Guests of Bay Flats Lodge Peter M. party released heavy trout wtih Captain Nick D. late April with bone top water lure in San Antonio Bay.
The month of April is now a thing of the past, and things are going to be warming up for us around here over the course of the next few months. The weather folks tell us we may see water temperatures hit 80-degrees this month, and that Central Texas will see some of their first digits in the 90’s. Oh boy, it’s almost summertime once again! This will mean a lot of different things to different people. For kids, summer means a well-deserved break from the daily ritual of waking up, going to school, coming home from school and doing homework, and then waking up the next morning to start the process all over again. For families, it may mean organizing a huge vacation consisting of a number of family members, lots of close friends, or maybe even both, while others may opt for simply planning for just a couple smaller getaways with just the immediate family members. And for those who are required to make it into work each day, this period of the year may signify a time when it doesn’t take us quite so much time getting to work and back home every day simply due to the fact that there are less cars on the road during rush hour traffic right now.
For those of us who happen to be directly involved with sport fishing along the Texas Gulf Coast, this month will mark the time in which we shall begin looking into the results of some of Mother Nature’s acts on our area’s natural resources. For example, dry conditions the past several years during the critical shrimp maturity months of March through May have left interior marshes absent of the materials deposited by rains which resulted in a decrease in the amount of available shrimp nursery areas, and in those years may have consequently caused high numbers of shrimp to die before they even had a chance to mature. It is this month that we shall begin learning whether we were lucky enough to get adequate rainfall both along our coastal regions, and in the Texas Hill Country, that will have allowed for the provision of the much needed freshwater runoff that supplies sediments rich in nutrients that are required to sustain habitat life in and around the vast coastal aggregate and wetlands. With substantial springtime rainfall amounts, coastal estuaries no longer are denied their annual water table allocations, and they shall once again start to rejuvenate coastal marine life without inflicting self-imposed restrictions that have been prevalent with previous drought conditions.
As I stated to you in the last edition of Guide Lines, we are now experiencing a transition between spring and summer, and as you might expect the winds will still be with us. Regardless, we’ve managed to maintain several effective outings despite several recent small-craft-advisories. So, before changing your mind next time you roll up to the dock to launch the boat in windy conditions, simply contemplate your alternatives. Sure, you could stay at home and mow the yard or catch-up on all the things you haven’t had time to do around the house, but those aren’t the types of alternatives I am referring to. Instead, I am talking about you looking at what alternatives you might have that would allow you to go ahead with your previously-planned fishing trip. First and foremost on anyone’s list of considerations should be safety. If there’s a doubt in your mind that your vessel isn’t up to handling the demands of high-wind waters, then simply don’t go. Except on those days with winds that blow greater than 30-mph, I can generally locate the bait at or near the same location that I found it on the day prior. An area of particular confidence for me on windswept days is deep, tapered shorelines, and you’ll usually find me wading in nearly chest-deep water while working sand pockets in the grass beds. I think the trout like using the camouflage offered by the adjacent grass for ambush points on unsuspecting bait fish that happen to swim by out over the exposed sandy bottom of the pothole.
The water will soon be getting warm enough to wet-wade without the aid of waders, and there will be more tournaments and vacations ahead. Be courteous while on the water, and remind yourself to always approach wade fishermen while idling slowly, or pass them with good distance. Remember to practice CPR, “Catch, Photo, and Release”, whenever possible on trophy Trout and Reds…Guide Chris Martin, Port O’Connor/Seadrift region. www.BayFlatsLodge.com…1-888-677-4868.
