Fish Catching Travel
After a week of the little things getting in the road of a full day of fishing, today was no different. The dog had to be somewhere at 5 pm, really? The dog? That is how my week has gone, to many things scheduled poorly is to blame. But I did manage to hit Coleto today, and it went ok, if I had not had to quit.
The water temp at the ramp was in the 62 degree range, so I stopped at the main point that splits the arms and immediately put one in the boat on the Swim Jig. With almost no wind, and still really cool when I started at 10, it seemed the best choice. From then on I moved up lake stopping here and there, and catching one here and there.
This was as good as I could do, until later.
The water temperature kept climbing to a high of 69 in a place near the outflow, and 63 way up the lake. Even with a 36 degree night the water temp up lake was back up 7 or 8 degrees from a week ago.
Throughout the day I also tossed spinnerbait, crankbait, and topwater. They produced exactly nothing. So I slowed down and hit one big grass flat and caught 4 tossing the Swim Jig into holes in the grass and shaking it a little. There were definitely small fish on the flats. As I moved up lake it was about 2 when they started to bite. The sun was shining and the wind was barely blowing and the fish bit as it warmed.
The fish are still around grass, which is nothing new, and it was just swimming the jig in and around clumps of grass. I caught a couple and then screwed up and broke one off. It was definitely a good fish. Then I had this one tighten up and swim with it.
Another Coleto Big Girl.
Of the dozen or so I caught, only a couple of them smacked that jig. It is still a matter of watching your line and feeling it swim along. When ever something changes, set the hook, it is probably a fish. The one above just tight lined it, and then jumped a couple of times for good measure. There is no better time than now to catch a really big fish.
There were lots of beds visible here and there, though I did not see any Tilapia today. With the warm days coming the fishing should really improve. Saturday looks awesome. Looking back at some of the best days I have had on the lake it was a soft steady drizzle/rain, with a warm day, that have by far been the best. And the bait of choice was the minnow bait. The fish are shallow, and will be moving there en-mass, so if you ever wanted to catch a nice bass this week coming up should be fantastic.
Not really sure what is next, the weather will definitely dictate whether it is the Gulf or not. The water on the bay should be really warming as these nice days go on. The afternoon bite, depending on the tide, could be really good. And Falcon is still calling me, even though according to what I have read the fishing has been tough. That is ok down there, it seems if you can just figure them out a little you can put a big fish in the boat. One more thing coming is Tilapia bow hunting. They are just beginning to be out and about, and the next real warm stretch should have them all over the banks.
So no matter what you do this weekend, be careful, lots of folks on the water. Hope you catch a bunch and thanks for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
