South Padre: November 2022

The warm weather months are coming to an end and dedicated wade fishermen will soon be donning waders. If you have never worn a pair of Simms waders, you have never experienced the comfort they provide, even when wearing them all day. Their durability and breathability are legendary. While this may sound like a Simms advertisement, please understand that when I come across an exceptional product, I like to share it with my fellow anglers.

Now that the water has cooled into the high-60s and 70s, our game fish are becoming more active and feeding more aggressively. I think of November as a month of gorging. Game fish innately know they must feed heavily before colder weather moves in. So, November is an excellent month to experience an active bite that can sometimes last all day.  

Notable concentrations of redfish have moved north toward the Arroyo Colorado and surrounding waters. The biggest reason, for this is that huge schools of mullet begin to inhabit the Arroyo region this time of year so, naturally, the redfish follow the migration. Mullet are a very rich food source that provide fat and protein for redfish as they feed heavily in preparation for the colder season ahead.

Thus far we are not seeing the vast schools of redfish we expect during the fall season. Instead, schools of ten to thirty redfish in a given area have been the norm. The currently high water level has likely played a role, scattering fish into back lakes and along flooded shorelines. Eastside sand flats along the island shelf suddenly became a hot spot because of the high water. The influx of fall tides has relocated baitfish to areas that were too shallow to hold bait a month ago, much less redfish. The playing field has grown exponentially and you could say they now have more hiding places. I expect the redfish topwater bite will continue to improve as the water continues to cool this month.

The trout population continues to thrive with steady action available from Port Isabel to Port Mansfield. It seems the entire Lower Laguna Madre has lots of little ones, which is a good sign for the future of the fishery. Even with all the small fish, catching a limit of three is easily attainable, if that is your goal. Thanks to the reduced bag limit and so many anglers now practicing full catch and release, I believe our trout fishery is definitely on the road to recovery.

The majority of our better trout days have been coming from waist-and-deeper waters where the clarity has been mostly sandy-green. Soft plastics in darker colors on 1/8 and 1/4-ounce jigs have been very productive. Jig weight and retrieve speed varies with the depth the fish are staging and feeding in the water column. Topwater action should improve as the water continues to cool throughout the month. I do not regard November as a trophy trout month but it is the beginning as bulkier specimens begin showing in more significant numbers.

Flounder action has slowed over recent weeks. However, I still rate this past summer and early fall as possibly the best flounder fishing I have witnessed over the past fifteen years. It seems everyone was catching them, whether through targeted effort or incidental. Keep in mind that flounder season will be closed November 1 through December 14.

By their nature, snook are our most tropical game fish species, which means that come November they begin their seasonal movement toward deeper and warmer water. That's not to say you cannot catch snook in winter. It is necessary, however, to adjust technique and approach to match their preferred wintertime habitat.  

Looking back over the past six months, I believe we have endured one of the windiest spring and summer seasons I have ever observed. Constant wind over so many months caused acres of dead and floating seagrass to transport freely throughout our bay waters. It was so bad for several weeks that fishing with lures became almost impossible. While we have seen some improvement the problem isn’t completely gone yet. Lately I have been noticing areas where potholes that should be prime ambush points for game fish have been completely blanketed with soggy, decaying seagrass. Hopefully, with calmer wind conditions and cooler water temps the problem will soon be gone.  

November is known for excellent fishing, less-crowded water, and fronts that can arrive almost out of nowhere. Keep track of weather forecasts and plan your trips accordingly.