Hooked Up: March 2023

“Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn.”  -Lewis Grizzard

Hope this article finds y’all ready for this crazy ex-wife of a month we call March. This old girl will have it all; including both fists up. But if you can take it, it’s about the best time to catch the heaviest of heavy trout. 

Fighting wind is just part of the price we must pay to reach the end goal of catching a monster trout. March is the month they are most likely maxed out in weight. Bellies full of mullet, roe sacks packed with a million baby trout, and still winter-fat is what gets them there. If you land a fish that has all three weight components and measures longer than 28 inches, you could have a much sought-after specimen that lots of men and women are spending thousands pursuing.

Grassy, windward shorelines and shallow flats will be my focus during March. As the trout look to start distributing eggs, I intend to be waiting there the day they first make their move towards this pattern. Prolonged warming trends and longer days will be the key, especially toward the end of the month. 

We are just now starting to see some positive signs from the enactment of the three trout bag limit that includes a slot length of 17-23” following the winter storm and fish kill that occurred in Feb 2021. Those regulatory changes are scheduled to sunset in August of 2023. Texas Parks and Wildlife Coastal Fisheries will soon make a proposal for the emergency regulations to be extended further, or revert to the former regulations of 5 trout per day, 15” minimum, one of which may be over 25”.

Like I said above; we are just now seeing signs of the fishery recovering and I fear that reverting to the former regulations in August will be too soon, and quite possibly devastating to the continued recovery of the fishery and quality of the Laguna Madre and Baffin fisheries that I call home. 

Coastal Fisheries has done a tremendous job on so many levels, but managing the bays for numbers versus quality has been their weakest spot, in my opinion. Folks buying $100,000 dollar boats, tackle, etc., that helps support TPWD-CF, are not spending that money to participate in a fishery full of barely-legal trout, or soaking bait on bottom to catch the most prevalent fish in the bay – black drum.

The speckled trout is the money fish that drives every fishery from Sabine to the Brownsville Ship Channel. It deserves to be coddled and protected in the same manner as Inland Fisheries manages largemouth bass with their Share A Lunker program, wherein trophy bass of 13-plus pounds are maintained alive and donated to the program in effort that their superior genetics can be passed along through the Inland Fisheries hatchery and stocking programs. So, my question is why is that same emphasis not placed on trophy speckled trout for a similar economic impact and benefit for the state? 

Speaking with field technicians in my home waters, I am told they are not seeing any significant increase yet in the trout population, which is a quiet concern that they harbor.   We have got to be smart about this and put the trout fishery above politics and peer pressure from the groups that think it is somehow a God-given right to kill every trout they can stick a hook in. It’s just not sustainable in my view, especially if you ever want to see the days of a  fishery that can produce trout of 7- to 10-pounds on any given day.  

Louisiana is in really bad shape right now with their trout stocks 57% below historic mean levels. State politicians have caved to lobbyists and are making no changes per the suggestion of LDWF, who want to reduce bag limits and increase minimum length regulations immediately. Very scary stuff in this article that makes me proud to be a transplanted Texan via Louisiana.

https://lailluminator.com/2023/02/03/speckled-trout-population-falls-to-lowest-level-ever-in-louisiana

Folks, please take the time right now, get on the computer and leave comments with Texas Parks and Wildlife - Coastal Fisheries. Let them know what you see on the water and that we cannot afford to revert back to the old trout regulations at this time. Believe me, I’m down for it when the fishery can support it, but now is not that time. We need the post-freeze regulations to remain until the fishery makes greater gains in recovery. Let your voice be heard!

Remember the buffalo! -Capt David Rowsey