Structures and Signs

While competing in tournaments from one end of the Texas Coast to the other, I learned many things, one of which relates to how anglers attempting to achieve consistent productivity need variable strategies and methods for different types of bays and waterways. At a basic level, the presence or absence of large rivers defines our state's bays. On the Upper Coast, several mighty rivers regularly dump copious amounts of freshwater into bays studded with oyster reefs. On the Lower Coast, a few trickling streams send scant amounts of freshwater into estuaries largely devoid of oysters, with bottoms covered mostly by seagrass beds.

This basic difference becomes part of a more complex puzzle when one considers the depths of the water and proximity to passes connecting the bays to the open Gulf. Generally, the deeper bays on the Upper Coast experience stronger influence from tide movements generated by water flowing through numerous dredged channels and passes which connect them to the ocean, but in the vast, shallow expanses of water way down south, many miles separate passes connecting bays to the Gulf. Collectively, these differences combine to create disparate realities with regard to the optimal ways to target trout and redfish in riverine Upper Coast bays and hypersaline Lower Coast estuaries, using a dividing line around the southern fringe of Corpus Christi Bay, near the JFK Causeway.

As a starting point, one might describe the difference in the following way—on the Upper Coast, targeting fish around specific parts of structural elements and considering the strength and direction of tide movements works best, but on the Lower Coast, targeting fish wherever signs indicate the presence of feeding activity works better. Upper Coast bays demand anglers to have intimate familiarity with spots and tide cycles, but Lower Coast bays favor folks with high levels of observation skills related to signs of life. These generalizations become readily apparent to someone like me who learned to fish in a highly spot and structure dependent bay system, then moved to a place where fish roam around more randomly, elevating the need for sign-reading skills.

Many of us who participated in Troutmasters events from Sabine Lake to the Land Cut quickly learned it's easier to transition from fishing bays where knowledge of spots and structures reigns supreme to bays where fish move more randomly than to go in the opposite direction. This statement rings true partly because the water in the bays south of the JFK Causeway runs clearer more of the time than the water in the bays north of that line, allowing anglers not only to see the layout of the bottom, but also facilitating their efforts to locate schools of predators and the prey on which they feed.

All reasonably accomplished anglers develop skills in both these areas, meaning they can identify consistently productive spots on structures where fish bite most often and also interpret signs indicating what's happening close around them. So, an Upper Coast angler with intimate knowledge of when and how to target fish around reefs, jetties and sloughs can learn to read the water and signs down south fairly quickly. But, when a Lower Coast angler moves into bays like Sabine, Trinity, East Galveston, East Matagorda, Nueces and others, where turbidity levels run high most of the time, and where microspots produce best in specific circumstances related to tide movements, the development of consistently productive plans takes more time.

I heard this repeatedly from anglers who became guides in places like Galveston and Matagorda, then ventured down south with their customers, usually in search of more big trout. “You've got to learn to locate fish using signs down here,” they'd say. “You can't just rely on arriving at a spot on a reliable reef at the right time and expect to catch fish like you can up north.” As someone who experienced such an evolution in my own fishing life, I agree with those people wholeheartedly. I can also see how anglers accustomed to finding fish using signs on the Lower Coast would initially struggle up north, operating in generally murky water, without extensive knowledge of the topography of the structures.

This issue becomes more complex when considered more thoughtfully. The disparate realities related to trying to catch fish by relying on spots versus trying to catch them using signs exert influence in all our coastal waters, at all times. All our bays have parts with structures and sweet spots, and all have parts which basically lack those same features. In order to optimally adjust angling efforts over time, one must first learn to identify which places within each bay lend themselves to spot fishing, and which lend themselves to reliance on signs.

In general, a place which necessitates fishing spots and timing the efforts to coincide with moving water has more variety in its features than a spot which requires reliance on signs. Areas with homogeneous features provide few clues about where fish would likely feed, or even where they'll be at a given time. Places like this include deep basins, vast flats and long stretches of ditches, like the intracoastal waterway. All these places include large expanses of water of relatively consistent depth, with similar features spread out over a long range.

Conversely, places like oyster reefs, jetty systems, sand bars, spoil banks, drains on a shoreline and drop offs at the edges of flats have water of variable depths and various cover elements on the bottom in close proximity to each other. This variability basically defines the sweet spots, especially when water moving around these structure and cover elements generates advantages for predatory fish in their hunting expeditions. These simple definitions become less clear when one considers the precise location of the place, and its proximity to a strong source of tide movements.

Certainly, the basin of Baffin Bay is not the same as the basin of Sabine Lake. The water in Baffin moves much less frequently and forcefully than the water in Sabine, creating different realities for anglers trying to catch fish in those places. Similarly, the Tide Gauge Bar in Baffin differs radically from Community Bar in West Matagorda Bay, because of the same influence. Also, the intracoastal waterway in the Land Cut differs from stretches of the ditch on the Upper Coast where water moves more regularly and with greater strength than in a location so far from a pass connecting inshore waters to the Gulf.

Further complicating the issue is the fact most stretches of water, even those with mostly homogeneous depths and bottom features, do in fact hold sweet spots. A small, isolated reef somewhere in the middle of Trinity Bay definitely holds higher potential than surrounding areas, especially during particular parts of the tide cycle, but finding such a feature in a vast expanse of water can prove difficult, even impossible, for the average angler. Similarly, parts of the edge in the Land Cut have secondary ledges which hold fish more often than other stretches, but locating them can prove tedious, at best.

On the other hand, most anglers can identify specific rocks which create higher potential for catching on any jetty they regularly fish, also parts of rock formations in Baffin which produce more bites than others, despite the regular influence of tide movements at the jetty and the lack of moving water on the rocks in Baffin. Anglers should consider these facts when formulating strategies before heading out to fish, and within a given day of effort.

First, anglers should acknowledge the type of area to which they're heading and the type of day they expect to have. If fishing deep, open water, or on a vast, shallow flat, where sweet spots prove difficult to find, they'd expect to search hard for signs of feeding activity from the onset of the effort, but if they're heading to a jetty or reef influenced by strong tides, they'd expect to operate in precise locations and time the effort to coincide with specific parts of the tide cycle, paying close attention to charts, and relying on past experiences. In places where fishing spots on structures reigns supreme most often, setting up in specific places and casting and retrieving lures considering the direction of the current strongly affect the productivity of efforts.

In basins or on large flats, spending time covering water in a search for signs of life makes much more sense than trying to figure out exactly where to stop and/or stand and in which direction to make each cast. Once the angler locates fish in a place largely devoid of structures and sweet spots, these factors might become quite important, of course, but they should not hold priority until that time. These ideas relate to how one should formulate basic plans, with consideration of the type of area and expected type of day, possibly including the predicted tide cycles, wind speed and direction, and water quality.

During a given day, things usually change. For instance, once an angler catches a bunch of fish in a familiar hot spot on a reef in East Galveston Bay early in the day, during the peak of a tide movement, the action often wanes. Then, in order to keep catching, one might benefit from consciously making a move into an area without much structure and looking for signs to find more fish. On the other hand, someone who starts off searching for fish on an expansive flat in the Lower Laguna Madre and catches plenty under rafts of nervous mullet in clear water might head to an area with murkier water, or close to a pass like the East Cut, to fish microspots covered by moving water of different depths later in the day.