The Basics of Slick Logic

We continue to receive some much-needed rainfall in the Rockport area due to continued tropical activity in the Gulf of Mexico. Tides remained high for weeks following Hurricane Francine, a hurricane that had no major impact on the Texas coast. Our bay systems to the north and the south of Rockport received a good replenishment of both fresh and saltwater. I believe this can be nothing short of fantastic for our fall and winter fishing.

I have seen an increase in the size of the trout I am catching over the past two weeks. Much of this can be attributed to cooler water temperatures and an increase in our water movement due to not only higher tidal levels, but also the freshwater influx from all the rain we have had. For those that fish with me in the Rockport area, you know how confident I am with our trout fishery when we have moving water. Over my entire career I have believed that moving water in and around well-defined bottom structure holds predators. It is true that we need a food source in place in these areas but when we do, I am about as confident as one can get that trout are present or very close by. Catching them becomes a timing pattern more times than not. I pay close attention to our solunar tables when this pattern comes into play. In this month’s article I am going to try to walk you through one of my recent days on the water, talking you through the wade versus walking you through it.

Three days this past week it is was predictable and production was top tier. To be perfectly honest, the trout were not spectacular, but we did have some 23-to-24-inch fish, including one that bumped the 27-1/2 mark. There were lots of truly heavy 15 to 17-inch trout each morning and the dolphins pretty much left us alone. These apex predators are seldom far away, and it is frustrating to see the numbers of trout they can kill if we allow them. I know that day to day, they get theirs no matter what, but seeing it firsthand always seems worse. Dolphin presence also shows us two very positive things; I seldom see them in areas that do not hold large amounts of both bait fish and trout. I have also experienced times when the dolphin were actually pushing larger trout to shallow grass flats adjacent to the deeper water where scattered grass beds were present. Dolphin are here to stay, so we have to accept this and learn to work around them whenever possible.

I like to run well offshore of areas that I know to be holding the proper bottom structure and plentiful bait. I do this because I believe that in our heavily pressure fisheries, game fish are always totally aware of where we are. The trout and redfish alike will react to engine and prop noise hundreds of feet away from the source. I am also looking for signs that trout are present, as well as searching for likely areas that other anglers are not fishing. It is worth mentioning that the marks on GPS programs and fishing maps that declare certain areas to be known for good fishing represent only a very small portion of our bay systems. I am looking for areas no matter where I am fishing that contain the proper ingredients for holding fish…that are not holding anglers.

In two of the areas I have been fishing, I am seeing larger bait fish shallow and small menhaden schools off the deeper drop-offs. The bottom structure is both scattered clump shell and scattered grass beds. The grass beds are both shallow as well as along the deeper drop-off. On all the occasions that I fished these two areas last week, we had falling tides, light SE wind, and 85° water temperatures. Early morning hours included the moonset minor and clear water conditions.

On all my passes along this shoreline I was observing signs of old slicks. The larger the slick, the older it is, for the most part. On three separate occasions the tidal flow was strong enough to pull the slicks against the wind, so this had to be accounted for once in the water with the fish. The wind blowing one way and the tides flowing hard in the opposite direction prevented us from smelling the slicks. I don’t need to smell them; I just need to see the point of origin to plan our wading approach.

The angle in which we set up and then wade and cast is huge in these types of situations. I was constantly having to redirect the group on positioning because this type of approach in what I call slick logic was not something they were well versed in. The group caught on quickly and bites became frequent and predictable.

It went like this:“The up-current line just behind where the slicks form are the origination points. Look beneath the surface and locate the bottom structure, then cast up-current of that structure.”

There was a ton of coaching going on for several hours, constantly making them aware of the fact that we did not need to move. “Just position yourself and fan cast to the areas where we are seeing slicking and bait activity.”

The current brings bait and fish to us. If you were fishing from a boat and using live croaker, would you move after you caught a fish, or would you get another bait and throw back to the same area?

Understand that the trout do not know the lure is not real. If they did, they would most likely never pick one up. The guys did really well and listened intently. They released something like 30 to 40 slot-sized trout during a three hour session. This pattern was repeated for three days in the same general area.

Our midday to early afternoon wade session proved productive for larger trout and redfish but fewer trout in general. By mid-morning, SE winds had increased to 10 to 12 mph, so we fished windward areas of the shoreline that were close to island passes where the current had been running earlier in the morning. I believe that the larger trout seldom venture too far from the shallow feeding areas that they prefer. That said, the slightly deeper areas around these passes provide areas for the trout to stage and wait until the next feeding opportunity. Opportunity is the key word here.

When presented with the opportunity, big trout will often eat for us despite what the solunar table might be indicating. By the time we reached these areas we were experiencing slack tides, and soon the beginning of the new incoming tide. Each day I positioned the boat as far offshore as I could without being too deep for yours truly. I like standing offshore of windward shoreline structures, casting at slight angles to the preferred structure. Slicks once again allowed us to pinpoint the potholes and areas of scattered grass along parallel shoreline guts that were holding the fish.

On every wade for three days in these areas we caught trout from 23 to almost 27 inches. Never more than two to four fish on a wade. No small trout of any kind in the mix with the larger fish. Redfish were positioned just inside the line that the larger trout were holding on. I think the hardest thing for most anglers to do in this situation is to stay positioned offshore and work parallel to the line where bites are being received.

You also must be constantly aware of the water depth, the depths of the potholes and guts, and the specific sizes and shapes of the submerged grass beds. Not all grass beds, potholes, and guts are created equal. It is incumbent on the angler to be able to recognize the specifics of the given structures that are holding fish. I know that’s a lot to think about, but this is what it takes to be able to produce consistently.

For what it’s worth, it’s seldom luck that continually puts certain anglers on certain classes of trout. It’s the ability to locate and then dissect the areas that hold these types of fish, and then set into action a plan for catching them. This is what I believe is being lost in today’s fishery. Get out, put your feet on the bottom and allow yourself to miss, but learn from that miss. My best lessons have been learned from moments of failure.

I have been throwing mostly MirrOlure Lil John Xls in solid colors such as Golden Bream, Watermelon-Red Glitter, Molting, and Opening Night. I have been rigging these on Texas Customs 1/16 ounce chartreuse jigheads at times in the clear water to draw what I believe are purely reactionary strikes. I have also had some nice catches throwing the Texas Customs Double D in Plum Nasty, Pistachio and Pearl Harbor.

I hope talking you through this pattern helps you the next time you have the opportunity to fish some moving water.

May Your Fishing Always Be Catching!-Guide, Jay Watkins