I know it has been awhile since we wrote a report but there has not been a major change in fish patterns until Oct 16th when the first good cool front of the year came around. Now that it has, here we go.
The north end of Sabine and the south end around the causeway reef area have lots of bird activity with smaller school sized trout with redfish mixed in. When we are fishing these fish, we are using Mirrolure Little Johns and Marsh Minnow Jr. in any of the lighter colors such as pearl, salt and pepper chartreuse. These lures are typically fished on 1/4 oz. yellow mouth jig heads.
For those of you who want to see quality trout with some redfish mixed in, look to the flats close to marsh drains. When fishing the flats, we are looking for mullet and we are throwing larger baits that resemble the mullet we are working. Early on, we will be fishing top water such as a Bone She Dog or Top Dog. If your larger top water gets missed a few times step down a size and as always putting the correct action on your top water trumps color every time. As the sun comes up and the top water bite slows we will transition to subsurface lures such as the Corky Fatboy or the Catch 2000 as well as our larger plastics such as the Mirrolure Little John XL and the 5 inch Provoker. When fishing these larger plastics, we try to fish the lightest jig head we can throw to keep the bait up in the water column as long as possible, typically a 16th oz. As for colors, I tend to try to match my water conditions. For dirty to slightly stained, I like the roach or pearl with black back. Cleaner water I’ll lean towards TX chicken or the dayglow. Everyone has their favorites and I try to keep it as simple as possible.
For those looking to flounder fish, we will be running flounder trips out of Hackberry Fish Camp through the flounder run and we are booking up fast. The before mentioned front has set them in motion and it will only get better from here. As for now we are seeing a few setting up on points and flats around the marsh drains and they will be staging in numbers on the flats and points of the ship channel in no time. We will be fishing for them with Gulp Swimming Mullet in chartreuse and glow on 1/4oz. to 3/8 oz. yellow mouth jig heads.
Fall fishing is great and rewarding but it is always important to pick your battles and fish the way that the conditions given to you call for. For instance, I cannot control the days the fronts come in but when they do I know there will be dirty water for a day or two afterwards and may make a suggestion of live bait to make the day more productive. We also may make a day of targeting redfish versus trophy trout. In my experience, it takes 2 or 3 full days after a front for the water to clear up to allow for cleaner water. Also, if you feel like you are on fish and they aren’t eating then you’re probably right and it may take more than one morning to figure out what they want or for them to feed well at all. If all the signs point to being on fish (i.e. large schools of bait, slicks, smell) then they are there, be patient and work them.
I would like to thank all the wonderful clients and sponsors that have seen us through, none of it would be possible without you guys.
All the best,
Captain Adam
Recent Comments