Hot Diggity Dog Days

CORPUS CHRISTI AREA

Reported by CAPT. JOEY FARRAH

Email Joey Farah at jfarah@gmail.com

LISTEN: (3 minutes, 41 seconds)

THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER are some of the best days of the year to be on the water here in the Upper Laguna Madre and Baffin Bay. After July 4th, crowds diminish and the frantic buzz of summer calms down. Life below the surface also gets in a lazy rhythm that can offer some of the most consistent fishing opportunities of the year.

Light winds in the morning and night time cooling of shallow water flats moves redfish and black drum to the shallows by the thousands. Anglers stepping out of the boat or wading into less than knee deep water will find these gamefish rooting around looking for crabs, minnows, shrimp, and sand eels. Start off along the Eastern Shoreline of both Mustang Island between Port Aransas and North Padre Island, and the Padre Island National Seashore. Both areas have public access to some of the best shallow water fishing in the world. At dawn tails and backs will be above water as these fish will be hunting with their heads down. Throwing at direct targets, sight casting with weedless soft plastics like the DOA Shrimp, and the DOA 3” Cal Shad hooked with an Owner Weedless Sled Head, will allow you to use the bait in less than a foot of water without hanging up on sea grass. As the sun comes up and tails go down, switch to a Mirrolure Topwater. The She Dog, is a smaller topwater that can easily be smashed on the surface by shallow water redfish. My favorite colors for summer wade fishing are bone/chrome and chartreuse.

This topwater can be launched long distances and its surface vibration attracts redfish from long distances. For blind casting the flats I like to work the area in a grid pattern, walking softly and casting with an open eye for any redfish that happen to appear in vision at my feet. Bird Island Basin inside the National Seashore is a perfect place to walk in and turn south into the best shallow water fishing of your life! Shallow hard sand dropping off into waist deep marbled grass and sand, redfish and drum up shallow and trout in the grass!

I will be in my ultra shallow water Dargel Skout drifting the shallow flats at dawn and working the edges of the ICW a canal with my Minn Kota Trolling Motor for trout willing to bust topwaters. We will move to the deeper drop offs along the ICW Canal using my Humminbird Side Scan to find schools of trout and redfish. This important sonar unit can distinguish the difference between species, distance facing, and position of every fish along the way. Summer time trout will move to deeper water where tidal flow cools the temperatures.

The Surf will start to go flat as anglers flock to the beach for some late summer beach fishing. Small sharks are just about the best thing for excited young anglers to catch. Start off with some dead shrimp on a small hook and weighted rig. Whiting will be everywhere which are great to eat, no limit, or min size. These whiting also make great cut bait for the small black tip, and scalped head sharks in the second and third gut.

The Dog Days of Summer are long and forever lasting, make lifetime memories with your family and get wet fishing here in the Coastal Bend. Follow all of my hookups on Facebook and Instagram @joeyfarah’s backwater fishing.

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Slip into Hot Water Patterns

PORT ARANSAS

Reported by CAPT. RICHARD THOMPSON

Email Richard Thompson at RandKCoastalOutfitters@gmail.com

Online: RandKCoastalOutfitters.com

LISTEN: (3 minutes, 45 seconds)

SUMMER IS IN FULL SWING, temperatures and the heat index are brutal but that’s no surprise, it’s South Texas.

These early summer sunrises are so magical as we prepare ourselves to slip off the boat into the calm water for that first wade of the morning as we highly anticipate the first massive top water blow up.

As the water temperature climbs up to that 90’s mark, trout and redfish patterns are typically predictable. Our routine doesn’t change much during this time of year. We start our mornings focused on using topwater lures if the floating grass allows us to.

If not, we would use 1/16 lead head with our go-to Down South Lures, Supermodel with a multitude of different colors depending mainly on water clarity and or sunny/overcast skies.

As the temperature and sun rises throughout the day our method changes as we switch to a heavier lead head, 1/8 or 1/4 ounce to be able to get down to the trout that have dropped off to the cooler deeper water.

This strategy is very similar to fishing any mid-bay reefs and or spoils along the Intracoastal waterway. For example, Nueces Bay, the trout will hold closer to the reefs and drop off into the cooler waters as the day progresses. We have found that the best bite for trout will happen extremely early and for a short window. If we have missed this window, we will likely struggle and it will make for a long grind to put fish into the boat. We personally feel more confident when we know of numerous areas with high possibilities in order to be comfortable with the day’s outcome.

We highly encourage you to have a backup game plan in place if you missed that window. Speaking of another game plan this time of year after your early morning trout bite, is going after redfish as they are not so temperamental to the water temperature rising.

We find that redfish typically stay on the flats throughout the day or right on the drop offs. This time of the day when we are targeting redfish with artificial lures, our go to is something with either a lot of tail vibration, Down South Lures, and one of Krystal’s favorites is the Lil John Dart as it has erratic action which drives the redfish nuts.

If you can get the attention of the redfish, it will draw in their curiosity and will create a reaction strike even when they are not eating. Often, this tactic will out fish live or cut bait believe it or not.

Action is consistently good these months, and routinely we are catching limits of redfish and trout in a variety of ways. We are very passionate and take advantage of this time of year to have teachable moments on the boat with our clients to share with them why we are hard core artificial fishermen and the advantages of throwing artificial vs. live bait so that we can cover vast amounts of water drift fishing or wade fishing. Being able to fan your cast increases probability of a strike vs. continually rebating your line eliminating the unwanted hardhead.

Numerous times we have been able to prove our theories to non-believers and convert them to lifetime artificial lovers.

We would like to remind you that this time of year our coastal waters are heavily populated with recreational boats, kite surfers, kayakers, and jet skiers and it is up to everyone to think about being safe in the water and practice being respectable and responsible towards each other.