“Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” — Harriet Beecher Stowe
My fellow yakker, Kris, shared this quote with me this morning. He felt it offered some interesting perspective on the way to approach fishing. I thought about it awhile and decided I didn’t like that perspective. I prefer to preserve my efforts until I know the tides are turning. It just seems more logical. Check out the tidal predictions and go and get them.
Along the topic of tides, I’ve recently had a few conversations with an individual named Chaz on the Texas Kayak Fishing Forum. He’s shared some really good tips on fishing the Port O’Connor area. Looking at other posts in the forum, I came across some other good advice he offered another member. The following are some basic tips from Chaz for the newbie saltwater angler:
– if whatever you’re doing isn’t working – try something else until you get a hit.
– look for moving water around oyster bars and cast around the downstream side.
– it’s better to cast upcurrent and bring the bait back toward you than to cast downcurrent and work the bait against the current – bait doesn’t go against the current and it looks un-natural.
– work the shorelines – cast parallel along the grass lines and especially points.
– learn the bottom structure and work the drop-offs – fish will hang in slightly deeper water later in the day
– if you see bait working, stick around and cast all around that bait.
– keep moving until you start getting hits.
– if you see bait getting chased, cast around there for a while.
– especially around here, learn to look for reds in the grass. Look for fins or backs sticking out of the water or grass moving around.
– work that bait – change the pace of the retrieve – slow or fast or faster – bump the bottom – let it hang. This goes if you are throwing plastics. If you’re throwing live shrimp, keep it moving too but not as hard – shrimp are the most fragile life forms in the universe.
– if you’re going to use live bait, your mission is to get the bait from the bait store to the water in the best condition possible. Use a bubbler for live bait to keep them lively. Put them in a trolling bait bucket and be sure to push the whole bait bucket under water occasionally so the bucket doesn’t get too hot.
– if you have a keeper fish, don’t unhook it until you have it on your stringer.
– be sure to have a good net with you.
Thanks, Chaz.