Winter/Spring Trophy Trout Techniques

It's that time of year, once again. However, due to Bush's change of Daylight Savings time, it has come a little later. It gets dark early, the photoelectric effect of the sunlight has started to bore its way in to my Circadian rhythm as it weakens it Vitamin D producing trajectory, and I feel a new rejuvenation and vigor in my daily endeavors. I see the effect too on the 'older' guides in our talented cadre as we wait for charters and friends to get their tackle together and head out to wet a line-the old salts seem like younger versions from a few decades back. Everything seems alive and anew as ducks swoop in to their wintering nesting grounds and the maturing reds, spawning flounder, and juvenile jacks make their ways out to the Gulf. Even the wind is freshened as it spins from its lazy, warm summer southeast pattern to the biting northerly teeth of encroaching old Man Winter. As I wax poetic, what is it that can make an IRS bonafied retiree act like a twenty-something again? That's right, Trophy Trout season is here.

A couple of years ago I read a report in a magazine or on-line that the average Texas angler that gets to the coast at least ten times a year considered a 'trophy' trout twenty-four inches. Folks, it is show time and if you want a chance to better your personal record or simply see what a twenty-four plus inch trout looks like in person, follow these three simple steps.

Barometer and The Weather Channel are your Friends

I often have charters ask me if the barometer really plays an important role on fish behavior. For those of you that know me, this is my wise reply, "Do your ears pop when the air pressure goes up or down?"

"Yes." The unsuspecting inquisitor inevitably always answers.

"Well, there you go" I say. "If it affects your inner equilibrium, imagine what it does to an animal with the brain the size of a pea and an apparatus operated under air pressure that regulates their depth in the water column."

"Oh!"

I let them off the hook and give them the old mantra, "When the barometer rises the fish fall; when the barometer falls, the fish rise."

High-pressure places a lot of extra stress on a fish's air bladder; so, to alleviate pressure the expel all air and rest on the bottom. Therefore, when you have a stomachache, do you eat? Neither do I nor fish. A good way to figure out the relative air pressure watch the Weather Channel to get a good read on the current barometer and upcoming weather events. Better yet, look out the window and if you see high, wispy clouds go on back and watch a good game. Counter-intuitively though, if it's gray, overcast, kind miserable outside that means the barometer is falling and your wasting valuable, excellent fishing time. Since you are already off the sofa and looking out the window, your half way to the car and boat, why not hit the water?

Hard Plastic v. Soft Plastic; Or How Deep Am I?

The defroster is fighting the condensation off the inside of your windshield created by the still damp waders you tossed in the back of the extend-a-cap, your coughing down some stout convenience store coffee, your too rugged for that foo-foo four dollar latte, and you have three packets of the obligatory trash bag sized beef jerky sitting next to you. You're ready.

You fill up the boat and the hit the boat ramp. Suspciously, but unfortunately for the ones that decided to tug up the covers, the boat ramp only has two or three trucks in the parking lot. You hammer out across the windblown ICW, pull up to your favorite spot, and now, what do I throw?

I like to wade water mid-thigh to waist deep during the winter months and have more than a lifetime worth of twenty-eight inch plus trout. Luckily, I have had my dad, Captain Bruce Shuler and Captain Teddy Springer to teach me to read the water, structure, and fish behavior. The actual bait selection and retrieval were up to me. It took me awhile and a few head banging stubborn episodes to learn to be patient and try a number of things.

I tried a few of the soft-plastic suspending baits but found them too flimsy and I had to readjust the body shape to get a different depth pattern in changing conditions. If a good fish hit, I found I had to reshape the bait to get the desired effect as well. Dad had been touting the Catch 2000 as his winter go-to, which I found odd since he is an extreme creature of habit but the new bait won him over. He finally convinced me to use it while filming a TV show with Mark Davis of Big Water Adventures while we caught brood fish for the TPWD CPL Hatchery. I now say that I too love the Catch 2000.

The bait is a, no pun intended here, is a catchall. If you cast and slowly reel it back in it stays about eighteen inches in the water column. Slow down your retrieve and you can work the tops of the grass driving those grass-lying fish crazy. Speed it up and you can literally work it like a topwater across the surface. Imagine a bait you can work the winter water column fro the bottom to the top with out having to retie a different style bait on your line. I like to use it in all three fashions until I find what the fish are looking for that day. I then either continue you the pattern or tie on a specific style bait that matches the style retrieval the fish are hitting. Find what works best for you and the fish.