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Mid-Coast Bays: June 2013
David Denbow convinced this nice trout to eat a topwater.
If our fishing in May is any indication as to how our June fishing will be, it should be wide open. Fortunately in May the wind laid enough days for me to be able to fish the open bay reefs of San Antonio Bay, and any of the major bay shorelines of San Antonio, Espiritu Santo, Ayers and West Matagorda Bay were also options so I took full advantage of the situation and tried them all.
You may be wondering why I fish so many different bay systems this time of year. The reason I will be trying different locations is sometimes due to wind direction but more often than not it is to find the largest concentrations of quality fish. By fish I mean speckled trout. Sure redfish count too and account for a lot of my client's daily catches, but I do not have to travel very far from my normal launch site of Charlie's Bait Camp to catch quality redfish if that is what my clients are in the mood for.
My plan for June fishing in priority order is to fish the surf off Matagorda Island whenever the wind and waves allow. If the weather doesn't cooperate for the surf stuff I will be in San Antonio Bay, big surprise there. But really on my many scouting and charter trips we were able to land above average fish during the months of April and May when the wind allowed us to fish the many different shorelines of this bay.
When fishing the reefs in San Antonio we were doing a lot of catching but not a lot of quality fish were caught. A couple reefs were holding good specks but most were holding a lot of undersize to barely keeper. A word of caution on measuring fish always close their mouth and use a Check-It Stick. I hear people say they shrink on ice but most of that is measuring error on the way into the cooler. I have found it better for my customers and easier on the fish if I just keep my guys out of the dinks. Anytime they're running short to barely keeper move on! Nobody wants to limit out on "liner 15s" anyway and those small trout are tomorrow's big ones. Okay enough of that.
As for the lures we have been throwing not a lot has changed from earlier in the spring. I am still throwing the Bass Assassin 4" Sea Shad the majority of the time whether we are fishing shorelines or dropoffs or any reef in the bay systems. We have been playing with the colors we throw in the Assassins and we normally return to the Bone Diamond, Slammin Chicken and Hot Chicken. The rest of the time is split between the Bass Assassin 5" Saltwater Shad and MirrOlure She Dog in GCRRH or CHPR.
Another lure that I have reintroduced back into my ForEverlast Flip Flop wading box is the MirrOlure 51 MR. I am not sure why this lure was ever bumped from my wading arsenal. I'm sure there wasn't a good reason, it probably just got forgotten like most lures do over time. In any case it's back in my box and starting to get a workout again. I had forgotten how easy they are to chunk into a stiff breeze and how much water you can cover while looking for fish, not to mention with its flash and rattles it will get the attention of some reluctant to feed trout or reds. I normally have two colors in my box, 51MR18 (green back, white belly, silver scale sides) and the 51MRCH (chartreuse back and belly, gold scale sides).
Another word of caution - you wade fishermen need stingray protection every time you step out of the boat. Seriously! I see guys wading unprotected every day and I can't help but think they're rolling the dice. Risking a stingray wound is foolish and I never leave my Shallow Sport without my RayGuard Reef Boots and Ray Guards on. All I have to worry about is catching fish!
Fish hard, fish smart!
You may be wondering why I fish so many different bay systems this time of year. The reason I will be trying different locations is sometimes due to wind direction but more often than not it is to find the largest concentrations of quality fish. By fish I mean speckled trout. Sure redfish count too and account for a lot of my client's daily catches, but I do not have to travel very far from my normal launch site of Charlie's Bait Camp to catch quality redfish if that is what my clients are in the mood for.
My plan for June fishing in priority order is to fish the surf off Matagorda Island whenever the wind and waves allow. If the weather doesn't cooperate for the surf stuff I will be in San Antonio Bay, big surprise there. But really on my many scouting and charter trips we were able to land above average fish during the months of April and May when the wind allowed us to fish the many different shorelines of this bay.
When fishing the reefs in San Antonio we were doing a lot of catching but not a lot of quality fish were caught. A couple reefs were holding good specks but most were holding a lot of undersize to barely keeper. A word of caution on measuring fish always close their mouth and use a Check-It Stick. I hear people say they shrink on ice but most of that is measuring error on the way into the cooler. I have found it better for my customers and easier on the fish if I just keep my guys out of the dinks. Anytime they're running short to barely keeper move on! Nobody wants to limit out on "liner 15s" anyway and those small trout are tomorrow's big ones. Okay enough of that.
As for the lures we have been throwing not a lot has changed from earlier in the spring. I am still throwing the Bass Assassin 4" Sea Shad the majority of the time whether we are fishing shorelines or dropoffs or any reef in the bay systems. We have been playing with the colors we throw in the Assassins and we normally return to the Bone Diamond, Slammin Chicken and Hot Chicken. The rest of the time is split between the Bass Assassin 5" Saltwater Shad and MirrOlure She Dog in GCRRH or CHPR.
Another lure that I have reintroduced back into my ForEverlast Flip Flop wading box is the MirrOlure 51 MR. I am not sure why this lure was ever bumped from my wading arsenal. I'm sure there wasn't a good reason, it probably just got forgotten like most lures do over time. In any case it's back in my box and starting to get a workout again. I had forgotten how easy they are to chunk into a stiff breeze and how much water you can cover while looking for fish, not to mention with its flash and rattles it will get the attention of some reluctant to feed trout or reds. I normally have two colors in my box, 51MR18 (green back, white belly, silver scale sides) and the 51MRCH (chartreuse back and belly, gold scale sides).
Another word of caution - you wade fishermen need stingray protection every time you step out of the boat. Seriously! I see guys wading unprotected every day and I can't help but think they're rolling the dice. Risking a stingray wound is foolish and I never leave my Shallow Sport without my RayGuard Reef Boots and Ray Guards on. All I have to worry about is catching fish!
Fish hard, fish smart!