The Value of Keeping A Detailed Fishing Log

As summer gives way to fall I make a point to look back and review prior years weather and fishing patterns. I have over 40 years of daily data entries, which is a massive amount. Luckily though, my webmaster has made it easy for me to search in multiple ways for similar patterns from previous seasons. I am always amazed at how predictable some areas can be year after year. I have also noticed that these are strongly related to weather, and when weather patterns are similar, the fishing patterns likewise become predictable. Recording details of days fished in a personal logbook can greatly increase your own ability to predict future fishing patterns. This practice has certainly created confidence in my own decision-making process throughout my fishing career.

I tell my clients that the changes in weather patterns from summer to fall can often create changes that the fish are not comfortable with, which in turn creates some difficult times for us. I don’t make excuses as to why we will not be successful every day. That is a defeatist attitude and is only preparing the client for my failure as a guide. Understanding that change is occurring all the time, not just during the changing of seasons, helps me deal with only the things that are within my control.

The only person I know who dislikes the term transitional period more than me is Mike McBride, and only because he reminds me of it often. Understanding that fish movements and feeding patterns are constantly changing throughout the year is critical to you knowing where to find them and how to catch them. I think the best anglers have terrific logs of past fishing experiences that include critical weather and water conditions data they refer to and compare with current conditions they are facing. I call this patterning and it continues to be a critical part of every day on the water for me.

As the fall pattern begins to emerge I continue to put great emphasis on identifying and following the food source. We still have some white shrimp migrating out of our back bays. I know this because on several occasions in the past, the first week of October brought us air temperatures that dropped into or right at freezing. When this happened it shocked the white shrimp that were in the process of leaving the back bays and left them stunned on the bottom. I have picked them up by hand. I have also noticed during strong early season cold fronts that many of the trout and redfish we catch will have the telltale long whiskers of white shrimp hanging out of their mouths. White shrimp have whiskers longer than their bodies. I posted on my Instagram account (official_jaywatkinssrfishing) a few weeks back a very large white shrimp moving along the bottom and made a comment on how long the whiskers of white shrimp are. I know I got off track, but paying attention to the conditions each day are super important. Like I said, I am focused on looking for the right bait for the right time.

I like finding an ample supply of bait around points: land masses jutting from shore or submerged reef points where current will pull bait to the trout and reds. These are my preferred areas if I can find them. Points where current and maybe a combination of current and wind has created a color change in the water can be big time producers. Typically, the larger trout and reds will be holding in the dirtier water. I had this happen just a few days ago on a falling tide that was moving against the wind around a reef point on a windward shoreline. That’s a mouthful of conditions, I know, but that was also the formula that day for our success. I don’t know how many 3-to-4-pound trout and nice slot reds we caught in an hour and a half window, but it was close to 25 or more. All the fish were set up right on the dirty side of the point and would just stop the lure as it drifted into the off-colored water. Bait activity and a small slick just down current of the point stopped us as we were idling towards the shoreline on this day. This pattern set the tone for the day as we continued to work underwater reef points that held any amount of bait. Every point produced some fish for us throughout the remainder of the day. That’s patterning at it best and also in its most simple form.

For the next two to three days this pattern was not nearly as effective, why? Tides fell, wind direction changed, and water temperature warmed significantly, so as the conditions changed so did the pattern.

The next discernible pattern was drop-offs, where wind-driven current dirtied the waters covering scattered grassbeds. Larger trout love this pattern and for a few days this worked well for us. Then SE winds pumped water into the bay, tides bulled up and another pattern bit the dust. By now you get where I am going with this. Things are changing constantly, and we must be open to the changes and adapt accordingly.

Adapting takes some doing, though. We must pay attention to every detail about the day and logging it to memory. We have to pick an area based on what we are shown and then be prepared to give the area the time required to show its true potential. We must then test and retest the pattern in other areas to confirm that the pattern really is a pattern. The only way one can gain confidence in establishing and predicting patterns is to put in the time on the water. For me, the best rewards come from the greatest of challenges. Constant change creates the greatest of challenges, for sure.

In the lure department, I will never be without soft plastics such as MirrOlure Lil John and Lil John XL series in all my favorite colors, colors which match conditions of the day. In early fall I begin to add a few more suspending lures. I carry a few year-round but I get more excited about the production of suspending lures as I begin noticing some cooling of air and water temperatures. My thoughts are that as the smaller baitfish begin migrating toward the gulf, forage of the critical 3-to-5-inch size becomes noticeably less plentiful, and that is when my suspending lures become more productive than during summer months. This by no means suggests that these same lures are not productive year-round. I do, however, have great confidence in seasonal patterns and science backs up my reasoning. By the way, I love the Texas Custom’s Double D Series in all the Custom Corky color patterns.

Our water stays mostly clear much of the year and it can be especially clear during the cooler to colder months. Suspending lures, whether they slowly sink or slowly rise in the water column, present the opportunity to place and keep the lure in the strike zone longer. The MirrOdine and MirrOdine XL are personal favorites, and many other anglers I respect greatly in the industry. One of the other aspects that I like about suspending lures is the ability to slowly swim the bait at a specific depth within the water column. We can also bang them with vigorous rod tip motion at specific depths.

I am frequently asked, “When do you know to throw a suspending type of lure?” For me, it’s all about the setup and gut feeling. I am seldom that guy that gets stuck in a rut where I am trying to get fish to eat something that they don’t really want. Guiding pushes me to get lures in my guy’s hands that the fish will eat for the time frame that they are on the boat with me. If you think it’s still not about producing bites and landing fish, you’re only kidding yourself. People want to get bit, plain and simple, and I still want that out of each day as well.

Don’t be afraid to go back and forth from one style of lure to another until you determine what it is that the fish are wanting at the time. I have the luxury of going pretty much every day, so I have a good idea as to what I need to have in my small wading box all the time. Most that have fished with me know that I am a minimalist when it comes to what I carry on a wade. I like traveling light. I know that day in day out, I can make them eat what I am throwing, and that’s all there is to it. Sounds cocky, I know, but its confidence in my abilities and the functions of the lures that I choose to throw that afford me that confidence.

With fall upon us and winter right behind, I want to stress to all of you the importance of continuing to practice catch and release, or maybe keeping only a few when it comes to our trout fishery. This is especially true in the San Antonio and Aransas Bay complexes.