Spring Is Coming!

March is the first busy month on Texas bays, and for good reason. The days are growing warmer and longer, bay waters are losing their winter chill, and Spring Break offers many families a chance for a multi-day getaway. Lots of folks get the itch. Hopefully Mother Nature will play nice and grace us with a true early spring and not a rat’s nest of late-season northers and endless days of gale force winds.

I would say that fishing has been good overall through the winter months. Of course, you’ve had to pick your days, you always do. Guides that specialize in presenting wintertime trophy trout opportunity would likely say they’re having a so-so year, and while we haven’t been hearing or seeing the barrage of grip-and-grin on social media as we’re accustomed, I would still say there have been a lot of nice fish being caught. Here’s hoping this continues into spring and lots of angling families are able to get out there and enjoy it.

Jay Watkins has earned a reputation as one of the best teaching guides on the entire gulf coast and I would certainly have to agree. I find his article in this issue particularly interesting as he delves into the habits and haunts of wintertime speckled trout, dispelling some long-held myths along the way. We’ve all heard it a hundred times… “If you ain’t sinking in mud up to your knees and dragging a slow-sinker on bottom, you ain’t gonna catch ‘em.” Check out Jay’s article. I’ve never heard anybody explain the truth about trout in more factual terms.

As much as we all have been hoping and praying this Covid thing would have ended long ago we are still captive to cancellations, postponements, and other disappointments. CCA Texas and all the major conservation organizations; Ducks Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and the National Wild Turkey Federation to name a few more, are all dealing with it in the most appropriate ways while trying to conduct fundraising events and other activities. Some are going virtual while others are working on in-person events that comply with state and local regulations. Please do not let the Covid thing inhibit your generosity. The fine organizations are depending on you to stay involved through these trying times.

As of this writing we remain very hopeful that we will be able to enjoy the 46^th Houston Fishing Show scheduled for April 14-18, 2021 at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Many Texas small businesses depend on this show, not to mention many thousands of fishing enthusiasts who wait all year for it. Please stay in touch via social media and the website houstonfishingshow.com to remain informed. This is our pastime and our show.  Let’s all pray it can go off as planned.

March weather can be fickle but the fishing can be great. Pick your days wisely; pack up the family and get out on the bays. There’s a wild and wonderful Texas coast waiting for you!