There aren’t much in the way of actual reports from the past week due to rough conditions in advance of Hurricane Sally. But the secret to catching fish this weekend will require finding clean water, not an easy task after days of high winds, churned-up seas and tons of rain.
There is some good news. Temperatures are starting to cool off, which will spur appetites and the daylight hours continue to dwindle by minutes every day. Those triggers, along with turning leaves and other natural signs, are a harbinger of good fishing days ahead.
With all the rain and continued run-off dirty water and lower salinities will be common. Trout especially don’t like silty water, so if you can find pockets of clear or slightly stained depths, work those hard. Going deeper is another good option. That may require more weight to get into the strike zone. DOA shrimp in 1/2-ounce sizes, Sureketch touts and CAL shad tails with heavier heads bounced just off the bottom, over the top of the grass, will be a good bet. Adding a squirt of Pro-Cure bait gel in mullet or menhaden flavors never hurts.
Redfish are much more tolerant of murkier water, but they have to find your baits or lures to eat them. Using live pinfish, finger mullet or mud minnows under a popping or clacker-style cork will help the fish hone in on the offerings. Gold spoons are effective with their flash and wobble or you could try a soft-plastic lure pinned to a spinner blade rig. Reds find those hard to resist, too. Look for reds around flooded oyster bars and grassy shorelines. Overslot reds will begin foraging on bait in the bays and passes in the weeks ahead in anticipation of winter.
Flounder will be on the move and feeding heavily before the water temperatures plunge. Check the charts for funnel points like cuts between bars or tidal creeks where water flow will concentrate bait. Shrimp and shad tails bounced through those zones will often produce good numbers of these tasty flatfish. Mud minnows are tops in the real bait department.
Shifting weather patterns will likely make for breezy conditions again this weekend. Coming off Thursday’s new moon, tides will be strong, albeit late on incoming water. Daytime lows will bottom out mid-mornings with more than four feet of flood tide returning by late afternoons. Expect a period of high activity the last hour before the low and very high window for an hour on either side of the highs.
As is prudent after every major storm, keep a sharp lookout for floating debris in the water. A misplaced dock plank or drifting log can end the day in a hurry and could result in an expensive repair bill to a prop or lower unit.
Copyright 2020, Capt. Dave Lear. All rights reserved.