By CAM Special Correspondent Tobin Strickland
Many new anglers begin their search for information looking for tips, or tricks, or techniques. While these are good to look for, many times they are taken out of context of where they were being used. Learn the big picture instead.
What I mean by learning the big picture is learning the seasonal movement of fish through the bay systems based on seasonal patterns. Once you have it down, you can apply it anywhere in any coastal estuary from Brownsville to Virginia. I recently had an under-educated angler tell me “It’s just “x” fish, they just get up a leave an area…”, he was so confident in his paradigm it blocked him from really getting help. Learning where forage species will be moving through your bay system will help put you in the right place at the right time. From there you can begin to quickly learn what lures produce in what situations. But without being in the right part of the bay, fishing will be frustrating to say the least.
We’re about to hit the summer pattern which is forage looking for deep water and current. Here it’s best to find structure in depths between 6-10 feet in the mid part of the bay. Due to the depth, you’ll be limited to lures like rat tails on jig heads and a few others to be able to specifically target the fish that are feeding on that forage.
Tobin developed TroutSupport.com in 2009 to support anglers in getting to their next level. 1000’s of Anglers have improved with the information in his instructional DVDs. TroutSupport – Tech Support for Speckled Trout & Redfish, www.troutsupport.com