Wherever You May Roam

In today’s world its incredibly difficult to get everyone to agree on a particular subject or a way of thinking, its almost impossible, but I think virtually everyone will agree that the month of April is the height of the “cabin fever season” and nothing will fix it unless you get outside or on the water. For months now many anglers have been cooped up suffering from the winter doldrums while praying for longer days with warmer temps. In an attempt to beat this condition many will take the opportunity to travel to better locations where the conditions are much more favorable. Road trips have become a staple for many during the late winter and early spring timeframe but it’s not just anglers who are on the move, it’s the fish too.

 April is perhaps one of the most anticipated times of the year due to the fact that many factors have begun to swing in the favor of the fishermen. Longer days coupled with warmer temps, both water and air, certainly help kick start fish activity such as spawning behavior in many species. April also means unpredictable weather, especially wind, and a tendency for fish to move around a lot more while searching for food since shad becomes the primary forage. Both Sabine and Calcasieu have ridiculously prolific populations of shad when compared to most of the other bays along the Texas coast and that is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing comes in the form of forage that is plentiful and also piles weight on. The curse comes when you factor that shad move around a lot so that means your fish do the same thing.

Nothing is more frustrating than rolling up to an area where you put a beat down on the fish the day before only to find out it turned into a ghost town overnight. The saying -here today gone tomorrow- not only applies to shad but also to the fish that prey upon them. Unlike other forage, like brown or white shrimp, the shad will travel large distances from day to day and the predator fish will be right behind them. One day the shad may be piled up in the marsh drains and overnight they may move out into the main body of the lake.

Early in spring the shad will be really small and tend to gather along the shorelines where they are relentlessly chased by just about everything that swims. When the spring tides show up and those small shad gang up in the freshly flooded grass the flounder and redfish just absolutely destroy them. It’s not uncommon to watch those small shad being blown out of the water all along a protected shoreline. It’s exactly the reason that makes you want to jump out of the boat with your wading gear blazing.

Now even though the weather says “let’s get after the fish” you must remember that April is a time of transition, so figuring out the exact pattern may be more difficult than you might imagine. All the standard questions, such as shallow or deep, bright or dark, bait size and more must be answered during the search for the perfect fish catching pattern. Most all of those will be rendered useless without first finding some active bait. As we have discussed many times in the past Sabine and Calcasieu are not heavy on structure so you must find bait first and then look for some quality water with decent clarity. Once you have located bait and quality water you can now start thinking about color, presentation lure size etc. Sabine and Calcasieu are a strange pair and the spring can often accentuate that fact or it can cooperate and show you just how good the fishing can be.

For many anglers April means head for the south end of the lake and set up camp on the jetties as good water from the gulf gets ushered in on strong incoming tides. Patrolling the rocks with soft plastic swimbaits or shallow diving crankbaits is probably the most popular method for discovering the bite. Last year I personally spent way more time down on the Sabine jetties than I ever had due to the consistent bite we encountered and the quality fish that were hanging out down there. I won’t be surprised if that happens again this year, I just hope to see even better quality fish show up. The jetty provides a magnificent example of how fish like speckled trout are affected by the tide and water color. If you have spent any amount of time down there then you have seen a great bite just completely shut down as the tide moves in or out and the water color goes from perfect to just a little bit off. What was once a prime piece of water feels like a wasteland when this happens and no matter what you do its nearly impossible to get a bite. Note to self: Tide changes and moving water are a must when you fish the rocks.

Farther up the lake will be a bit more of a mystery this month but its not unsolvable. Obvious locations will be areas near the east shorelines and they will also be tide dependent. Redfish will seemingly alter their diet almost daily from shad to crabs and their color will be a dead giveaway. That shiny, almost silver colored fish will be dining almost exclusively on fish while their more colorful counterparts will be doing their best to eat every crab they can pin to the bottom and inhale. Search baits like a rattling cork with a soft plastic are proven producers and will not only draw jarring strikes but will allow you to cover more water in thorough fashion. For those that will venture into the shallow water marshes searching for redfish, I cannot stress it enough that you need to find an area that has a high population of crabs. If you find a pond or back-lake with plenty of crabs you can just about bet the redfish will not be far behind.

During this time of the year you must be flexible and adapt to each situation until we get a truly consistent weather pattern which seldom happens until later in May. Over the past couple of years I have been taking techniques that I have picked up from my buddies in Mexico that I fish with and have incorporated them into my arsenal. The ability to move around and be flexible is one that I notice all the successful captains down there possess. I recently was able to scratch another fish, Pacific Yellowtail, off of my bucket list with the help of my friend and long-time guide Ramon Garcia. Ramon made multiple adjustments to our pattern from depth to structure until we figured out the key to catching fish that day. Instead of being hardheaded and staying in water that he preferred to fish, we made the transition to where the fish were instead and it paid dividends. The same can be said for anglers who refuse to get out of a certain pattern and continue to try and catch fish in a certain depth of water or using a certain pattern that’s not conducive to the conditions. There is hardheaded and then there is just plain dumb.

April should be full of promise and also full of challenges but certainly nothing that can’t be overcome. Pick some days with solid tide changes and with a little help from the weather man as far as wind goes and you should be well on your way to enjoying a good day on the water. By all means keep your eyes and ears open because those spring storms that blow up all of a sudden are no joke. It’s time to get out on the water and firmly put winter in the rearview mirror. Always remember that PFD and take a kid fishing every chance!