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Hooked Up: May 2013
Tommy Gibilterra with a 31-inch 9-pound monster; after catching a 30-inch 8.25-pound “career best” earlier the same morning. Both C&R, both on Bass Assassins.
If you have not been on the water in a while, you may be the only one. It has been a crowded spring with all the warm weather we’ve had and I expect it will continue leading into summer. Armadas of anglers have been jamming the bay since spring break, taking advantage of the clear water in the Upper Laguna Madre (ULM). Friday seems to be the new Saturday, and I'm not sure if anyone works anymore – unless of course you are a fishing guide. In all seriousness I believe the brown tide in Baffin has kept everyone pushed further to the north making the ULM a floating parking lot from Friday through Sunday. The good news is that the fishing has been very good Monday through Thursday.
By the time this article makes it to the newsstand we will be coming out of our Simms waders and wet wading. Hard to believe it has gotten here so fast, but such is the annual cycle. Early April started bringing us a bit of new water from the gulf. Overnight, we started catching skipjacks alongside our trout bite and giant schools of cownose rays have invaded the bay. The rays are not much for sport but standing on the bow of the boat and watching these stealthy creatures glide by in crystal clear water by the hundreds at a time is mesmerizing to even the saltiest of anglers. They are just one of the first clues of what is to come via the gulf.
The baitfish and gamefish that ride the spring tides back into the bay is what makes May one of the best fishing months of the year here in the Coastal Bend. Along with great numbers of trout, we will be catching some super-fat trout the first couple weeks, still heavy with eggs during the early stages of the spawning season. Too bad for CCA STAR participants the tournament isn’t open until Memorial Day weekend as most of the big girls will have already begun losing weight by the time the event gets under way. From a numbers viewpoint though, trout action will be at its peak for the season at that time. Between the gulf trout that have now invaded the bay and schools of roaming redfish it is hard not to be giddy over the prospects the Mother Lagoon has to offer this month.
The King Ranch Shoreline (KRS) has virtually no potholes this year. Two warm winters have made conditions ideal for seagrass growth. That sounds all good and dandy in general but the bottom line is diversity (mixture of sand and grass) is needed for the gamefish to prevail and have ample opportunity to hunt their food. When a trout hunts mullet or piggy perch over a 10" thick carpet of grass and goes in for the kill, all the bait has to do is dive into the thick grass for protection, and the trout has a very little chance of finding him. Now if that same trout is hunting alongside of the grass where there is ample sand for bait to pass over, where does the bait have to hide? Nowhere! He just has to hope he is fast enough to get away.
There is definitely more grass in the ULM than I have ever seen in my tenure on these waters. This has changed my style of fishing to some extent, only because it has changed the trout's traditional feeding patterns that we have grown to expect over the years. The solution for me has been to take the time to find potholes in deep water or on large expanses of flats, mix in some scattered bait, and get to catching. Keep in mind that these fish move fast on the flats and it is rare to catch them in the same place for more than a couple of days in a row. Be a fisherman and move with them!
Grass permitting, I love to throw the MirrOlure Fat Boy during this vast movement of new baitfish into the bay system. The MirrOdine gets just about equal play time and both are just deadly when shad are invading the flats. As a general rule I like the natural colors in both while fishing clear water conditions (which we have a lot of), and the brighter colors as the water gets on the trout-green, milky side. The same rule applies for my go-to 5" Bass Assassin and the Houdini color pattern has been my favorite all spring.
Remember the buffalo! -Capt. David Rowsey
By the time this article makes it to the newsstand we will be coming out of our Simms waders and wet wading. Hard to believe it has gotten here so fast, but such is the annual cycle. Early April started bringing us a bit of new water from the gulf. Overnight, we started catching skipjacks alongside our trout bite and giant schools of cownose rays have invaded the bay. The rays are not much for sport but standing on the bow of the boat and watching these stealthy creatures glide by in crystal clear water by the hundreds at a time is mesmerizing to even the saltiest of anglers. They are just one of the first clues of what is to come via the gulf.
The baitfish and gamefish that ride the spring tides back into the bay is what makes May one of the best fishing months of the year here in the Coastal Bend. Along with great numbers of trout, we will be catching some super-fat trout the first couple weeks, still heavy with eggs during the early stages of the spawning season. Too bad for CCA STAR participants the tournament isn’t open until Memorial Day weekend as most of the big girls will have already begun losing weight by the time the event gets under way. From a numbers viewpoint though, trout action will be at its peak for the season at that time. Between the gulf trout that have now invaded the bay and schools of roaming redfish it is hard not to be giddy over the prospects the Mother Lagoon has to offer this month.
The King Ranch Shoreline (KRS) has virtually no potholes this year. Two warm winters have made conditions ideal for seagrass growth. That sounds all good and dandy in general but the bottom line is diversity (mixture of sand and grass) is needed for the gamefish to prevail and have ample opportunity to hunt their food. When a trout hunts mullet or piggy perch over a 10" thick carpet of grass and goes in for the kill, all the bait has to do is dive into the thick grass for protection, and the trout has a very little chance of finding him. Now if that same trout is hunting alongside of the grass where there is ample sand for bait to pass over, where does the bait have to hide? Nowhere! He just has to hope he is fast enough to get away.
There is definitely more grass in the ULM than I have ever seen in my tenure on these waters. This has changed my style of fishing to some extent, only because it has changed the trout's traditional feeding patterns that we have grown to expect over the years. The solution for me has been to take the time to find potholes in deep water or on large expanses of flats, mix in some scattered bait, and get to catching. Keep in mind that these fish move fast on the flats and it is rare to catch them in the same place for more than a couple of days in a row. Be a fisherman and move with them!
Grass permitting, I love to throw the MirrOlure Fat Boy during this vast movement of new baitfish into the bay system. The MirrOdine gets just about equal play time and both are just deadly when shad are invading the flats. As a general rule I like the natural colors in both while fishing clear water conditions (which we have a lot of), and the brighter colors as the water gets on the trout-green, milky side. The same rule applies for my go-to 5" Bass Assassin and the Houdini color pattern has been my favorite all spring.
Remember the buffalo! -Capt. David Rowsey