Fish Talk: June 2012

June can be a great month for fishing in the Matagorda bays. The weather is not extremely hot but the steady rise in air and water temperatures brings significant changes to bait activity and gamefish feeding patterns. Occasional days when the surf will flatten out and all across the bays we will see some of the best topwater action of the year. What can beat that? I personally prefer wade fishing to drifting but whichever way you roll the action on deeper grassbeds, mid-bay reefs, and under occasional flocks of birds can be as hot as you'll ever see on surface plugs.

Let's talk about how we go about our wade fishing for a minute. Being a guide, I witness quite a bit on the water regarding attire and wading gear - reflecting the various personalities of my clients. I've seen some clients dressed like an advertisement for Academy or Bass Pro, one rod in hand, another sticking out of their back, wading belt with a big tackle box full of baits, landing net, another tackle box slung over their shoulder, etc. It's no wonder why some have such a hard time wading mud and shell.

I really prefer to keep things simple and straight forward when wade fishing. When I get out of the boat, I will have one rod, wading belt, stringer or shark bucket, one small box with 4-5 favorite topwaters, an Eddie Douglas Broken Back Special, and maybe a Corky or two, slung over my shoulder. Having this box over my shoulder allows me to get to it faster if I need to change baits rather than having a connected to my belt. I wear Columbia fishing shirts with two large breast pockets. These two pockets essentially hold for me 4-6 packages of different flavored Bass Assassins. Here again, it is a lot faster getting a bait out of your shirt pocket than it is from your wading belt, especially once you get into fish and they start ripping your baits apart. Saving just a little bit of time may help you catch more fish or perhaps even your limit. Just keep it simple.

While fishing in East Matagorda Bay during June, there has been times when wading did not produce the best results because the fish have moved out deeper than we can wade. This typically occurs most frequently on slack tide days. What I'll do then to locate fish is to start drifting over deeper scattered shell and mud. I'll drift over all my different way points, making long drifts to avoid spooking fish. This has paid off at times. Don't forget to use louder topwaters such as She Dogs when working deeper water as you sometimes have to call them up from the deeper, cooler water they are holding in.

Over in West Matagorda, June is prime time for finding trout and redfish holding over grassbeds in various depths along the south shoreline. The best time is during periods with strong incoming tide and of course you need to take the time to locate lots of bait activity before committing to a wade. Glass minnows, shad and mullet are all on the menu this time of year.

Another solid option that begins to enter the picture during June is the surf. Starting about Memorial Day, any day with very light or no wind is a great time to take a look and I'll likely head that direction when the time gets right.

June is one of the best months to catch tripletail in West Matagorda Bay. In fact, a few tripletail began showing up in mid-to-late April. These fish live most of the time offshore and enter the bay only as the water warms and will leave in early autumn as soon it begins to cool again. Be advised though, just like the surf, the best tripletail days occur when the wind is very light or dead calm. So that's another option for you. June looks like it could be a great month, just so many options to choose from.

Until next time; God Bless! -Capt. Bill