Fish Catching Travel
Can you say deju vu all over again? The weather could not have been any more like 2 weeks ago, even if it tried. Crazy stuff we are having around South Texas right now.
Todd and Ken drove down to fish the Lavaca River for the day and I met them at the ramp about 8 in the morning. It was warm, in fact so warm that the mosquitoes were out and you did not even need a jacket. It was cloudy without a breath of wind. Now you would think that the fishing might be pretty good with the front around the corner, but that did not turn out to be the case.
We started on the right side of the river, and after fishing a long stretch and putting 1 in the boat, we decided to cross to the other side and fish the pipe area. Right before we moved I did lose a real good trout on a topwater, my fault, and that was the last bite on topwater. Once we started fishing on the shallow sandy side we did get lots of hits, but they just were not committing. Though we caught 5 or 6 there, they were small. We were getting the same amount of bites on plastics, popping cork, and Corkies, they just did not amount to much.
Around 11 we only had 2 keepers in the boat when Ken said look at that. We turned around and here it came down the river. You could hear and see it as the wind went from 0 to 20 mph and the temperature dropped 20 degress in about 1 minute. It was crazy and in all my years fishing I have only seen a couple of fronts that quick and intense. Wow.
At that point everyone was headed to the ramp, calling it a day. We on the other hand headed back so Todd could get his rainsuit and a little more clothes. The wind was really blowing so we slid into the Navidad, hoping to put a few more in the boat.
At least in the river the wind as livable, but the fishing never did get going. We would catch one here or there, but never did hit that one good bunch. Our biggest trout came on a Mirro-Dine, and in fact I caught 4 or 5 on it. That is a shallow running, slow sinking, twitch bait that I have fished a little. Last time my friend Clyde was here on the Lavaca he caught some on it, so I decided to give it a try.
Todd’s first fish on the Mirro-Dine. It was a $7 fish, as he lost the bait about 5 minutes later.
It sinks slowly, but has great flash and wobble when twitched. If you give it a try, and you should as it is a cool bait, keep in mind to not over work it. Short twitches, then stopping, then twitch. Use it erratically and keep you line as tight as you can. It sinks slower than a Corky, but it is the same principle. In fact, not only did it put a couple of keeper trout in the box, it also accounted for the only redfish we boxed.
Once the front was there they just were not aggressive, and for the day we had 5 keeper trout and one red. We did call it a little early as Todd and Ken were headed to POC to meet a bunch, 13 I think, of guys for a weekend of fishing. I can not wait to hear how they did this weekend. I feel their pain, nothing like scheduling a fishing trip and then having the weather go to crap. For me it has been Florida, Falcon, North Dakota, Amistad, POC, and lots of places in between. It becomes a matter of sucking it up, going home, or drinking, though for me it is always sucking it up. Sometimes you have to play the hand you are dealt, our fishing time is precious so you do what you can.
So what is next for our fishing? I have no guess, sort of. According to the weather fool, oops I meant man, we are looking at high 40’s to low 50’s with some rain all week. That is going to really lower all our water temperatures be it lake or bay. That is not always a bad thing. It tends to bunch the trout on bay areas with a mixture of mud and shell, and if you find them, you really find them. On the lake it also has the same effect on the bass, bunching them up on deeper channel banks and points as they stage for pre-spawn. That also gives you a chance to find them and have them hold for a while.
So as I sit here watching football, and waiting for Monday so I can do some fishing, all is not lost. In fact winter brings some of the best fishing of the year for those of us who brave the cold. The fish get bunched, you can find a parking spot at Froggies on the weekend, and you rarely find anyone fishing where you want to.
Keep stopping in, lets see if I can translate the thoughts above into fish in the boat. One thing I want to do is see if I can emulate a couple of guys I read about in South Carolina that catch lots of trout, and I mean 8 – 10lbs, the kind that most of us dream about. Their pattern is simple, toss a Corky out and let it sink to the bottom and then bounce it back. They do it in the dead of winter where? The intercoastal. They have found over the years when they have the kind of winter we are having right now those big fish live on that drop, and I mean water 10 foot deep. Makes a lot of sense, and our barge canal can be a great place to get out of the wind.
I wish the last couple of reports had been better, but it is what it is. Of course that is not going to keep me in the house, weather or not. Monday I will be out there trying to keep those necessary things in mind that can make winter fishing so awesome, and not repeat those things that don’t work. Thanks for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
