March To-Do List

When it comes to fishing, there is not a season I do not enjoy. Sure, every month has its own strong points and highlights, but the way I see it they all have fishing opportunity. March is no exception, the transition from winter to spring is beginning to occur and this creates a perfect opportunity to be on the water. There are plenty of species to be caught and it is a perfect time to catch your personal best flounder and trout. Other than the fish, I look at this time of the year to stop for a minute and take care of a few items that I have been putting off for too long.

I’ll just go ahead and say that I am not the most organized person in the world. When on the water and changing lures, I have a tendency to stash my exchanged lure in the closest place that will hold it. After doing this for several trips, my boxes and bags will be a true random assortment. This is when I grab all my tackle and sit down to reorganize everything. While putting everything back in their appropriate boxes, I also take inventory of what I have and what I need. It never fails to amaze me of how many half-used bags of soft plastics I have floating around my boat and kayak.

Once I get everything back to where it belongs, I change all the hooks on my topwaters and crankbaits. For years I neglected the hooks on my lures and typically would just go buy new ones. The result of this is spending way too much money on tackle. Also, another reason for changing/replacing the hooks is because of the quality. For the most part, topwaters have good hooks but your typical crankbaits are intended for fresh water and will not hold up in the salt. These are usually aimed at the bass market, and when you hang into a redfish, we frequently find the hooks straightening or breaking. Not only that, after the first use in saltwater they begin to rust very quickly. So, do yourself a favor and swap them dull, rusty hooks out. Springtime is perfect to start the morning by looking for the topwater bite.

Next on my to-do list is the much-needed annual boat maintenance. I typically try and take care of this around this time of year strictly because of the weather. It is really hard to get motivated during the dog days of summer. By taking advantage of the cooler days, I will spend a day doing just basic maintenance on the boat. I use to bring it to my local dealer and would let them service my motor but after seeing the bill, I figured I would take care of it myself. You can go online or your local dealer and purchase a maintenance kit. It comes with your oil filters, anodes, spark plugs, etc. Only thing you need to purchase is the replacement oil for the engine and lower unit. The cost of the material is only a fraction of what bringing it to a dealer can be.

On top of that, this is not necessarily an all-day task. Even if you take your time, it can be done in a few short hours. When it came to my first time ordering a kit and doing the work myself, I wasn’t completely sure what to expect. I knew how to do the small stuff like the spark plugs and filters but everything else to me was foreign. Fortunately, we live in a world where we are capable to share our knowledge on the internet. After watching a few YouTube videos, I felt confident that I could do this task myself. I had a little learning curve the first time but now I have got it down.

One other important piece of equipment that needs to be taken care of is your trailer. The bearings on your wheels will eventually wear to the point of needing replacement, and bearing seals are the same. Wheel bearing issues have left me stranded more than any other problems I have experienced as a boat owner. Be sure to add a few shots of grease periodically and always double check that your hub caps and rubber plugs on the caps are installed correctly.

Now that my lures are ready and organized and I have done my yearly boat and trailer maintenance, this only leaves one thing left on my to-do list and that is catch some fish! March is a great month to be on the water and it can be very productive when the weather is favorable. One of my favorite species in late-winter and early-spring is the flounder. The fall spawning migration gets most of the press, but the return migration in spring can sometimes be every bit as good. Timing is everything, as always, just give me a good weather day and a moving tide and I will figure out the rest as I go.

Along with the flounder, trout fishing also begins to improve with the coming of spring. Schools of hungry trout begin to appear in the open waters of Sabine Lake, and there’s usually enough of them to keep you busy most of the day. On top of that, early-spring is one of the best times of the year to catch a personal-best. As the days begin to warm and water temperatures are on the rise, I’m always tempted to swap my Corkys for a topwater. It always amazes me how quickly they can change from low and slow along bottom to crashing fast moving surface lures. And they’re not shy about it, either!

Redfish are still doing their thing in the marsh but this time of year their appetite changes. Early-spring is usually when the first schools of shad begin to appear in the lake, bayous, and marshes. Redfish are quick to take notice and equally quick to gorge voraciously on them. This makes locating redfish fairly easy but they tend to be a little harder to catch because they are so focused on small shad. From what I have found, switching to a smaller profile lure works best when targeting reds feeding on shad.