LOWER LAGUNA MADRE

Reported by CAPT. BRIAN BARRERA

A Season for Meat!

 

MARCH AND APRIL CAN BRING great opportunities for both trophy hunting and meat hauling and filling up the icebox. For most of March I am either drifting or wading. When fishing the flats, in attempt to catch giant trophy, like speckled trout and hard pulling redfish, I like using artificials like jigheads with your favorite soft plastic lure such as a D.O.A. 4 inch jerk bait, and top water lures. When wade fishing, we tend to pick the area apart alot more and fish it way slower, using a finesse style. While drifting, we tend to move fast and hit it hard. We’re only going for the aggressive fish that are going to eat the first or second time they see the lure as we move quickly over the potholes, weed edges and rock piles. If we have a good drift we think is successful enough to do again, we will spin the boat around and reset it at the same exact area we did the last one. We will adjust a little bit if we need to in order to produce more fish.

When we’re not on the flats chasing specks and reds, I tend to hang out at the jetties and other near shore and inshore structures, such as bridge pilings, dock pilings, rock piles, riprap, and other sunken objects, for very good eating sheepshead. Depending on the depth of the water and other conditions, we use anywhere from a 1/8 to a 1 ounce jighead or your classic drop shot style rig with varying sizes of weights and live shrimp. March and into early April these fish are spawning and show up in very big numbers, making it easy for fisherman of all skill sets.

Once we get into April, especially the backend of it, conditions start changing and the weather really starts to warm up. This is one of few months we have all year I call “transition months“ meaning the fish can be hard to find and locate because some are still in their winter time patterns. Some are already getting into their warmer weather patterns. Once you find them, the bite can be really good. We will be chasing big speckled trout and redfish and picking off the last few schools of sheepshead, and throwing top waters after giant snook. This time of year I get back to fishing as early as I can, getting out there at sunrise or before sunrise is even better.  Throwing topwaters on a quiet early morning is something that is hard to beat.