Hooked Up: March 2026

“The March wind roars like a lion in the sky and makes us shiver as he passes by.” I can’t seem to find who to credit for that pearl of wisdom, but whoever it was must have been a big trout fisherman from Baffin Bay. For me—I love it and I cuss it—but I know fish eat better in it.

For our local bays, wind is like the heartbeat. Just like your heart pumps blood through your body, the wind is doing the same in our bays that do not have the luxury of Gulf currents pushing through nearby passes and jetties.

Being 45 miles from the nearest Gulf pass, wind is the sole source of water movement in our local bay systems, and these currents are essential in keeping the water oxygenated. More important—to fishermen anyway—wind stacks bait on predictable structures, adds color to our otherwise gin-clear water (making fish much easier to catch), greatly assists the distribution of spawned roe, and does a whole host of other things (like helping anglers make incredibly long casts).

As a general rule, a no-wind day on Baffin will translate to a very slow bite. If I had a dollar for every charter I’ve had in slick-calm conditions at sunrise where the client proclaims it a beautiful day to be going fishing…well, I’d just smile and think, if you only knew how brutally slow a no-wind bite can be. Spend enough time down here and you will know exactly what I’m saying. Lucky for us, that’s a rare issue in March.

Another question I hear often from clients, especially first-timers, is, “What’s the best month to have the best chance at a legit giant trout?” Honestly, I would say all the cooler months, right on into May, but my journals clearly point to March as that special thirty-day period for the heaviest of heavy trout, with April being a close second.

At this time, trout have been gorging all winter long. In addition to being what we call “winter fat,” they are also heavily laden with eggs/roe as their first spawn of the year approaches. If you have the desire and fortitude to spend days on Baffin during March, the very real opportunity of catching a mega trout is not only a possibility—there is actually a dang good chance of it.

I have so many stories of fish caught, missed explosions on topwaters that moved epic amounts of water while wading knee-deep, giants that have pulled loose at my fingertips, heartbreaks that turned into redfish when I thought it was a giant trout the whole fight, boating mishaps fighting my way back to the house in pumping wind, and so many other scenarios, both good and bad. March has been responsible for more of them than probably any other month. If you want to hear stories, get in the boat with me. I could fill this wonderful magazine cover to cover, issue after issue.

As mentioned earlier, trout are gearing up for their first spawn, and that is going to push them into the grassy shallows this month. Outside of late cold fronts that drop water temperatures dramatically, this is where I will be in pursuit of the biggest ones before they drop their eggs.

Spawning trout can be compared to a pregnant woman—and as lovely as they are, there may be a little attitude displayed on their part. The upside is that you have numbers on your side, and an opportunity missed on one trout can be made up for very quickly with just another cast ten yards beyond. That windy, choppy March water gives you many more opportunities than all the days of pure ice-cream conditions of summer put together that everyone seems to love.

The Laguna and Baffin are chock-full of green, flowing grass this year. Honestly, not much of anything looks different from what is 100 yards down the shoreline. Even for me, that makes things a little tricky, as I love to fish the unusual versus the status quo. The most obvious and effective way to defeat the monotony of everything being the same is to find the food supply. Big, pregnant trout also have their cravings and are never far from the pickle jar. Find the mullet and you will be on your way.

Remember the Buffalo,
 —Capt. David Rowsey