Florida Pompano
David Woods is a South Padre Island fishing guide with over 20 years of experience. He is the author of three books offering expert fishing advice.
More than anyone, I would like fishing to be good all the time every day. However, that’s not at all the case. The fish do not wait on us like we wish they would. They are on a schedule that largely ignores the daily dramas of mankind. The fish do not care if we have a big game to attend, a wedding or a court date. That stuff means nothing in the aquatic world. That’s why we also must leave that type of stuff at the dock and focus on what fish do care about: fresh bait and clean green waves.
This past month, I did more traveling and messing around with business affairs than fishing. You know, doing too much unimportant stuff. I finally got out for a while yesterday and paddled more than a couple miles, almost giving up entirely, before I got on a school of fish. When I finally did zero in on them, I caught one nearly every cast, ending the afternoon on the count of seventeen. On the way back in, I realized my kayak was heavier to paddle than earlier and I had been taking on water. I spent the afternoon finding some marine epoxy and fixing what, I hope, was the hole. We will see how the epoxy binds to the poly. No matter the weather, I will take her for a test-fish this afternoon.
Winter fishing should kick into gear with this cold snap. The fish respond to these fronts, feeding heavily before and shutting off as the wind whips northeast, then resuming the winter feed a day after the weather settles. Right after the temperature drops and as the high-pressure sets in, the fishing gets pretty tough, as fish tend to hug the bottom and become inactive. You can tell it’s a high-pressure day when there are no clouds in the sky, or blue-bird weather as fishermen sometimes call it. Use bait and slow down your presentations on those days. Finger mullet around pilings and hard structure will produce a few flounder and reds throughout the winter. Shrimp will catch sheepshead, drum and everything else.
Pompano fishing has been excellent on the right tides. Offshore has produced tuna and snapper in abundance when it comes into focus. Inshore and offshore are more marginal fisheries and are more finicky than our bay. This is mostly because of the weather. What makes South Padre Island the wind-surfing capital of the world some days, also presents a challenge to fishermen and golfers alike. Everything about boating and fishing becomes harder in heavy wind. Once the waters get chewed up with sand and stuff off the bottom, the fish will either shut down or move to greener pastures. As soon as the water clears, they are good and hungry again and the fishing returns to excellence.
South Padre Island is one of the best places in America in the wintertime. Hit them when they are biting and you’ll get tired of catching them. Tight lines, folks!
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