MId-Coast Bays: March 2025

We were fortunate here on the mid coast that the one very cold snap we endured for a few days in January only killed a small number of fish in our area. I witnessed mostly dead bait fish with a small number of redfish and unfortunately a few larger trout as well. Nothing like what we saw in the freeze of February 2021. I don’t want to jinx us but I’m feeling like we are safe in thinking the worst of the cold is in our rear view for this year.

I think it’s funny how eager I am for the warmer weather to return when it wasn’t very long ago I was ready to move to a cooler climate because of our prolonged summer heat. Yet, here I am, enjoying the longer and warmer days as we welcome the spring season. Officially, spring season starts on March 20 but we have already been experiencing spring-like fishing patterns.

As of late, I am still spending the majority of my time in the back lakes. The grass is at a minimum making for easy conditions when throwing artificials. I haven’t seen very much feeding activity on the outside sandy shorelines of the local major bays but that could change quickly if this warming trend continues and is not interrupted by any strong cold fronts.

 The bait fish have been very active on the surface making for really good topwater opportunity. I always tell clients that I love good topwater action, not because it catches the most fish, but because of all the blow ups, explosions, slurps and smacks we get to experience. If filling the ice chest is more to your liking than sticking with soft plastics almost always produces better catch ratios. But as I get older, I am more about the challenge and behavioral quirks that fish display when attempting to eat a sure lure.

I don’t believe I’ve ever mentioned how I came to love topwaters so much. I have to give all that credit to my husband, Gary, for introducing me to a method of fishing I had yet experienced up till that time. It was a cool night in April, 25 years ago, when he took me out for a nighttime wading trip under a full moon. I was 28 years young and had plenty of fishing experience under my belt up to that point but I had never thrown a topwater, or even had the desire to. Soft plastics, gold spoons and even speck rigs were my choice of baits and I had always been successful with them. Throwing topwaters was never something I gave much attention to and I didn’t think I was missing out on anything special. Boy was I wrong.

Gary tied a MirrOlure Top Dog 94MR 808 on my line while he opted for the same lure but in 11 color (red head, white body). I remember asking him why he chose those two colors and told me he wasn’t as selective of the color as he was the sound the lure made. Some surface plugs emit lower frequency rattles while other types can be louder and almost obnoxious. Since it was not a terribly windy night he opted for the quieter Top Dogs.

As we slipped off the boat into shallow water you could hear mullet jumping nearby. Even though we were fishing during a full moon I remember not being able to see much but the shoreline off in the near distance. He gave me good guidance in how to “walk” the lure and within a few casts I was hooked up. What I didn’t realize at the time was that fishing a surface lure under the cover of darkness kept me from reacting to all the blowups and near misses, and not trying to set the hook prematurely. Something that is hard for a beginner to learn; not setting the hook until feeling the full weight of the fish on the line. Fishing that night with Gary was one of the best learning experiences I have ever had in my lifetime of fishing and it will always be one of my fondest memories.

I share this memory while fishing with many of my clients who are new to topwater game. I never want someone to get discouraged after many failed attempts of hooking up. I hope sharing my story reminds everyone that all anglers “start” somewhere before they can become better.