Mansfield Report: June 2023

Greetings from Port Mansfield! Early summer is shaping up nicely and, exactly as expected, the big tides of late spring are rolling in. The Laguna Madre is full of beautiful water flowing through the recently re-dredged East Cut. Based on what I’ve seen, I believe this has helped the fishery in great measure, even with increased fishing pressure.

I have been spending lots of time in the recently flooded backwater flats and finding impressive concentrations of bait. Some of these flats have what I call a multi-tiered bottom and the subtle depth changes create “hot zones” where fish tend to be more concentrated. This can range from a thirty yard stretch to one hundred, depending on the flat.

I’ve been setting up in depths of about two to three feet and gradually wading shallower. I pay close attention to the bait and where strikes and hookups are happening for my anglers. By the time we reach the shoreline, which might take a few hours, I’ve made many mental notes. This was just the case recently, which evolved into me finding and dialing into “micro-areas” of big trout by tweaking my approach to the area.

So, we started somewhere near mid-thigh depth catching a few dink trout, but as we approached the knee-deep things got a lot more interesting. The bait became increasingly nervous with nice reds and trout smacking our lures. As we continued shallower into shin-deep we phased into a few rat reds and the bait faded. Continuing shallower everything went dead.

The takeaway from that wade? Fish were most concentrated in water about a foot-and-a-half to two feet deep, a span of about 60-80 yards. I often see anglers make one wade, pick up and move on, and frankly they work the area too fast. Selfishly, this doesn’t bother me because it leaves more room and less pressure in a particular area. There is nothing like fishing without another boat in sight, it’s like going back in time twenty years. Boy, what a feeling.

If you fish with me you already know that I like to work areas slowly, sometimes to a fault. Please don’t misunderstand, there is a time and place to fish quickly and move on, but going through My Fishing Equation prior to leaving the dock aids me in making the best choice possible on where to fish and when to be there.

June typically means redfish and what’s not to like about that? They are aggressive, fight hard, slam topwaters, and thump plastics like they really mean it. We also get a few nice trout along the way, which keeps things interesting.

Another species worth mentioning here is flounder. So far this year I’d say we’re doing fairly well in this category, averaging at least one or so per trip. Flounder are easy to target and they’ve been loving the KWigglers Ball Tail Junior and, of course, the trusty old 4-inch paddletail.

Another popular summertime activity is fishing tournaments and there is certainly no shortage of them. I saw a post recently on social media about tournaments and their impact on the fishery, which they definitely have. I couldn’t help but chime in.

If anglers are concerned about the impact of tournaments, why not take it upon themselves to weigh their fish alive? I am not aware of a single tournament that would penalize a contestant for weighing live fish. Puzzling that those who complain about tournaments also participate and bring dead fish to the scales. Any effort in this department would be a big step in the right direction. Sure, some might eventually die, but I guarantee some will survive. Think about that and give it try. You might be part of starting something positive.

On that note, I recently helped with implementing a Catch–Weigh–Live Release format for the Shallow Sport Owners Tournament, with incentives for doing so. We acquired some cool Simms swag and for each fish weighed alive contestants received a raffle ticket. A drawing was held at the awards ceremony and winners selected the Simms swag item to of their choice.

Additionally, we were able to document how many fish were released alive. Keep in mind this is no little tournament – 250-plus boats and 1200-plus anglers. I call this change in the format a tremendous success. Pretty cool, and I thank Shallow Sport for collaborating with me on this new incentive. Hopefully, next year we can grow this by having even more prizes.