HORSESHOE BEACH
Having a Blast on Big Trout
As the fog is slowly lifting off the water to reveal a cold, calm winter morning, we drift over the grass flats in one and a half feet of water, looking for, and right there, is what we are looking for, as a big crushing top-water strike takes place! “Quick pitch that suspending twitching shad to him.” I said, as the bait lands 3 feet past, and well to the left. “That is good, give it two short jerks to the starboard side, and let it start to drop. One, two and yep, get ready, and let it fall!” Okay, here she comes as the wake rolls around, and Wow, perfectly performed from the cast to the hook-set, as a solid 4-pound trout is pulled along-side the boat. “Good job, nice fish.”, awesome smiles, and a few photos take place.
For the last couple weeks, that is how my charters were getting nice catches of trout and big reds. On the warming trends, after the cold fronts moved through in January, the trout fishing was on fire here in Horseshoe. We all know that during the winter months, it is hard to get live bait, and with that said, I would like to take the opportunity to let you know about some of my favorite soft plastic baits. It is Stinky Fingers Bait Co.’s sponge Baits. The past December and January here, at Up-the-limit, we have been blistering big trout and reds in the Big Bend waters. We had several limited-out days and a few of those days we ended up with several 4 to 5-pound trout and top-of-the-slot reds. Almost all were caught using stinky fingers baits. The not so well known secret, is the that bait has a sponge inside that releases scent as it is pulled through the water, or when a fish strikes. This scent creates a super aggressive recovery strike if the fish missed it, or you happen to be site casting, and got a little too excited and quick on hook-set.
Top tips for trout this month will be to target 1½ to 3 feet of water on an incoming tide, as this shallow water will warm fast and hold good quality fish as the sun gets up. Set up with a twitching shad, rigged weed-less, with an Owner 5167W-705 Twist lock Light-Weighted 5/0 (1/16 or 3/32 oz) fishing hook to 18 inches of 15 pound test fluorocarbon leader line. The weighted hook will give you a bit more casting distance, and still allow the bait to fish, like a suspending bait rather than a sinking. With each cast, make 4 to 6 slow cranks, and then give the shad a good 4 to 6-inch twitch. Twitch it 2 to 3 times in a row; then return to a slow retrieve. This technique should create some reaction strike as well as put more fish in the boat on any given day. Again, during the winter season, keep a watch on the weather for warming trends, it only takes one good sunny day and few degrees rise in water temps (push 55 to 57 or 58 degrees) to put dormant fish in a feeding pattern.
Until Next Month “Keep you lines tight and the wind to your back”.
Capt. Brett UpTheLimitFishingadv@Yahoo.com 352 498-6029