The View: January 2025

A pre-frontal day spent on a patch of scattered shell and mud in January can be epic with a gingerly sinking soft plug on the end of your line. However, few will give it a chance – probably because it is January, chilly, and all those vacation days were scooped up by the holidays.

It’s 2025. The opportunity will be there – you just have to put your right and left foot in a pair of waders and make a purposeful cast. January is low-tide winter fishing, so use the shallow water to your advantage. Sometimes waters are so low it is tough to find enough water to float duck decoys. So where do fish go when the wind has blown 20 from the north for two solid days and reefs are sticking three feet above the surface? Head to deep bayous and drains.

Everything in those back lakes has to flow through these locales when the tide falls. Many times the fish are still pretty warm even though the water is chilly. That means most of the fish are lying on the bottom in the mud.

Winter fish don’t bite every day. So if the catching is slow, find the silver lining in your day. Pay attention to those exposed bars and reefs that normally are hidden with normal water levels, and mark these fish magnets in your GPS for another day. I find new reefs and guts every winter and use those spots in the spring when tides swell. Most guts I wade in January are over my head during May and June. Keep all that info logged in the brain and use it when tides fall to seasonal lows in winter and July.

Most of our trout hang close to the Intracoastal during a cold January and move back and forth from the shallows to the deep according to the thermometer and barometer. With that being said, the north shoreline of East Matagorda is the closest intercept point. Waders who want a good shot at a big speck on a moving tide should find a piece of shell from Boggy Cut all the way east to Bird Island and camp out with their favorite mullet-imitation.

I have become quite fond of a pink MirrOlure Soft-Dine. It seems if large trout are in the area, they can't turn it down. That goes for all of the Corky family and large soft plastics rigged on lighter, 1/16 ounce jig heads.

Winter fishing calls for patience – large trout don't bite every day. If they did, everyone would have one on the wall. Arms-length specks are like a heavy-horned buck, a six-foot tarpon, a banded greenhead or a dirt-dragging 11-inch Rio Grande beard.

The elusiveness of a heavy winter speckled trout is one thing you can’t order at your fingertips with free shipping. It takes time, effort, red ear lobes, and frigid boat rides.

Yes, it is a lot tougher to score truly big trout these days, but chances are improving with sound conservation and catch and release. Every day we creep farther and farther away from the freeze of 2021 is another day of growing potential of our most prized coastal fishing resource.

Better days are ahead. I saw it in 2024 – our fishery is drastically improving with tighter limits and changing attitudes. Please keep doing what’s best for our bays and expect to see more quality and quantity in 2025.

Sunrise Lodge and Properties is a full service waterfront hunting and fishing lodge and coastal real estate company.