Fish Catching Travel
It was overcast with light winds when I launched the boat at Coleto Creek. There was a possibility of light rain in the afternoon, which it never did. It was actually a fairly warm day considering, and I was anticipating a good topwater bite. That good bite never materialized, sort of.
The first stop was a cove where last trip I took 6 out of it and missed several more. The first fish hit just inside of the point leading into it, and I never had another bite until getting to the inside of the other point coming out. I was still twitching that balsa minnow on top, so I figured maybe they just were not in there as well as last time.
So next it was a cove farther up lake where I had even better luck last time, and that went even worse, not a bite. At this point my brain began to analyze what was wrong. First I moved up lake to cove 2. Second, the two fish I caught were right on the points leading in. Why? We had some really cold weather the 2 days before, and it cooled those places off. Duh.
So I headed back down lake to those deeper banks by the dam and ramp and things started to look up. The fish had definitely pulled out of the coves and on to the points and main lake banks leading into the coves. The good thing was they still wanted it twitched right along the tops fairly quickly, short jerks and twitches.
Around 3 or 4 came over the side like this one.
From about 10 until I quit at 4 it was fairly consistent. Generally when you would catch one you would catch another. Like it always is with that topwater this time of year, some would hit it on top, others would grab it when it went under. Polaroids are a must. It is amazing how many fish you would see flash it. When that happens close to the boat jerk it under and keep jerking erratically, they will often hit it. And I did have one pretty good fish, maybe 6, under it that did not commit.
This was a good average for the day.
I did give the Strike King Swim Jig a try, but had not takers. I still believe if you like to fish a white assassin you can catch fish right now. It is a shad bite, and like I have said before, if you are seeing shad dimpling, there are some fish close. Remember when you use that topwater that is what the fish like, that little splash and plop you can make that sounds like a shad flipping.
There were also some Tilapia shallow around grass downlake, always a sign spring is right around the corner. So I kept after it, concentrating on points and deeper banks with little cover on them. I am just not finding the big bunches in the grass.
So for the day it ended up better than I thought, I caught 22. Half were like the ones above, the rest small, and some were really small. That is to be expected right now as Coleto is in pre-pre-spawn. We need some warm weather to really get them moving. That looks like it is not going to be coming any time soon. Saturday will be nice but then we have another cold front coming next week, to go along with tonite’s below freezing weather. It won’t be long.
If you do fish Coleto be advised that the ramp is going to be closed for 3 or 4 days. I think it will be sometime around the middle of the month. If I get back out there I will get the exact dates, sorry I forgot. So if you are headed that way you might give them a call to be sure of when that is so you don’t drive out there and not be able to get in the water. When I get there next time I will stop and ask exactly what they are doing. I can tell you one thing, if we do not get some rain, and they do not extend and deepen the ramp, none of us are going to be fishing Coleto soon.
Tomorrow it is off to the Gulf. I have not made up my mind where I am going, but I am going. It is supposed to be sunny with light winds, so I figure if I let it warm some before I hit the road I just might be able to catch some trout. So with 2013 behind me, it is time to get serious. Looking back on last January and February I had some really good redfish days, so hopefully I will put some in the boat. So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
