I think I know what my new pet peeve is now. It has to be questions about the brown tide. Yep!! Its here, Yes it looks terrible. Nope, the fish aren't dying in it. Yes, we are catching good fish in it. No, we are not catching big numbers of fish. My question to the folks asking the questions, Does it really matter??
Many of us full time guides have to put up with the dirty looking water on a daily basis and each has developed his own way of dealing with it. Like the old credo "Adapt and overcome", has become the new mantra for us down here. And overcome we have. Basically we fish a little shallower than we used to. We fish a lot more methodically and slowly cover areas that have been productive for us in the past. Many of the same tactics we have used still !@@% with only minimal modifications but patience and persistence are essential.
As of late, our water temps have really been on the rise and its beginning to look a lot like spring and early summer down here. I along with several of my clients have pushed the envelope in some of the water we fish knowing if we get water in our waders, it really won't be all that uncomfortable. I have seen wate temps this week as high as 75 degrees. Thats well into my comfort zone for wet wading.
Hot lures this month have been my usual standby lures like the Brown Lures Devil Eyes in just about any dark color you can find. Corky Devils and Fat Boys have done well and with the warming shallow waters, or topwater bite has really kicked in. Pearl and Pink Skitterwalks, Bone She Dogs and just about any color Super Spook Jr have lead the pack.
I won't go into a lot of detail but I will say that we are catching more fish in the Upper Laguna but our big Girls are still coming from Baffin. Many
in the dirtiest, ugliest brown tide looking water in the bay. So don't be skeered LOL.
Here are a couple of pics of some of the fish we have been catching this month, like this 7 pound + Big Girl that went for an amber Devil Eye
This FAT trout was caught on a drift on a very windy morning as a front blew in. Fred took great care to handle this Big Girl as gently as possible before
releasing her.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of fishing with an old time 2Cooler and good friend Brad (aka Monarchy). We fished with two other gentlemen John and Ben on an
excursion looking for Big Girls Gone Wild on topwaters. Ben took top honors the first day with a 24" trout that was just under 5 pounds on a pink
Skitterwalk. A little smack talk around the dinner table that night must have steeled Brad's resolve as he had a very determined look on his face the next
morning.
We witmessed anothetr beautiful South Texas sunrise as we piled out of the boat and headed to our first wade destination.
I manged a couple of decent size trout up to 18" on a pearl Skitterwalk. I glanced over at Brad and noticed a very pronounced bow in his rod. I quickly
waded over just in time to witness him land this chunky trout and then carefully release her.
About an hour later, I saw him doing quite the "graceful" dance as he hooked up with another Baffin Big Girl again on a Bone She Dog.
Here is a little video clip I took as Brad prepared her for release. Very nice fish my friend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bW-qZXov8M
It was just another great time with good friends and its becoming quite habit forming for me lately. The fishing is good down here and y'all are invited to
come down and partake. Spring and Summer are shaping up to be very active and I'm still seriously stalking that one big fish. Come join me on my quest.
Remember to practice conservation and just keep 5. Later, Aubrey
