighty glass minnows. Silver and flashy, the darting prey arrive by the thousands to shallow flats. Gulls and pelicans welcome the visit with open mouths and can feed for weeks on the buffet. Speckled trout and redfish will hang near and strike the bait in an all-at-once attack. To better your chances of capitalizing on such a frenzy, be patient and wait out the arrival.
Along with Captain Kent Sabin, I was guiding a group of fishermen from Dallas and Austin that spring on what turned out to be one of, if not the windiest day of the entire season. From the word go, we were experiencing a 20mph wind from the south; which then turned around on us with a 30mph wind out of the north! The wind was making every bit of fishable water available to us muddy and we were left wondering exactly what we were going to do.
We just started heading out - and myself and the good captain were hearing from other guides that we ought to just cancel the trip! Well, we weren't about to cancel the trip and send all these fishermen back home without having ever been on the water, so we decided to just get out there and see what we could catch.
A wide cove on the south shoreline with a waist deep western bank was full of bait that was situated over thick grass. Pelicans slammed the water with high dive assaults. Within casting distance of the baitfish school, we lined up and affixed our wading boots in firm mud. Despite a falling tide and decreasing clarity, I was confident fish would move in. Brown Lures makes a glow and chartreuse soft plastic lure that worked well to produce the initial strikes by matching the glass minnows' darting features. Dark strawberry and white succeeded in drawing undersized fish. A cruising redfish soon felt the hooks from a miniature chrome topwater. The bite remained slow, as I have seen it so many times before, until minimal sunlight remained. The real numbers of fish filed in.
With the bait tightly packed down from what once occupied the space of a swimming pool, the surface became like popcorn with minnows flipping and bouncing while pursued by trout jolting clear out of the water. Piranha-like predators furiously attacked the glass minnows like machines as the surface of the water began to boil.
Usually, you'd reel in quickly keeping the lure over the surface of the water to get trout interested - but this cove was so full of them that we did better with a slow reel. To give you an idea of how well this trip went, we all caught our limits of redfish!
If spring 2009 awaits your casts, find bait and fish late. The bite often just begins at nightfall.
Like the surf in summer, or migration of shrimp in fall, a highlight of springtime is the annual arrival of the almighty glass minnows. Silver and flashy, the darting prey arrive by the thousands to shallow flats. Gulls and pelicans welcome the visit with open mouths and can feed for weeks on the buffet. Speckled trout and redfish will hang near and strike the bait in an all-at-once attack. To better your chances of capitalizing on such a frenzy, be patient and wait out the arrival.
Along with Captain Kent Sabin, I was guiding a group of fishermen from Dallas and Austin that spring on what turned out to be one of, if not the windiest day of the entire season. From the word go, we were experiencing a 20mph wind from the south; which then turned around on us with a 30mph wind out of the north! The wind was making every bit of fishable water available to us muddy and we were left wondering exactly what we were going to do.
We just started heading out - and myself and the good captain were hearing from other guides that we ought to just cancel the trip! Well, we weren't about to cancel the trip and send all these fishermen back home without having ever been on the water, so we decided to just get out there and see what we could catch.
A wide cove on the south shoreline with a waist deep western bank was full of bait that was situated over thick grass. Pelicans slammed the water with high dive assaults. Within casting distance of the baitfish school, we lined up and affixed our wading boots in firm mud. Despite a falling tide and decreasing clarity, I was confident fish would move in. Brown Lures makes a glow and chartreuse soft plastic lure that worked well to produce the initial strikes by matching the glass minnows' darting features. Dark strawberry and white succeeded in drawing undersized fish. A cruising redfish soon felt the hooks from a miniature chrome topwater. The bite remained slow, as I have seen it so many times before, until minimal sunlight remained. The real numbers of fish filed in.
With the bait tightly packed down from what once occupied the space of a swimming pool, the surface became like popcorn with minnows flipping and bouncing while pursued by trout jolting clear out of the water. Piranha-like predators furiously attacked the glass minnows like machines as the surface of the water began to boil.
Usually, you'd reel in quickly keeping the lure over the surface of the water to get trout interested - but this cove was so full of them that we did better with a slow reel. To give you an idea of how well this trip went, we all caught our limits of redfish!
If spring 2009 awaits your casts, find bait and fish late. The bite often just begins at nightfall.
About the Author:
Captain Kyle Tomek is a professional fishing guide who specializes in wadefishing for big speckled trout and redfish in Texas, and uses Brown Lures' saltwater lures. Kyle suggests you try out a fishing lure from Brown Lures for your next fishing trip.
Posted byBertie at 9:56 AM
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