Live Bait Still Popular With Coastal Anglers
By STEVE KNIGHT
Outdoor Writer
ROCKPORT – The yellow fishing line slowly started to tighten as guide Matt Stennett reach for the rod.
Outdoor Writer
ROCKPORT – The yellow fishing line slowly started to tighten as guide Matt Stennett reach for the rod.
He held the rod firmly, waiting for the fish to stretch the line as much as possible and then with one vicious swing Stennett set the hook and the race was on.
When it comes to catching redfish along the Texas coast, there is more than one way to skin the proverbial cat.
Although there is a growing number of anglers using artificial lures along the Texas coast, including fly fishers, guides like Stennett still see a large number of fishermen who just want to catch fish, whether it is reds or speckled trout.
“There are a lot of people who come down who really don’t know a lot about fishing, but they like to catch fish,” said Stennett, a first-year guide on the working with Casa de Cuentos Lodge.
Like those using artificials, live bait anglers have learned to match their bait to whatever the redfish or trout are feeding on. From January through March it is shrimp. As the weather warms, the guides will switch to mullet and croakers or piggy perch through September.
Fishing foot-deep water in the flats just out of Rockport, Stennett targets the scattered sand holes in search of redfish.
“The redfish sit just outside the grass waiting for a baitfish to swim through,” said Stennett, who grew up fishing the area.
Starting at first light, the guide is hoping for a morning in which the wind doesn’t top 15 miles per hour and there is enough sunlight to allow him to spot the sand holes. He is also waiting on the current to start moving through the cuts. When the water is moving, the fish, which average 24-30 inches, become active feeders.
For the trout, Stennett moves the boat to the outside of the islands, looking for grass in deeper water.
Live bait fishing is less interactive than fishing with lures. The technique is simply to cast the bait into the grass and wait for fish to pick it up and run. And there isn’t any better time for it than the summer months.
“June through September is the time to go. I have been smoking the reds the last week and a half. It is usually over by 10 a.m. We have our nine or 12 fish and can go look for trout,” he explained.
Like most guides, Stennett said his days on the water vary. There are some anglers who are more interested in catching their 10-fish limit of trout and then going for some redfish. Others want their redfish first. And then there are others who want just one or the other.
For more information, contact Stennett at 361-232-0739 or through Casa de Cuentos at www.casadecuentos.com.
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