Getting Back To Basic
I hope everyone is enjoying some good days on the water. Fishing in the Rockport area continues to show signs of recovery in our trout population. This does not mean that we don’t have tough days; fishing is still fishing, and there are times when I just don’t put my people in the right place. Still, I can honestly say that there are more trout in more areas this season than any time since the freeze of February 2021.
I have continued to fish in the southern portions of the Aransas Bay complex most days although I do frequent the Corpus Christi Bay area on occasion as well as the Boat Hole and Deadman areas when winds allow for easy navigation across Corpus Christi Bay. I have a handful of clients that I run down that way this time of year, looking for better size trout.
I like the large grass flats with varied water depths, crash channels and broken sand and potholes. During the latter weeks of July and early August I will start looking at the mid-bay reefs in northern Aransas, Copano, Mesquite and San Antonio bays. Light morning winds and rising water temperatures will create some great opportunities for anglers around our mid-bay reef structures. It’s hot and summer crowds are here, so a good daily game plan is a must-have in our bag of fishing tricks.
Lure wise, I go very basic in the summer months when water temperatures rise above 82°. MirrOlure Lil Johns and Lil John XLs, 5” Provokers, and Texas Customs Double Ds are seeing nearly all the water time. My newest soft plastic is the 4.3-inch Party Paddle from 6th Sense Fishing. I know, I’ve said it enough times over the years, I’m not a paddletail guy but this bait allows me to fish over heavy grass without getting fouled. The design allows for a slow retrieval rate that has proven deadly on both trout and reds. I started testing this lure in August last year and have become a fan for the situation and reason stated above. Simply put; we are never too old to become proficient with new technology that is coming to the market these days.
For the record I will always be a soft jerkbait enthusiast, and this style of lure has been my go-to many years and remains so to the present. However, I am learning to be more open to change when it is warranted. Stand still and you’ll get run over!
So basic, as I describe my summertime lure selection, covers a lot of things that many anglers might not consider to be basic. I must constantly remind myself that what is basic to me might not be to others. I try to simplify the day, knowing that rising air and water temperatures throughout the day will create challenges for us. I first try to stay in areas where I have both shallow and deeper structures that are the same or at least similar.
Take grass beds for instance; I want grass that lies in both shallow and deep water. I search unceasingly for areas that consistently hold a reliable food source. I monitor the tidal movement periods more in the summer months than in any other season. I know areas where wind creates water movement, and I monitor these areas for bait presence daily.
I look at areas where all the elements I prefer to see are present…and boats are not. Seldom will such areas appear on maps or charts available to the general public. I had a client tell me one time that he recommended a group to me, and when he asked how they did, they said, “Great! And we never fished even one of the good areas marked on any of the maps we had.”
I am a huge fan of working areas where boat traffic will aid versus hinder us in catching fish. This past week I had an area on the windward portion of a large grass flat near a channel that led to the gulf. The incoming tide had positioned both trout and reds on a line where the water began to move. Gulls were working the line of the color change, helping to keep us in position. Boat traffic was being influenced by where I had my group positioned and were running the windward spoil where we knew fish were trying to stage. Every time a boat ran along the windward spoil we got strikes within a few minutes. We had four-man limits of reds to 27-inches and released a few trout from 22 to 23 inches over an hour and a half period.
We will never be able to escape boat traffic; those days have long since passed. I am working on understanding and accepting that this is the new normal. Fish are going to be influenced by the pressure but at the end of the day they are going to still be fish and will need to eat to survive. We must be prepared to place ourselves in the right place coupled with the proper frame of mind.
I have a simple approach. Stand right here and don’t move; if you feel the need to move, move laterally instead of moving forward. Put your favorite soft plastic on and get to work. If that lure doesn’t work, I will give you one that will. I instructed the group to TRY and imagine how the fish are positioned and moving. “At what angle do you believe you need to cast to allow your lure to come out in front of as many targets as possible?”
Piggy Perch are bad right now over the heavy grass and a chartreuse tail gets bitten off almost immediately with most any brand of soft plastic, so I am not a fan of the chartreuse tail. I do, however, like a totally chartreuse lure, or even a clear pink bait. These two colors, although extremely bright, create drawing power and this works. I have dipped the Opening Night Bass Assassins, Provokers, and Lil Johns for years in Spike-It to make these colors.
I once believed that basic was boring, but I had to be reminded a few weeks ago that there is nothing boring about being able to consistently put your clients in a position to catch them. I leave the dock earlier this time of year, but I still like to allow the other fishermen to get out there and get where they want to be, and then I know what I’ve got to work with. Leaving in the dark is not my thing at age 68, and honestly it doesn’t stop anyone from pulling up on you and fishing too close. I just let everyone get set up and then I go to work.
I mention most days to the person sitting next to me at the helm when I see a boat that isn’t set up in the right position so that we will return to that spot later in the day and catch them. Later, when I pull up to that area I say to that guy, “Remember my comment this morning?” Then, we get out and catch them. The length of a good cast can be all it takes to be in the proper position to catch them. If not in the proper position, you’ll never know they were ever there. To me this is basic stuff but maybe not to many; I don’t know.
Good trout can be caught throughout the day, not just in the grey hours of early morning or late afternoon. You catch them when you find them if you know how to adjust to the time of day. Adjustment is a broad statement, though. It involves a lot of variables. I might lengthen my leader, slow down or speed up my presentation, allow my lure to sink deeper, dead-stick the bait and just let it sit there on the bottom, downsize my lure or switch to a suspending or slow-sinking bait. My adjustments are gut felt and born on the fly, which makes them hard to explain.
I have always prided myself on being able to catch fish in tough conditions. However, tough conditions do not always include high winds or stormy conditions. To me, hot and calm are the toughest conditions anglers can encounter, whether in salt or fresh. Heading to the dock at 10:00 or 11:00 won’t allow you to work on this portion of your game if it needs work. Now, maybe by 2:00 pm we ought to start rethinking our toughness as we age. I have clients that don’t fish with me anymore because I don’t want to go in on days when I have not produced what I expected to produce for them that day. It’s funny that all of them know that I am going to say, “I have one more stop we need to make,” before calling it a day.
Jay Ray has a former client of mine that he fishes and he is a great guy, but when he wants to go in he truly wants to go in. A few years back in Port Mansfield my group came in a day earlier than Jay Ray’s, so as a result I finished up a day earlier. On Jay Ray’s third day I asked if I could join the group and they agreed. However, his client reminded me that I was not the guide and that we would be coming in when he wanted to, not me. Of course, he said all of this in a jesting manner, but the truth was he was dead serious and when that time came the next day, we went in. We had a great morning in less than favorable conditions, so everyone was OK with an early dock time.
So, maybe simple is not truly simple. What is simple to me in the forty-eighth year of my career is probably not really a good example, but it is all I have. I find myself feeling like younger anglers are disappointed when they come and fish and see the basic manner in which I do things. I almost want more for them to know that they might perceive that there is some real secretive something that I do. I try to explain that what I do, I do well; and therein lies the difference.
The topwater thing blows their minds. I just don’t prefer to throw topwaters as much as soft plastics or suspending types of lures. This does not mean that I do not throw them or don’t believe they work. I see fishermen overthinking the whole thing at times, allowing themselves to become confused due to having too much information. You might call it paralysis by analysis.
It honestly bugs the crap out me to listen to folks that I know to be uninformed and lacking in experience regurgitating information they heard or read somewhere and accepted as gospel. That’s harsh, but it is accurate. We can certainly gain knowledge from what we read and from what we are told, it’s how we educate ourselves. But until we can apply that knowledge in the proper situations, it really doesn’t have much value to us. Here’s a perfect example: “You can tell me how to dig a ditch but until I dig one, I don’t know much about digging a ditch.”
It’s really hot on the water so you need to be careful and make certain that you protect yourself from the elements and stay hydrated. I am going to take some time off in August and head to the mountains for some fly fishing. Maybe my September article will be about a different kind of trout.
May Your Fishing Always Be Catching. -Guide Jay Watkins