Joe A. showing off another nice redfish with Captain Steve Boldt of Bay Flats Lodge, while using cut crab.

Wow! The opener to February and it feels like a mid-March day. But sure enough we are still in winter, that’s evident from our lack of water in the bay system. None the less it was a great couple of days in the water. Walking the ever shallow grass flats proved best. Pod after pod of redfish rose up in front of us, as we eased along. Scattered between the reds were a few select trout. These trout were not very interested in what we had to offer, but a couple of them couldn’t resist passing on our bouncing jigs.

The plastics seemed to have the best results for both our trout and reds. We were throwing plum, pumpkinseed-white, and tx roach all TTF flats minnows. And if it landed just right a pod of reds couldn’t resist the top water. It’s always a blast to watch two or three reds fight over top waters, especially when they come half way out of water from a pod.

The second day in the water had us scratching our heads a little. Jumping out at the same place we left our tailing friends the day before, you could tell something wasn’t right. It seemed to quiet across the water. Don’t know if it was the boat traffic or the few inches of water that returned overnight. But they weren’t there. We walked much further from the boat, than the day before. And only located one school. Leaving that spot let down, we focused our efforts on finding bait and pelicans. Running through the marsh flats, we came upon a couple big rafts of mullet.

With the nervous water and the pelicans crashing, we took our chance. With the guys throwing there day before favorite plastics, I tied on a gold spoon. The mullet were cruising along the edges of big sand pockets. Immediately after getting in the water we were hooking up. If you could land your lure just right into the sand pocket and drag the edge of it, a fish was sure to follow. We spent the rest of our day fighting these sand pocket reds. Never seeing a pod of them, one thing was for sure. There were plenty of singles cruising them looking for a meal.

If this is a sign of what’s to come, for our spring, it will without a doubt be a great one. And as sure as the tide, when our water levels climb back to normal and stay, the trout will get just as aggressive. I look forward to many more spring days, being able to jump out of the boat and chasing down these mysterious and pattern changing fish.

Captain Nathan Beabout
Bay Flats Lodge

Over the last few days we have had some incredible weather, and it looks like an early spring is upon us. But for fisherman, the “Chamber of Commerce weather days” don’t always add up to good fishing, often this means that we have “high pressure” over us, making the fish skittish and not apt to bite as readily. Often, the fish are not in the same area 2 days in a row, because their food source has also moved, with no wind too keep bait penned in an area. You have to be prepared to change your whole gameplan based on what you are seeing IN the water. With the nice weather and clear water comes a great opportunity to scout fish from the boat. When cruising to my next fishing spot, I will often see schools of reds and trout pass under the boat. If I’m seeing schools of fish pass under the boat, I usually won’t circle back around to fish them, but rather fish a little ways down from where I saw them, or just come back later in the day. Its not a good idea to jump out and fish towards a school of fish you just ran by with the boat, they are usually already spooked. Having good polarized sunglasses is a must for scouting this time of year, and I prefer glasses with a copper or amber colored lens.

Over the last 2 weeks the redfish action has been incredible, while the trout have been hard to pin down. The low tide levels, clear water, and sunny skies have made it tough to find off color water where trout like to ambush their prey. This time of year, if the water isn’t dirty, don’t plan on catching a bunch of trout in an area. Once the tide comes back up, many areas will start to hold more off-color water, and trout catches should improve.

On Friday I was joined by Bill M. and his friend, for a fun day of sight casting to reds. On our first stop, we got out of the boat on outside beach shoreline over hard sand. After walking 200 yards, and no bites, I could tell that I was going to have to scout and find where the schools were holding. We got back in the boat, and ran maybe 300 yards from where we were, when the water all around the boat erupted with redfish. We got out again and made a wade away from where I had spooked the school. Over the next 20 minutes we caught our limit of reds plus 2 trout in the 21″ range. The fish were set up over a shallow sandbar in front of back lake drains. The tide was slowly dropping out of the lakes, and the fish were in 6-8″ of water, just sitting there waiting for a meal to come by.

Usually this time of year, I would be fishing in the back lakes over mud bottom, but the extreme low tide levels have made that very difficult. Most fish we have been catching lately have been on sand/mud bottom in 10-18″ of water. TTF Killer Flats Minnows in Texas roach and Pearl/Pumpkin have worked best on 1/8 and 1/16oz. jig-heads. We have been working them fast with an erratic retrieve, with the rod tip high to avoid catching grass. On windy days, I have been focusing on mud bottom on windy shorelines in the back lakes. On calm days, the protected outside beach shorelines over hard sand have proved best.

Capt. Rick Hammond
Bay Flats Lodge