ROCKPORT

Reported by CAPT. JARED McCULLOCH

Stretching Your Legs

 

IT’S SUMMERTIME and we all know our favorite summer spots. Wading is cool and easy with nice hard sand with mixed grass. Knee high water is holding big trout just waiting on the right lure to wiggle by.

With the tall summer grass height, the topwater comes right back to being my friend. More casts without fighting grass and good noise will help to trigger a strike. I like to put three different topwater lures in my wading bag. One with a heavy knocker, a medium and of course the little beads for that quiet rattle.

On calm mornings you can bet trout are going to want to be picky. Change up your retrieves until you get a strike. I prefer bright silvers and golds once the sun is up on a small or medium size topwater.

Don’t want to get out of the boat? Hard to blame you, we all know that cooler is full of refreshing drinks! But there’s usually a lot of boat traffic come summer time and is it picking on the fish you’ve been on? Quite possibly.

There have been plenty of trips with customers where a boat runs by and a steady bite stops. There have been trips where a boat runs by and they spook a group of reds nearby as well. An easy way to find your next target is when they mud up a little spot.  So, we are left with the great question, work with the extra traffic or make a longer run than normal and get away from it?

There are plenty of Saturdays where I tell customers to get comfy, we are going to make a run. Spots like Panther and Spider in the middle of San Antonio Bay don’t see a lot of love in the summer. There are plenty of no-name reefs that haven’t been picked on up there.

The same goes with shorelines. Don’t forget about the close-by reefs out in the middle of these bays either. Deeper water will keep a lower temp, and the calm summer weather will allow an easy day out there as well. Whatever you choose, stay calm and cool out there, everyone is on the hunt and looking to find some tug on their line.

 

 

 

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