David Wood is a South Padre Island fishing guide with over 20 years of experience. He is the author of three books offering expert fishing advice.
It’s mid-October and we are still having king tides. Onshore easterlies are keeping the water stacked up in the Western Gulf for now. Towards the second half of the forecast, those hefty east winds subside a little and the tide will let up, but it won’t be until a good northerly or two blows some more of the water out and away from shore for that to really, lastingly happen. Make good use of all the water in the meantime.
Bay fishing should be good right now, especially in back bays along the western shore where the wind blows all that bait. By my guess, Shad does not know where they are sometimes. They inhabit the water column
in open bay areas and inshore waters like other pelagic creatures. This often leaves them at the mercy of the wind. They end up wherever the wind blows them, and all the other fish will follow. Look for redfish, trout
and flounder to be hunting the same areas where you find a lot of bait. Cooling water temperatures and exposed bait fish will have the bite hot at times in the coming weeks. It is my favorite time of year to fly fish for reds.
The myriad techniques a fisherperson may employ to garner great success in our waters is one of the many aspects that make our beloved Laguna Madre a world-class fishing destination. The shallow water and
abundant grass bed habitat create a uniquely competitive ecological environment. Fish densities are extremely high, and redfish and trout behave aggressively. Therefore, fish aren’t too picky when it comes to what they will strike at a lot of the time. Many different fishing approaches work nearly equally well. People use all kinds of live bait, artificial and sometimes prank baits to catch quality fish. I have seen pickled jalapeno
peppers and gummy worms work pretty stinking well on fired-up redfish.
For a slightly more sophisticated and reliable angling repertoire one might choose swimbaits, topwaters or even some of the newer wakebaits, which are bulkier shallow-running cranks that work well for reds and
trout. I am a bit nostalgic and prefer to do things the old way whenever possible. I like to catch them on a couple of chicken feathers wrapped around a hook like Lefty Kreh back in the day.
Commercial fishermen in the earliest days of South Padre even used cane poles with rudimentary flies made of white feathers or cloth, like modern-day fly fishing. They sent their motorless boats adrift across the
bay, popping the water with the tops of their cane poles, and caught hefty catches of snook, redfish and trout before landing on the other side with their catch.
Those old methods still work well. A popping cork or mauler-style rig with attached plastic or artificial shrimp does the same. When lightly popped along, it sends a signal to nearby fish that feeding is happening
and they will rush over to check it out. A cork and shrimp, mullet or artificial will put in work for the entire fall-season to catch just about anything in the bay.
Tight lines, folks.
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