There are so many things to be thankful for this year, one of which is the great fishing we’ve been experiencing on Baffin Bay. For such a complex system, wintertime fishing there is somewhat predictable. That makes patterning the bite fun and bountiful!
The winter months on Baffin Bay are the time to target just one fish and one fish only – a trophy speckled trout. This bay is full of big fish, but winter is the time of year when they begin to get even bigger!
When the water temperatures drop, speckled trout get the message from Mother Nature that they must eat and pack on some pounds to survive the next few months. To do this, they eat bigger mullet, which are plentiful in Baffin Bay. They may just eat only once a week, but when they do expend the energy to feed, they want something that will last for a while so they can conserve their precious energy. Trout can eat prey up to two-thirds of their body length, so you get the picture – I’m talking BIG!
For this reason, anglers toss larger lures, such as Texas Custom Corky’s Fat Boy and Softdine XLs, are great for enticing that strike from a giant trout. Of course, larger soft plastics, like the 6” or even the 8” Coastal Brew Baits Dart, along with the Down South Lures “Super Model” size, present that large profile hungry trout are looking for. These big soft plastics, thrown on lighter jig heads, work naturally, low and slow – the perfect presentation for a big trout laid up for an easy meal.
For the absolute best results, pick your day to go fishing, if you can. What I mean by that is to choose a day or two before the passing of a cold front, or two or three days beyond the passing of a cold front. Why, you ask? Well, prior to the arrival of a cold front, barometric pressure begins to drop fast and hard. This somehow signals the fish to start eating because bad weather is coming, and water temperatures are about to drop – perhaps to a point where their survival is threatened. And eat they do!
On the other side of the front, the fish hang tough for the first couple of days, waiting out the extremely high barometric pressure that comes with the passage of the front. Once that pressure starts to drop and the fish have weathered the conditions, they start eating again with gusto to prepare for this scenario all over again. If you can set yourself up for success by picking the right fishing days, there will be more big fish in your future.
But you still have to be where the fish are hanging. Find places with structure, grass, potholes, drops, and edges. In Baffin Bay, there are many areas that match this criteria. Some spots are near the rocks (structure), deep water (edges and drops), and shallow grass areas (potholes and edges). When it gets cold, fish move deeper (and so does the bait). When the sun warms up the shallow water over darker grass, trout might move up shallower to take advantage of the warmer water (and again, so does the bait).
Ambush predators like trophy trout use everything to their advantage to stay alive, so they are always near the bait. One baitfish jumping on a cold winter day tells you everything you need to know. Even mullet don’t want to expend the energy to jump unless they sense a predator is near. Pay attention to all the little signs in winter – it will pay off!
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See you on the water!
Capt. Sally Black
