On Monday March 21 a buddy and I were wading a backwater estuary lake here in Port O’Connor and had a blast catching redfish and trout on two of the most famous topwater plugs of all time – a Super Spook Jr. and TopDog. When it comes to catching a variety of saltwater gamefish these two plugs are tough to beat. But there are a few tricks that you can use to make these plugs fool more fish on each trip out.
Dead sticking is one of the absolute best and most exciting tactics for coaxing reds and trout to hit a topwater plug. Dead sticking is simple. You cast your favorite topwater plug out, and twitch the rod tip about three or four times, then let the plug sit dead still in the water for a few seconds. You won’t believe some of the blowups you’ll get when the lure is doing absolutely nothing. In fact that’s how I caught my heaviest trout, one that weighed 10.4 pounds.
When I caught that huge trout Bill Panto and I were in my boat and easing along the edge of a flat that dropped off into about 10 feet of water. I had the boat positioned in the deep water and we were casting TopDogs up onto the flat in about 2 feet of water. I made a cast, twitched the plug about five times and let it sit motionless. I turned to say something to Bill and heard the big trout eat the plug. When I set the hook I immediately knew this was no ordinary fish. In fact, it was a career trout.
Warren Claybar caught this 7-pounder while dead sticking a mullet colored One Knock Super Spook in about three feet of water last week. -Capt. Robert Sloan
Just recently I was fishing over shallow shell on West Matagorda Bay when the dead sticking tactic was deadly on redfish. At the time I was using a bone colored Super Spook Jr. When the plug came to a halt, after being worked a few feet, the big reds would unload on the plug sitting motionless. That’s the kind of topwater fishing you don’t forget.
As of the first day of spring (March 20) the water temperature at Port O’Connor was 71 degrees and rising. And the forecast for the first week of spring was calling for about seven days of warming temperatures in the mid 80’s. That’s the kind of weather that’ll jump start the appetites of trout and reds. The fish I cleaned on March 21, were full of shad and small mullet. That morning, prior to heading out, I stopped off at the lighted pier in POC and noticed that there were big schools of shad under the lights. And with them were some 2 to 3 pound specks. That’s a sure sign that water currents are warming and trout and reds are slowly settling into their spring and summer feeding patterns.
A few weeks prior to the first day of spring I was fishing with Victor Randazzo and we actually found tailing reds. That was about a week after our last hard cold front. That was a very encouraging sign, especially for all of us fly fishing fanatics. Since that time we’ve found limited numbers of reds up on the flats in about 12 to 18 inches of water. You can catch those fish on No. 6 Clousers, 1/8 ounce gold spoons and a Mann’s Waker in a croaker pattern.
Other fish catching options right now include soaking half of a cracked blue crab on bottom, for black drum, in Mitchell’s Cut or Saluria Bayou.
Bull reds and big black drum are good at the jetties on cracked crab and fresh cut mullet. Sheepshead are good along the rocks on live shrimp fished about three feet under a slip cork.
Trout are best on the estuary lakes on TTF Trout Killers in white, chartreuse or black/chartreuse. The best tactic is to fish the 1/8 ounce jigs under a rattle float.
That’s a look at what’s happening on the fishing scene here in Port O’Connor.
To book a trip contact me, Capt. Robert Sloan at :
www.hightailangler.com, or call 409 782 6796.
