Extreme Effects

Several types of extremes influence anglers targeting speckled trout. Exaggerated temperatures and wind speeds affect anglers' decisions and strategies significantly, both positively and negatively. Weather factors generate and accentuate the severity of the third and fourth types of extremes, tide strength and level.

Anglers easily perceive some effects of these extremes. For instance, when the mercury in the thermometer dips down close to the freezing mark, most people wisely decide to participate in some other activity, rather than bundling up and trying to force-feed cold-stunned trout. Appropriately, if conditions become harsh enough, Texas Parks and Wildlife will temporarily close the fishery in places known to hold large numbers of stressed specks.

Similarly, when winds whistle loudly enough to rip the hats off our heads, doing something indoors makes more sense than heading out onto open water. Most of us have developed thresholds of wind speed which eliminate our desire to go fishing.

Obviously, some extremes render the activity impossible. But in many other cases, exaggerated environmental conditions do not entirely ruin the chances for catching some trout. To the contrary, some kinds of extremes, like dead-calm winds, hot weather and low tides can make fishing easier and more productive, provided anglers intelligently address the issues they create. Certainly, hot weather brings coastal anglers out in droves, since catching fish in sizzling heat often proves pretty easy.

High air and water temperatures, above about 85 degrees, dictate elements of strategy for those who target trout with artificial lures, ranging from lure selection to presentation, choice of location and concerns related to the presence of prey species. Generally, hot water facilitates the effectiveness of small lures thrown around the edges of shallow structural elements lying close to deeper water and worked at high speeds at or near the surface. Topwaters like Super Spook Juniors draw numerous strikes from actively feeding trout throughout the warm period.

Little floating plugs don't always work better than all other lures, of course. Negative fish in hot water will often strike a soft plastic or spoon more readily. Employing speed as part of the presentation with these lures works best to draw reaction strikes from fish when their body temperatures rise with the red line in the glass.

Conversely, low and slow presentations often provide the only way to urge strikes from bottom-hugging fish in cold water. Naturally, soft plastics presented on or near the bottom at slow speeds work best in Jack Frost's months. Even slow-sinking twitch baits, which produce well during warmer spells in winter, can become obsolete when water temperatures plummet below fifty degrees.

In such situations, the choice of location becomes particularly important. Normally, trout retreat to deeper water when temperatures drop radically. Especially in the first half of the cold season, from about November through the middle of January, trout will ride out cold snaps sitting on the bottom in deep basins and channels. They normally move to the edges of these holes to feed when conditions moderate.

Fishing around shallow structures close to deep basins along shorelines protected from the harsh effects of north winds provides high potential in winter. When fishing for trout in areas like these, astute anglers often narrow their search by looking for signs of bait fish, or prey species. Large trout feed primarily on mullet and smaller trout during the bleak weeks on the calendar, so most trout hunters look for a few jumping mullet when assessing the potential of an area. They know finding even a few can lead them to the trout hunter's mother lode.

If possible, they will throw directly at spots where mullet jump, but will also grind hard, even when they can't throw right at the jumping bait they see. Conversely, finding copious amounts of prey species and targeting them precisely sometimes becomes necessary in extremely hot water.

During the summer, in deeper parts of estuaries like Sabine Lake and Trinity Bay, locating herds of mullet roaming in open water and throwing lures directly in front of the lead edges of the tightly-bunched schools can make for easy catching. Similarly, casting right where shrimp leap out of the water can pay off handsomely. Watching where gulls and terns hover over the waves can aid in this endeavor, when extremely hot water on the shallow flats drives fish to cooler depths out in the middle.

Extremely low tides can also displace fish from shallow areas, sending them to the fringes of flats or into the middle portions of the estuaries. If enough water drains off of giant flats, leaving too little to cover the backs of the trout, the fish will retreat to deeper edges. This can concentrate large numbers of them within reach of anglers familiar with the coordinates of these locations.

Low tides also accentuate the potential for wading in some areas which normally hold water too deep for the strategy. Anglers who best take advantage of this scenario often do so after studying the topography of these places, to learn the subtle structures present in them. Obviously, less water covering reefs, grass beds, rocks and other structures makes seeing them easier. Low tides also make navigating more dangerous for people who don't take the time to learn about the intricacies of the waterways.

Conversely, bull tides of extremely high magnitude make moving around over the water in a boat easier, rendering many of the underlying hazards to navigation obsolete. On the other hand, high tides can exert negative influences on the ability to catch fish. Generally, more water in the bays creates more places for fish to find food, comfort and safety. Locating trout then becomes more challenging.

Some places tend to hold concentrations of fish when tides rise. The shallowest spines of sand bars and reefs become accessible to hungry trout, which often chase their prey into these spaces. The back corners of coves and lakes sometimes fill up with specks in the same situation. Trout often retreat far into the shallows, away from the fringes of expansive flats on super high tides, forcing anglers to search for them over wide expanses, looking for the fish directly or for the signs they create, like slicks, mud-stirs and wakes.

Calm winds will make seeing the wakes easier, since the surface of the water becomes static during lulls in the wind. While slick conditions do make reading signs of activity in the water easier, they also allow anglers to fish any and everywhere they desire. Light wind speeds facilitate ease of mobility, and generally make the physical application aspects of fishing simpler. Normally, small, quiet lures worked slowly and steadily work best when winds whisper or fall entirely silent.

Though dead-calm conditions simplify some aspects of the endeavor, they do not make the outcome more productive necessarily. In bays with little or no tide movement, many organisms in the bays become inactive without some breeze to provide movement to the water. Anglers will suffer the effects of limited casting distance and reduced ability to see into the water when calm conditions create a glare on the still surface surrounding them.

When calm winds coincide with slack tides, predatory fish like trout tend to become difficult to catch, particularly for people targeting them with artificial lures. The best strategy for coping with weak tidal movement involves searching for fish in places which accentuate tidal flow, and using methods which best urge reaction strikes from the fish, taking into account the season and weather conditions.

At the other end of the spectrum, coping with extra-strong tidal movements often means targeting fish in quiet eddies, out of the mainstream of the current, while using presentations which present lures down-current, into the sight cones of feeding fish. This works to a point, but the strongest tides sometimes cause a loss of control of lures worked with the current, necessitating the opposite strategy. When strong tidal flow coincides with high wind speeds, anglers fight a two-faced monster of sorts.

High wind speeds facilitate the ease of casting long distances, but generate a long list of negative influences on the anglers attempting to cope with them. Strong winds roil up the waters, obscuring some visual signs of life, creating turbidity and hampering the ability of anglers to fish precisely and effectively. Wading deeper areas becomes more difficult in tall waves, and fishing from the bouncing deck of a drifting boat requires more dexterity than fishing from a more stable one.

To some degree, casting and retrieving lures at an angle sideways to the breeze makes sense, though extremely strong winds make executing such a strategy more difficult, creating a long-arching bow in the line. Presenting noisy lures to the fish in erratic, unpredictable movement patterns, incorporating speed bursts, pauses and rhythmic components helps anglers earn strikes when winds make things sloppy. While winds sing loudly into the ears of coastal anglers targeting trout, a couple of specialized techniques sometimes provide the best way to cope and catch fish.

Dangling a soft plastic under a float of some kind works well in strong winds. In the nastiest conditions, using rattling corks makes the most sense. Another strategy proven effective for urging strikes from trout in rough, off-colored water involves bending the tail of an Original Paul Brown Lure sharply down and employing raspy, sharp movements of the rodtip during presentation. These choices cause the lure to spin violently, activating the rattle and keeping it down in the water, increasing the odds of it passing close to the nose of a fish.

Astute anglers adjust more than just lure choice and presentation when attempting to overcome the negative consequences associated with fighting strong wind speeds. They also recognize the futility of moving around looking for something easy, preferring instead to stand and grind on some diminutive structural element known or expected to hold fish, repeatedly casting in relatively small areas rather than attempting to cover broader spaces.

In the end, extreme conditions of various kinds dictate elements of strategy. Some facilitate fast, easy catching, while others make drawing strikes difficult. When fishing in beautifully benign situations, smart anglers seek to maximize potential and generate optimal outcomes. Anglers who choose to fish when harshly negative conditions prevail either appropriately acknowledge and fight against their influences intelligently, or wage a war of futility.