Let what you already know lead you to something new

With very little rainfall the past month it seems even hotter on the water than ever before. Our one chance in late-June for some tropical moisture ended up sliding toward Houston and Lake Charles, missing us completely. That area also needed rain but we sure would have liked to share in the amounts they received. The tropics are currently active so still a long way to go and keeping fingers crossed that we get the rain we need… and not a hurricane.

Tides are low with water temps in the upper-80s as we start each day. By mid-afternoon I’m seeing water temperatures topping 90° along shallow shorelines and grass flats. Reds and black drum are schooling. My trout bite has definitely become an early morning gig. With the extreme heat we are being especially careful in the handling of our trout and most definitely leaving when the dolphins show and begin to eat what we have on the line or releasing. I personally feel the dolphins have become too numerous and that there is an unbalance in the population. This could be a study for Dr. Gregg Stunz and team.

I know that dolphins and sharks are apex predators and play a role in the food chain and balance among all the other species. As a youngster wade fishing, and also as a young guide, I do not remember seeing them nearly as interactive with fishermen. I do know that in the early ‘70s Sea-Arama Marineworld at Galveston came to Rockport and got some of the high school football team to help them net dolphins out of our bays for training and exhibition at their facility. Probably couldn’t do that nowadays. Anyway, just leave when they show up and make them work for their next meal the same as we do.

It is even more critical now for anglers who are serious about catching trout to become aware of how trout relate to the structures in the bay system the angler is fishing. I am becoming more of a believer that we, and I say we to include myself, are going to have to begin spending more time working unfamiliar areas in order to find better fish. Community holes are exactly what the name implies and everyone knows about them. Such areas have proven themselves, but I have always believed there are many more areas out there that offer the same fish-catching opportunities that we don’t know about because we don’t look for them. These areas hold the proper bottom structure, water depths, and an ample supply of food much of the time.

Due to fishing pressure, heavily fished areas continually have to replenish or reload due to the numbers of fish constantly being taken. I know there are smaller areas that have all the right stuff to hold good numbers of quality fish that we just haven’t discovered yet. I got lazy in my early years of guiding and just went to the same areas day in and day out, where I knew I could catch them. I wasted some good years when I had more energy and stamina, and certainly better eyes. I am not too old to learn and honestly my skill level and mindset are more of an advantage to me than declining physical ability is a detriment. I can analyze an area faster and more efficiently today than ever before.

What it takes to be able to learn new areas is really simple. We have to dedicate time to areas that hold similar characteristics to those that have already proven to be productive. By time I mean lots of time, like the entire weekend that you have planned in your favorite bay system or a season working way more unproven areas versus the time in already established ones. I typically start in an area I feel we can get the day started off with bites and some nice fish caught. Once that has been accomplished I feel better about searching new water with my guys. More times than not I tell my clients exactly what I am doing, hoping to challenge them to step up their game up for me. This works about 50-percent of the time, which is really pretty good. I say this over and over but I really feel as though I have one of the best wade-fishing clienteles in the business, which certainly helps my daily totals.

This week was a perfect example of how elevated attention levels and good skills saved the day. Before I go farther I want all to know that skill level does not always equate to success. One day last week I had four really good anglers and all the proper pieces in place for a successful day, and still we struggled. Jay Ray crushed them three miles to the north under the same conditions we had. Better skills? Let’s just say “younger” skills.

On a day when we caught fish, I had been watching boats running from point to point along a shoreline but not running tight to the shoreline between the points. Bait was stacked along the shoreline for miles it seemed, but in this particular area there was also a handful of brown pelicans cruising and occasionally diving. No slicking, bait fish were not especially active but definitely stacked, and moving into a slow but steadily falling tide. Wind was SE and bottom grass was bending to the south with the falling tide. Situations like this tend to make me believe that fish are present and just waiting for the magic hour. I also believe that given an easy opportunity to eat they will. I think this can be especially true of larger trout in the summer months.

The bites were on bottom throughout the wade, close or on top of grass beds, and very light. I call them “takes” as opposed to solid strikes. As the day warmed and began to drive fish deeper and tighter to bottom structure, the takes came in flurries as trout began to congregate around the scattered structure under the massive pods of bait fish. Several times the mullet would explode as larger trout would take the lure that was just beneath them. The reaction to the trout taking the lure was many times prior to me actually feeling the take. I absolutely love this scenario and will never grow tired of seeing it. This one act might be the one thing that continues to drive me each and every day no matter what species of fish I might be chasing.

For two hours we eased along, constantly tweaking our position with the bait, tides, and wind, to make sure we were positioned properly for each upcoming area of bottom structure and bait concentration. The ability to stay in the proper positions for the locations of your upcoming bottom structure are a must, as is the ability to accurately make continual casts to those areas. These two aspects of wade fishing are the two I see many needing the most help with.

New areas often leave some anglers feeling less than confident. Remember that if all the fish-holding ingredients are present there is a great chance that fish are present. Confidence in knowing what you are seeing and sensing in a new area is really all you need. Granted, we need to give the area time to develop once we start working it, and we should definitely focus our efforts in these areas during optimal periods of water movement whenever possible.

The need for an open mindset is absolutely upon us with the fishing pressure that we see on our local bays and backwaters today. Venture out on your next trip and let what you already know lead you to something new. If it looks good, it probably is, and you might just find something that very few are aware of.

May Your Fishing Always Be Catching – Guide Jay Watkins