Hooked Up: March 2024

Unless you are living under a rock, you are well aware that the TPW commission voted in January to take steps toward ensuring a quality fishery for many years to come by establishing new size and bag limits for speckled trout.

Starting sometime this month, the regulations will become a three trout bag limit between 15 and 20-inches, allowing one of those three to be greater than 30-inches per day.

TPWD conducted mail surveys, hosted comments on their website, and held public scoping meetings. The users that participated were 75% in support of change, while 25% were in favor of zero change. Those numbers from the concerned users, in combination with TPWD’s own gill net surveys that showed the recovery from the 2021 freeze being much slower than expected, was the proverbial nail in the coffin to act swiftly and get ahead of the curve with regards to building back a more sustainable fishery. There have been an exhaustive number of opinions voiced on social media, but the bottom line is that the more spawning age fish reserved from harvest, the sooner the recovery can be accomplished. It’s not rocket science.

Back to fishing…I once heard it said that March is Nature’s way of saying, “Let’s Party.” After many March outings on Baffin Bay, I can relate to that. So many of those days have started out as a simple beer (light wind) with a friend, only to have the crazy uncle and his stripper wife show up at the end of the night needing a place to crash. Yep, the winds can be that dramatic in Corpus Christi during this favorite month of chasing big trout.

Many of you have given me the honor of guiding you on these waters. Undoubtedly, y’all have heard me say something like, “The wind is you friend down here.” Or, “This slick-calm day is only good for boat riding.” Honestly, I would rather it be blowing a sustained 25 mph than the surface of the water resembling a mirror.

The truth of the matter is that we need wind in this area to provide water movement (current). We are so far removed from gulf passes that we essentially have little to no tidal influence as seen in other bay systems. In our case, all hydrology is wind-driven. Those currents are what moves baitfish to the hunting grounds, keeps our normally air-clear water a little on the sandy side so the trout are not as spooky, and helps conceal our presence in the water. All these are key in pursuing and catching large trout consistently.

The guy or gal that has the best chance of catching good trout is going to know the water well. Saying that, catching is the most fun, but knowing where the ambush spots or good stretches of structure are during days that have reduced water clarity will separate you from others when it comes to catching on the windy days that are sure to come this month.

Keen observations during the low wind days will pay great dividends when the water clarity is questionable in your favorite areas, and boosts confidence that you know what lies beneath the surface. Trust me, off-colored water affects our mental state much more than the fish. Early in my guiding career I had a couple gentlemen on the boat and we pulled into an area where I had left some awesome trout biting the day before. The wind was up and I knew the water would be stained when we got there, but was actually worse than I thought it would be.

Mac McCune was one of the men and he could tell I wasn’t excited about the situation. Mac just happens to own a water management company that takes care of lakes in residential and commercial settings – basically a water quality specialist. He told me the water was not that bad and demonstrated with a plastic water bottle he had just emptied. He filled it with bay water and held it to the light.

As he held it to the sun, I noticed it was much clearer than it appeared from the deck of my Haynie. He said, “This is the clarity from a trout’s point of view.” Whoa! A true light bulb moment for me. I could not believe what I was seeing.

We jumped out of the boat, onto the structure that I knew was there, and had a tremendous wade. Fishing is not always just about catching. Pay attention on the slow, clear days, so that you can have confidence and success on the windy days March is sure to bring us.

Remember the buffalo! -Capt David Rowsey