While Summer Persists

Most anglers show a tendency to get ahead of themselves when reacting to the changes in seasons. I've learned this after talking to hundreds of people and taking fishing reports for more than two decades. Inevitably, I start hearing comments which prove my point, as each seasonal transition draws near.  

Late in July, certainly by the early days of August, people will begin to cite events they've recently experienced as proof of the onset of “fall patterns.” These people will likely do the same thing again in November, when they'll refer to contemporaneous events as winter patterns, and then again toward the end of February, when they'll sing the praises of the onset of spring. It's just human nature, mostly harmless, really. However, I'd advise any angler prone to such a mindset to consider some ways in which the premature anticipation of significant seasonal changes can hamper productivity.  

In many aspects of life, wanting something to happen or to be true increases the likelihood people will just see what they want to see. Consequently, some anglers run the risk of jumping the gun with their angling plans and methods as the calendar makes its inexorable march past the middle of summer and closer to autumn.   

No amount of wishful thinking can change a basic fact about an average Texas summer—it's long and hot! The stifling heat wears out its welcome with many of us. A quick check of climate data for my hometown, Corpus Christi, emphasizes the point. The average daily high temperature at the beginning of October, the first full autumn month, is 88°, with an average low of 70°.  Perhaps even more significantly, the average high temperature doesn't fall below 85° until after the middle of the month.  

And these numbers apply to October, not September, a month with more summer days than fall days! I don't need to cite numbers to get anyone to realize the average weather in September in the Lone Star State feels (and actually is) hot indeed. While summer persists, many of us yearn for cooler days, also for the positive effects those declining temperatures will exert on the patterns we utilize to catch our fish. Thankfully, cool fronts do generally begin arriving with greater frequency as the calendar shifts from summer to fall a couple weeks after Labor Day.    

This helps explain why averages don't tell the entire story. Every time a wind shift to the north ushers in cooler, drier air, some folks will want the welcome change to profoundly impact the fish they're trying to catch. In fact, cold-blooded fish do react to declining water temperatures in predictable ways—in extreme circumstances, out of necessity. But, water temperatures change more slowly than air temperatures, and September's coldest values don't qualify as extreme. So, a cool front which causes us humans, moving around in the air, to feel so much relief from the heat, has a far less significant effect on the fish swimming around in the water.  

On average, I'd say the trout I'm targeting here in South Texas don't really respond much in predictable ways to declining temperatures until some time in November, when water temperatures normally dip down into the 50s and stay there for more than a few hours.  Certainly, in September, while they're stuck in water ranging from somewhere around 80° to values closer to 90°, they continue to behave mostly in the same ways they have all summer.  Generally, this means some will move into cooling, shallower water overnight and remain there early in the mornings, until the rising sun causes the shallows to heat back up.  

This truth doesn't apply in some places, especially on vast expanses of shallow water with no deeper water nearby. Folks who run around on shin-deep flats, looking mostly for opportunities to sight-cast reds and a few big trout, can verify this. In places like the Laguna Madre, where many fish live on shallow flats measuring in square acres and miles, some trout and redfish ride out the hottest parts of the hottest days of the year in water barely deep enough to cover their backs.  

But in most places, where shallow structural elements lie in close proximity to deeper water, the late-night cooling effect sends trout and redfish onto the shallowest portions of spoil banks, sand bars or reefs, toward the shallowest parts of flats, closer to shorelines, perhaps into back-lakes and the remote corners of coves. In the surf, it means they'll more likely appear in the guts closest to the beach around the break of day.    

This generalization certainly doesn't always ring true. Numerous environmental factors can render the truth obsolete, most notably the tide cycle. More water welling into inshore waterways (and onto the beaches) tends to encourage this movement to the shallows, while water drawing out of the bays tends to discourage it.  

Still, anglers attempting to consistently locate and catch fish in the month of September will experience better results if they acknowledge the continuing hot weather and how the heat affects the fish and the patterns useful for catching them. While the fishing this month remains much the same as it has all summer for most people targeting trout and redfish, some aspects of the efforts do change in predictable ways.  

Predatory species like trout and reds generally have plenty to eat at the end of summer/beginning of autumn. During this time, our estuaries fill to the brim with all kinds of prey species, some in great numbers. In other words, the predators have lots of different things to eat, and a massive abundance of some of those things. This metaphorical buffet can distract them at times and make it tough to trigger them into striking something crafted entirely by the hands of man.    

Consequently, the importance of timing outings to coincide with stimulators which reliably improve the feeding mood of the fish becomes even more important than normal. Fishing the hours when water temperatures decline to their lowest point, targeting fish in places and during times when the tide moves the water, maximizing the effects of rising and setting moons—all these things make more sense than ever at the end of the dog days of summer, while hot weather lingers over the coastal waters. Remaining versatile with lure choice does too.  

Generally, floating plugs (topwaters) work best when water temperatures lie between about 60 and 80°.  We don't see many temperatures near the bottom of that scale this time of year, but we do regularly work hotter waters, outside the upper end of the scale. It's certainly possible to catch trout and reds on top in blazing hot water at times, but on average, floating plugs draw more attention from both species during cool snaps this time of year. Redfish, in particular, show a propensity to viciously tackle topwaters on shallow, cooling flats this month.  Slow-sinking twitch baits work better on a daily basis as the temperatures decline too.  

Like floating plugs, they tend to work best during the cooler weather we have this month, losing their efficacy somewhat when things heat back up. This means it's important to try them regularly, mostly after some passing front has reduced the severity of the heat. While experimenting with either of these kinds of lures this month, maximizing productivity involves taking the abundance of prey species into account and attempting to match the hatch by experimenting with different sizes and types of lures.  

A basic fact seems to dictate the need for versatility in lure choice this month. Greater variability in size and species of prey available to a predator elevates the likelihood of the predator striking at different sizes and kinds of lures within a given outing. Consequently, adding topwaters with a variety of attributes into the quiver makes sense, like tiny She Pups, shad-shaped plugs like the Spit’n Image and slushing MirrO Props, which carry twin, counter-rotating blades. Small, shiny twitchbaits like MirrOdines and MirrOminnows, also ones which sink quickly and require fast retrieves, like 51Ms, all fit the needs presented by productive scenarios this time of year. The intelligent deployment of lures with various attributes increases one's likelihood of stirring the feeding fancy of the fish more of the time during this month of plenty.  

Mostly, the catching this month will remain easiest on soft plastics, whether the angler targets trout or reds. Adjusting jighead size to depth of water, amount of current present and velocity of wind keeps the bites coming in hot water, by facilitating low and slow presentations.  Sometimes, dangling a soft plastic under a cork produces better results than most everything else during this transitional time, as is the case during all months, in every season. Savvy anglers won't abandon the use of this tried and true method this time of year, or any other.

Keeping productivity high in September when targeting spotted seatrout and red drum in inshore waters means acknowledging the fact it's still more summer than fall, and sticking to methods and patterns which have worked throughout the hot period.  It also means tweaking things in subtle ways and paying attention to the factors which tend to improve the feeding mood of the fish, then giving them what they want when they want it.  Optimally, this involves adding a few extra lures into the arsenal for a while, without throwing out any of the main ones which work well all year long.