Last night I looked at the forecast ...and then at the tide chart. I had a hunch and decided to text the boss and my admin and let them know I would be late coming to the office today. I woke at 4:15 and headed for a grass flat I know well but don't fish often. It has the structures that work well when weather is cool but not cold. When we get a nasty cold snap the fish are all driven deep, but when it gets cool during the night they just head a LITTLE deeper. The flat I fished has a gradual slope until the grass ends in about 4' of water, and then it continues to slope off into a channel. One side gets deep but the other side isn't nearly as deep, and has a bend where the outgoing tide allows fish to hunt with some protection from the tide movement. If I wait for the right conditions and approach quietly (the kayak advantage) to wade it, the place can be magical. I slowly worked the gradual edge for over an hour in darkness with only two small trout coming to the net, but I knew it could change with the coming daylight. I kept changing the speed and intensity of the lure motion, searching for that combo that would get a response because I knew there were bound to be some decent fish hanging on this spot. When I figured out that the magic combo was a slow twitch (2-3 second pause) twitch-twitch (2-3 second pause) pattern done very lightly, the cool morning heated up. I found it odd that the fish were hunting as if they were cold, but they didn't fight like they were cold at all. I guess they were just waiting for that pattern to turn them from observers into biters. From first light until about sunrise things got gloriously busy, with a limit of solid trout with two more released, a needle fish, a 16" mullet that wanted a piece of the lure too, and a lost big momma trout that made four blistering drag-burning runs before shaking the hook ten feet from the net. Then there was the almost 27" bruiser below, and after a few more quiet minutes I realized the bite had died and I was ready to head for the office.
I don't keep trout that often, but I was happy to have a limit for a family dinner.
These fish don't come along that often for me, and I always forget just how thick and strong they are when they get North of 26 inches. The stress level goes up when they get close and you've got to figure out how to coax them into the net.
