| Windy Winter Fishing with Capt. Brooks |
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| Written by CaptainRobertBrooks | |
| Monday, 09 March 2009 | |
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I finally had an evening trip this week with two clients. The clients couldn't cast for beans at the beginning, but after a few lessons and practice... they were way better at hitting our target areas.
I finally had an evening trip this week with two clients. The clients couldn't cast for beans at the beginning, but after a few lessons and practice... they were way better at hitting our target areas. A bunch of sea grass got uprooted from the strong southeast winds that started up around 7pm with the front that was approaching. The wads of floating, dead sea grass was making it harder to retrieve baits without snagging and it was altering the bait's movement. There were good places that redfish and a few speckled trout were hunkered down under the dead grass, but we couldn't get either one to hit on the retrieves, they sensed something wasn?t right! Cast after cast, the clients kept trying for a strike that seemed non-existent even though we could see the fish chasing the lures. Eventually we had to leave the area, which was sand and grass beds around 18-30' deep. We headed off to areas more protected from the wind. We found some areas with the same bottom structure and depth, but had scattered oyster shell and not as much floating grass. There weren?t as many redfish here, but the size was better overall. Because the water was too clear to throw darker jigs, we opted for a Pink Hologram Devil Eye on a 1/16 oz. TruLoc jig head, and decided to jig the baits slowly up and down to see if we got a strike. It didn't take long to see them striking at the bait and the clients saw them start following the rig because the water was so clear, but they were retrieving it too fast to hook the redfish. Once I told them to relax and let the bait get in front of the fish, wait until you feel the strike and THEN set the hook, and shortly after that, the redfish started sucking their fishing lures down like they were candy. Five of them got their limits of reds in the 24" to 26.5" range. All of them were hooked deep and solid, there was no way that they were getting off! Next, we hit a channel near some descending flats that was sand and mixed grass beds, to try for some speckled trout. The color we had been using was a bit sandier and we tried using the same action but the clients that were rigged differently, one with a Root beer Devil Eye and the other with a Strawberry one were getting all the hits, from peckerheads to 21 inches and there were a lot more where those came from. While there weren't as many of the larger trout, which were lying in holes on top of the flats, they were some good-looking fish. When we checked out the drop off, it actually had more fish that were smaller, but keepers were holding there. The clients ended up boating 14 speckled trout and the action was hot and heavy, making it a great 3.5 hour outing! We never lost any of the new TruLoc jig heads, mainly because of the good quality, sharp hooks, and only lost the tails on two lures that got smashed by redfish and you just can?t help that when they're slamming them like they were. I really like those jig heads for a good, strong, hook set. About the Author: Captain Robert Brooks is a licensed fishing guide who specializes in wadefishing for big speckled trout and redfish on the Gulf Coast using salt water fishing lures. Robert recommends that you try out some fishing lure from Brown Lures for your next fishing trip. |
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