I am sure that we are all familiar with an old cartoon friend that goes by the name of Wile E. Coyote. In the Looney Tunes cartoon series his main objective is to capture “The Roadrunner” but he always seemed to fail, miserably! So what did he do? He called ACME, strapped some rockets to his feet and gave it his best shot! Even with his greatest efforts though, he always winded up empty handed with his prized bird.
It is now mid March here in Texas and it is starting to warm up fairly quick. Waders, jackets, and beanies are now being replaced with sandals, Magellan shirts, and Costa’s. My rod that has had a Corky tied on for the past 5 months has seen less and less action as the Skitterwalk is becoming my new favorite. Winter is over and my chances of catching that prized 30″ trout are slowly starting to fade. Though not impossible for March, the chances look slimmer and slimmer as the temperatures rise. So what did I do? I have spent the past few weeks making one last valiant effort to capture that fish.
Last weekend I had my day lined out. It was suppose to be 0-5 MPH wind out of the SouthEast from early daylight until 10. I was hoping for a calm slick day on Sabine but I broke rule #1, “Never trust the weather man”. The wind was 15-20 MPH and pretty brutal to paddle in.
I start throwing a topwater just before daylight and can not buy a bite, so I switch to my faithful Corky. My very first cast I quickly hang into a nice trout but she comes off before I get a chance to see her. Second cast and 2 twitches later another trout slams into it! Get her in and she was around 20″.
After making several more cast I decide to switch back over to my Skitterwalk. I start walking the dog and my topwater gets popped up about a foot in the air and as soon as it lands back on the surface of the water, another trout smashes into it! A little bit better fish this time.
A quick release of a 22″ trout and I make another cast. I start to work my lure and trout are blowing it up! They are coming out of the water just attacking this lure. The topwater bite is back in full action. I ended up catching 14 with a majority of them in the 15-17″ range. The action was quick only lasting about an hour but it was a really fun hour!
I fish for a few more hours and decide to paddle back. While making my trek I can’t help but to be slightly disappointed with the realization that I am going to have to wait until next winter for another opportunity for my trophy trout. Instead of being discouraged, I thought of Wile E. and thought what he would do. It was time to outwit my opponent and capture him, after all, it’s just a fish…
I check the tides and weather and start planning my next attack. This is when I notice there is a new moon coming up on the weekend with a peak feeding time at 2 a.m. So I get the bright idea that I will sneak out in the dark of the night and fish until daylight. I finally devised a plan to outsmart my prized fish!
Thursday afternoon comes around and I decide that tonight is the night to unfold my master plan. I call my buddy Willie and he is down to join me. So around midnight we snag large coffees and head to Sabine. It was pretty foggy but just enough to where we could see distant lights for navigation. Really made for a pretty cool paddle actually, eerie but cool.
We start fishing and covering water and can not seem to get a bite. We continue on in the dark of the night searching for that fish but never could find her. Before to long the gnats and mosquitoes had found us floating on the water so we decided to head back around 4 a.m. Got loaded up and I decided to sleep in my truck for a few hours and catch the daylight bite. A few hours later I step out of my truck and begin to throw a topwater. I fished for 3 hours and never got a bite. Once again wound up short on my target.
Now that tournament season is a few weeks away I guess I will turn my focus to the marsh and start chasing redfish. I am ready for some sight casting in the shallows and the rush of heading to the weigh-in with a sack of fish! The past few trips have not been as successful as I had hoped with the dwindling chance of catching my trout. I guess I will take a lesson from the persistent coyote; regroup and redouble your efforts when you fail. So that being said, it’s back to the drawing board!
Enjoy Life