Discovering How Trout Relate to Wintertime Structure

As I am sitting here putting this month’s article together the air temperature outside is 52° and the water temperatures in our local bays are holding around 58°. A much colder frontal system is forecast to arrive over the next few days that looks to be bringing the first freezing temperatures of the season to the middle and lower Texas coast. At this time it looks like the freezing temperatures will be restricted to only a few hours during the overnight hours so I am not overly concerned at this point. I love winter fishing and all that it brings except for the potential of below freezing temperatures. With fish stocks still on the rebound from the February 2021 freeze I pray we can get a break from prolonged sub-freezing temperatures this go-round.

Winter fishing continues to improve as water temperatures remain cold, concentrating both bait fish and game fish in common areas. I know anglers grow tired of hearing everyone talk about how critical it is for them to locate the food source but it goes without saying that locating wintertime fish is all about first locating their food source. I believe that trout and redfish alike seldom move very far from the food source that sustains them. For trout it is definitely mullet during the winter months. Yes, they will eat pinfish and any other small bait that might be available but mullet make up the majority of their diet.

Any visual signs of bait fish presence must be investigated. Ospreys are a favorite of mine on days when bait fish are not showing themselves. Brown Pelicans are great locaters as well but the osprey will not only show us bait fish but if you watch and listen to them as they search they will show you fish that are too large for them to tackle. These can be fish you are trying to catch. I have a good understanding of how they react to schools of large fish as well as individual fish that are seen as too large to catch and then pull from the water. I will just say that it is very important to watch the osprey’s head and body language as they work the area. Where there are ospreys there is food for all.

I prefer concentrating on individual pieces of structure whether it be clumps of scattered shell, grass beds, or small potholes. Submerged tips of points jutting from shorelines that include various types of scattered bottom structure are also some of my favorites. I am not looking for big numbers of trout but focusing on areas where a few fish will stage. With this approach I feel that larger fish are more likely to be encountered. What I love about my winter clientele is that they understand this and are perfectly happy with leaving great fish to search for truly great fish. Acquiring such a clientele has taken an entire career and has not been an easy task.

There are many that think they want to try and fish for just a handful of bites but reality sets in after about three hours into the day when bites have not been encountered. I would be the first to admit that I can sense this frustration and many times suggest a wade where bites can be received, just to get their head game right. In the winter some of those days result in multiple bites from trout in the two to three-pound range and that is usually enough to get everyone back on track.

I have zero problem not getting big fish bites because I am typically fishing every weekday that the weather allows during the winter months. For my single-day groups this is a harder path to take. I prefer to target trout that are set up in large areas of sand or sand-mud mix that has scattered grass beds of various sizes. With this type of structure trout will scatter and setup individually on their own small underwater island of grass. Find those small grass beds that are being watched by multiple fish and your odds of enticing one to eat are double.

The mere mindset that predators possess can often lead to strikes from fish that are normally very hard to trick. The competition for food is what drives them in this scenario. How many times have you reeled a good trout up to you, only to discover a larger trout in tow? If you have not seen this you are not paying attention!

Every winter I have at least one episode of a larger trout trying to eat a trout I have hooked, and the numbers of times I’ve seen trout following ones that I’ve hooked is too many to recall. I will say this, I am always looking and know the telltale signs that causes me to be aware that these occurrences are fixing to occur. Anytime a hooked trout pauses mid-fight on the surface – look out!

I have noticed on the Texas Custom Double D that I catch multiple fish quiet often. I see this on Custom Corkys as well but more frequently on the Double D. Red hooks maybe? For the record, I don’t want two large trout on the same bait at one time. They can never seem to make up their minds which way they want to run and end up trying to go in opposite directions, which usually ends poorly for me.

We see this type of aggression many times in areas where fish are staged on individual pieces of structure. My thinking is that once a fish is hooked, that fish comes in contact with other fish on separate pieces of similar structure. Instinct takes the upper hand and they cannot help but become engaged themselves, which can sometimes lead to a frenzy of aggression. This is a good thing. Many times I have seen a seemingly dead flat suddenly turn on in the wake of a few good fish being hooked. If there is ever a reason for shutting down your wade when bites are received, this is one. Many of my best days on trophy-class trout have come when working these types of areas.

My second favorite type of winter bottom structure has to be scattered shell clumps. In the Rockport area much of our scattered shell clumps also have some type of grass or vegetation attached to them. This is doubly effective when it comes to holding fish. A few days back I had a day where scattered bait and a moonset minor allowed us to enjoy a tremendous bite. All the fish came on the Texas Customs Double D or the MirrOlure Lil John XL in red/gold glitter on a 1/16 ounce Texas Custom’s jig head. I don’t like a chartreuse tail if I can find the color I like without it. But if I feel I need chartreuse to attract a fish to the lure I don’t want it on the tail end. If indeed chartreuse is attracting the strike put it up near the brain center. Yes, they know where that is!

I saw another example of the singular structure pattern today. Weather was iffy at best but my guys were game so we headed out around 10:00am. Cold and wet were the conditions with 56° water temperatures. With a NW wind at 15mph I set up a wade along a windward ICW spoil bank, concentrating on small satellite potholes that make up around larger areas of more open sand and grass. We see this pattern a lot along the middle and lower Texas coast. I believe the larger trout seek out the smaller potholes, taking ownership of that piece of real-estate. By making long casts past these small potholes and then reeling quickly above the grass to the pothole’s edge, we were able to then dead-stick a Custom Corky Floater over the small pothole. If there was a trout or redfish in the pothole we got thumped immediately. Very nice 3- to 4.5-pound fish were caught during the early-to-mid afternoon.

The fish did not seem to be in the larger potholes at all, and it is super important to be able to detect these types of very small but important details. I sometimes get really frustrated when I see anglers not paying attention to the small details on days when the small details are the keys to their success. After forty-two years one would think that I would be able to let it go but I can’t. No matter how much experience I have and no matter what the conditions for the day might be, I am still judged on the numbers of times the rod bends. If you think that is not the truth your wrong. You cannot learn and improve if you are not getting bites!

Another type of singular structure that we see are floating grass mats. The seagrass appears to be dead but it is not and due to the density of the mat, numerous kinds of small bait fish and crustaceans reside within the mat itself. Wind rolls the mat along the flats during periods of extremely windy conditions. They are literally moving reefs of grass. I absolutely love working them and have had great success from Rockport to Port Isabel working this pattern. The windward sides and windward points are responsible for most of the fish I catch around this type of structure.

No matter what the bay system, all have some areas with some singular types of bottom structure. From Port O’Connor south to Brownsville, waters are clear most of the time and this is especially true during the winter months when colder water temperatures cause the algae and plankton to fall out of the water column. Grass and shell are the most common types by far. Submerged grass beds and potholes are the easiest to see but shell is better found with one’s feet or some type of device to punch the bottom. An old Shakespeare Ugly Stick was a great one for me in my early years. Heck you could punch the bottom and fish with the same stick!

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Freeze Update: I waited to submit this article until after the December 22-25, 2022 freeze. Still too early to see the full impact. It looks like we have had some losses but they are for now (anyway) isolated in nature. We saw water temperatures drop to 39° in some areas, which is dangerously low. At this point it does not appear that the losses are nearly what they were in February 2021. Truth be told we cannot afford to lose any and for certain we did not have as many to lose to start with. This is still a wait and see situation but I need to get this article to the boss man.