Riding the Hope Wave

During the first full month of spring, hope reveals itself abundantly in nature and human culture. Azaleas, magnolias and dogwoods bloom. In our part of the world, migratory birds return from their winter homes in Central and South America, headed for their breeding grounds. The world's best golfers gather in Augusta, hoping to earn one of the top trophies in the sport―the Masters' green jacket. In stadiums across the nation, major league baseball players start a new season. And in the coastal waterways of the Lone Star State, speckled trout take advantage of some of the year's most favorable conditions for spawning.  

Specks spawn repeatedly throughout the warm part of the year, usually starting sometime in March and extending into autumn, normally ending around October, depending on weather and other environmental conditions. Female trout produce and release eggs quickest in moderate water temperatures and when salinity levels run in the moderate to high range, at least as salty as the water in the open ocean. They don't show such fecundity in really hot water, nor in water with low salinity levels. In Texas estuaries, bays and other salty waterways, April weather normally generates marine chemistry highly favorable for the reproductive needs of one of the state's most revered sport fish.  

A single large female trout can produce up to one million eggs and hold them in her body cavity before releasing them. Obviously, so many eggs add weight to the fish carrying them. For this and other reasons, Texas Parks and Wildlife data indicate trout weigh more, on average, per inch, in this month than in any other on the calendar. Appropriately, many anglers rank the Masters' month near the top of best ones for chasing the trophy trout of a lifetime. Given the moderate water temperatures normally occurring in the state during this time-frame, artificial lures usually work well for folks targeting monster trout.  

Trout over about twenty inches in length prefer to feed mostly on other fish. Smaller trout, mullet, pinfish, croakers and other finfish make up the majority of their diet. So, lures which mimic these fish work well to draw the attention of mature specks. Topwaters, crankbaits, slow-sinking twitchbaits and large swimbaits all present profiles which look much like small fish. Consequently, many of the state's best trophy trout specialists fish almost exclusively with lures and plugs like these as the prevailing weather conditions transition from cooler to warmer in spring.  

Consistently successful anglers share several traits. One of the most significant, especially for anglers devoted to using artificial lures exclusively, relates to the nature of the way they go about executing their strategies. Most good lure-chunkers display consistency in various aspects of the endeavor, including the manner in which they attempt to finish the game and earn strikes from the fish. In spring, effectively urging mature trout to bite on a daily basis generally means employing lures which look like small fish and presenting them in ways which not only draw the attention of the targeted fish, but trigger them to strike.  

All accomplished anglers accept truths about their methods. They typically understand the need for maintaining a balance between reliance on expected norms and the need to adjust tactics as conditions change. In spring, moderate water temperatures result from weather patterns which create wildly disparate conditions from day to day, or even within the hours of one day. Late-season cold fronts passing over the coastal waters reduce temperatures somewhat from their average values this month, and spin the winds to blow in the opposite direction from their normal sweet, southeast bearing.  

Astute anglers recognize a need to respond to these rapid changes in air and water temperatures, also wind direction and speed, just as they would in fall and winter, but with variations to the specific ways in which they adjust their strategies. These same anglers, the ones focused specifically on bringing mature trout to hand, also realize a basic truth about trophy trout fishing in spring, and implement slow-sinking twitchbaits most of the time in April. They do so because water of moderate temperatures elevates the potential of these types of lures to the optimal value, despite a widespread and misguided mantra related to their use.  

Many anglers, even ones with high rates of success, believe slow-sinking twitchbaits work best in cold water. The genesis of this idea perhaps traces back to the fact Jim Wallace used an original Corky to catch the then state-record trout in Baffin Bay in February of 1996, in water temperatures below sixty degrees. Regardless of its origins, the myth related to the best time to deploy lures like Paul Brown Lures, Catch 5s, Soft-Dines and others which sink at a super slow rate persists to this day. As someone who's caught thousands of trout on such lures, and who ranks the Paul Brown at the top of my list of favorites, I have plenty of evidence to debunk the myth.  

The optimal water temperatures for deploying slow-sinking twitchbaits fall between about sixty and eighty degrees, especially when we measure their effectiveness by considering how likely they are to earn a strike on each cast, when presented in a useful manner, compared to other lures we might choose. Moderate water temperatures elevate the ease of catching on slow-sinking twitch baits to the highest level. In colder water, these lures sometimes work well too, and I've got an extensive catalog of pictures of giant trout to prove it, but catching fish on soft plastics in cold water is generally easier than catching them on Brown Lures and similar twitchbaits.  

I tell customers this repeatedly, when they express a desire for me to teach them how to better use slow-sinking twitchbaits in the coldest months, meaning December through March. "If conditions are conducive to throwing them, we might get that done," I'll say. "But those conditions occur more often from March through May than in January. If you want to improve your skills with slow-sinking twitchbaits, your best chance is to book a trip with me during spring." This truth doesn't mean the months of January and February rank lower on a lure-chunker's list of best months for catching a trophy trout, nor that slow-sinking twitchbaits don't work at all during those months, but it is definitely easier to catch trout, including big ones, on these lures in water of moderate temperatures than in cold water.  

Smart anglers display consistency when making their choices and executing strategies, deploying specific types of lures in precise ways, to account for the time of year and conditions, and adjusting once conditions cause the need for deviation from the basics. Generally, catching trout at a fast rate on slow-sinking twitchbaits involves mastering the ability to present them with rhythmic twitches of the rod tip, using what's known as the "walking the dog" method. In spring, most accomplished trophy trout hunters start off a day expecting to find the catching on slow-sinking twitchbaits worked in a somewhat generic, rhythmic pattern fairly easy, so they present the lures by creating ample side to side turns of their heads. On lots of days, especially when some stimulator elevates the feeding mood of the trout, this works great. If and when the feeding mood of the fish wanes, adding pauses and speed bursts to the presentation often keeps the bites coming at an acceptable rate.

Additionally, if the ease of catching on twitchbaits runs high enough, those same anglers also regularly switch "up" to conventional topwaters like Super Spooks, Skitter Walks, One Knockers and She Dogs, hoping to attract the attention of the biggest trout around them. On the other hand, if alterations to presentations with the slow sinkers don't bring about positive results when the catching slows down, they also remain ready to switch "down" to soft plastics, in attempt to keep the bite-rate at an acceptable level. Warm, cloudy, relatively calm conditions increase the likelihood topwaters will work well, while cool, bright, dry conditions associated with north winds generally elevate the relative effectiveness of soft plastics.  

These ideas resemble ones in play during winter, but with an important difference. In the coldest season, most anglers assume a need to start each day with soft plastics and work up when they find the catching easy, while in spring, they assume lures presented in the middle of the water column will work well and start with slow-sinking twitch baits, then adjust up or down to acknowledge the truth of the moment. This kind of planning and execution reveals their reliance both on norms and the need for flexibility, also their acceptance of truths related to how the seasons and related weather conditions affect the habits of the fish.

In a month like April, when birds and fish and people all feel the buoyancy of the season in their bodies, minds and souls, trophy trout anglers head out with high hopes, and rightly so. But they don't allow their eagerness to encounter a monster trout to cloud their perception and taint their judgment. Like a master golfer in contention on the back nine on Sunday, they realize the need to consistently commit to proven principles, while remaining ready to make subtle adjustments to their strategies, acknowledging the vagaries of the moment.