Have a plan; but be willing to change it!

As a professional fishing guide I don’t have the luxury of going fishing when all of the stars align. If that were the case I would not be one. It would be nice if every day was four days before a full moon with light southeast winds and good tide exchanges, and the trout were chewing the gelcoat off of the hull of my Whaler. But that’s unfortunately not possible. Instead, we deal with many different scenarios as changes occur month-to-month, week-to-week, day-to-day, and even down to the hour or minute during any given fishing trip. How we deal with them as they occur carries great weight toward achieving a successful day on the water.

There are some variables that make it easy for us to be proactive in our approach. Examples would include choosing a particular area to fish the night before, because a cool front just blew through, so the wind speed and direction dictate where we should fish. Other times we have to react on the fly to unforeseen changes that take place during our trip, such as when the wind switches direction from an unexpected squall. These are very simple examples but in my world it gets much more detailed than that. Every tiny detail has to be considered when putting a game plan together for each day’s fishing trip. 

We can look at some of the broader elements before we go any further. This will help put us in the right area to start. Seasonal changes such as water temperature and bait migrations have to be considered when deciding fishing areas on which to focus. For the Galveston Bay Complex we can break down our trout focus into four general periods of time. Notice I said general as there are always exceptions that may somewhat alter the timing and locations.

• May – September: Slicks and bait concentrations over mid-bay shell and other types of structure
• October – November: Bayou drains, river mouths, working birds, back-lakes and shoreline reefs
• December – February: Mud and shell in and near deep guts and bowl areas
• March – April: Coves, drains, back-lakes and shorelines

Once we have determined the areas where trout live based on the time of year and conditions, we then need to dig a little deeper. Are tides low or high and are the tide exchanges strong or weak? There may be areas where we’ve been catching fish and we desperately want to go back there but realize that they’re too deep to wade, so we either need to drift or find another area. There are spots that aren’t productive on low tides. We have to study the areas we plan to fish to a point where we can instantly determine if we need to make other plans. This scenario actually played out on one of my recent trips.

I wanted to wade a particular reef but our tides were well above normal because of some tropical activity in the Gulf. The tide chart does not account for low barometric pressure and stiff easterly winds. Knowing how many trout were on this particular reef I went ahead and took my clients there anyway. Sure enough, it was too deep to wade, so we tried drifting it instead. We caught a few decent trout but the hull slap caused by the waves didn’t bode well for drifting along the crest of the reef where we could’ve otherwise stood stationary while casting into the school. It was a bad plan and I should’ve known it.

This is a trap a lot of us often fall into when we’ve caught so many fish in a spot. Recent memory bias can kill your productivity if you let it. We have to keep an open mind and look at all of the elements. After relocating, we ended up wading a windward stretch of shoreline that had streaky water and concentrations of mullet pushed against the grass. We did quite well chunking Slammin’ Chicken Saltwater Assassins towards the bank that would have otherwise been ankle-deep on a normal tide. I was thinking to myself that I should’ve made that move right out of the box instead of trying to force the issue at the first stop. The moral of this story is be careful falling in love with a particular spot. In former Texans coach, Gary Kubiak’s words, “Sometimes you have to take what the defense gives you.”

This is the time of year when we’ll start getting some real cold fronts, which will cause water temperatures and tide levels to change drastically overnight. Wading a shallow flat near deep water can be awesome when it’s warm the day before a front; then drifting deep shell-lined troughs can yield excellent results the next day as bluebird skies and high pressure sets in along with colder water temperatures. Such changes also warrant a change in our lure selection. Good pre-frontal options include topwaters and soft plastics rigged on lightweight jigs. Better choices for post-front conditions would likely be Corkys and soft plastics rigged on heavier jigs.

Should we match the hatch or match the mood? I don’t have a problem with the whole match the hatch thing, but to me it’s more about observing a trout’s behavior patterns, especially pertaining to where they are staged in the water column and how aggressively they’re feeding. If the trout are suspended, slow-sinking twitchbaits such as the MirrOlure MirrOdines or Corkys are great shad-imitators and have the ability to hover in the strike zone when presented properly. It may also be true that the trout are indeed feeding on shad. However, I believe that because the shad are suspended is the reason the trout are there. So what’s really important is that whatever we’re throwing, that’s where our lure needs to be. I’ve caught plenty of suspended trout by rigging a Bass Assassin or a MirrOlure Lil John XL on a 1/16 ounce Bass Assassin Pro Elite jighead. Last time I checked, neither of those lures resembles a shad. It’s more about lure placement and presentation. I’ll take that to the bank every time.

Habitat is king. Whether we’re fishing shallow or deep, the one common denominator is that there is some form of live habitat nearby. In Galveston and even East Matagorda (these days), it’s live oyster reefs or clusters. This isn’t to say that we can’t have success when fishing mud or sand, but the presence of live habitat greatly increases our odds. In addition, the forage species will be where the habitat is 98-percent of the time, not to mention the shell ledges create excellent ambush points for trout.

A lot of folks ask me if I pay attention to the Solunar Tables. The answer is yes, but they don’t necessarily control my decision making process. I look at the major and minor feeding periods every day, but tide changes (at least in Galveston) often override the feeding charts. However, if we can get lucky enough to have a major feed prediction coincide with a tide change…then that’s awesome. As a general rule, in my mind anyway, the tides trump the moon.

The phase of the moon also matters as it tends to affect the timing of the feed. For example, on full moon days, it’s not uncommon to experience our best bite in the middle of the day. Also, the bites during these bright moon phases tend to be much softer (less aggressive), so having a very sensitive and lightweight rod like a Waterloo HP Lite or Carbon Mag contributes greatly to our chances for success.

Tides, wind, water temperature, salinity, water clarity, and many other variables figure into the equation when it comes to planning our fishing trips. Sometimes it seems like a game that comes down to us versus the fish. We must become better students of the game if we want to have a decent chance of winning. Lord knows it’s not always easy these days. Do your homework. Always have a good plan, and don’t be afraid to make adjustments on the fly when things change. Tight lines!