Hot and Healthy Trout

BAFFIN BAY

Reported by CAPT. GERAD MERRITT

Capt. Gerrad Merritt

Email Gerad Merritt at GeradMerritt@gmail.com

Visit Online: ParadiseGuideServices.com

LISTEN: (2 minutes, 35 seconds)

SUMMER TIME TEMPERATURES are in full swing down here on Baffin Bay and this means the water is also heating up. We are seeing plenty of speckled trout of all sizes! The population is healthy, and fish are everywhere. With the water warming up, we have been fishing a little deeper and are having good success over deep rock structures, while using croaker on a free line. We change from shrimp in the spring to using the croaker as almost every customer we have wants to specifically target trout and redfish. I am currently using thirty pound braid attached straight to a number seven Kahle hook. To some, this may seem a little big, but customers tend to miss less fish with the bigger hook.

The croakers will tend to try and hide in these rock formations because that’s just their instinct. Be active with your croaker. When they do get you hung up on a rock, I always advise my customers to give it some line and some time without jerking on it. More times than you would expect, these baits will swim off the rock when they realize they themselves can’t move or a fish in passing will pick it up seeing the easy target. These trout and red fish are smart and will sometimes run your croaker through these rocks, so keep that in mind when selecting line type and strength.

Some days we may resort to live shrimp under a popping cork if we are targeting black drum, as very few black drum in my experience, will eat a croaker. When doing this I use a smaller treble hook. Drum, red fish, trout, and flounder, along with a lot of other species will all eat a shrimp and this for some anglers can be more interesting. You may find yourself having to change hooks a little more often than with a circle or Kahle, but the smaller hook in this case allows anglers to have a better hook set and thus results in more landed fish.

There are also good fish lying in some of the guts and mud flats, as well as enjoying the grass lines and pot holes. Drop offs this time of year are producing good fish as well and I personally like to fish the deep side casting from the shallow and dragging back over the ledge. Our wade fishermen will be basing their color selections on water clarity and paddle size (if using a paddle tail) on wave and current activity.

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Schools, Flats & Jetty Bulls

LOWER LAGUNA MADRE

Reported by CAPT. BRIAN BARRERA

Email Brian Barrera at CaptBrianBFishing@gmail.com

Visit Online: InshoreFishingSouthPadre.com

LISTEN: (2 minutes, 20 seconds)

WITH JULY AND AUGUST IN MIND, it’s time to break out the big gear and make sure it’s ready to rock n’ roll for big tugs and lots of them.

Bull and slot redfish will make their way to the inlets in search of easy meals. Once you put a pattern on these fish it can almost be like clockwork when they are gonna show up to the party.

I personally prefer an incoming tide or even better the back end of the incoming tide when the inlets have had time to get clear with cool ocean water in them. Drifting skyline jigs weighted circle hooks with live (preferably) or dead bait in or out of the inlet along the rock drop offs can and should produce big numbers of giant bull reds.

Another preferred method is a “power” drop shot rig or bottom rig with the weight on bottom and a hook about 2 feet above with preferred bait. Other times I will drop heavy jigheads with baitfish mimicking plastics or weighted D.O.A. shrimp. These areas can get saturated with other boats during weekends and holidays so it’s best to size up the gear one or two notches in order to stop these bruisers from popping off in other boats’ anchor lines, propellers, etc.

August brings calm days, more opportunities, big fish, and one of my favorite… chasing redfish schools! On glassy, calm days a preferred method is to cruise the flats looking for herds of redfish creating wakes as they move over the shallows. They’ve had all summer to get consistent and stay in their patterns so this tail end of that should still hold.

My preferred method once I spot the schools is to get down-path of these fish and use my Minn Kota trolling motor to get my clients and myself in perfect casting position. Once we’re on the fish I use the trolling motor to stay along side/parallel to them, picking them off until they’re on to us. Preferred bait is a 1/8 oz jighead and your favorite soft plastic. Good stuff!