December arrives bearing gifts of fish
On the first day of December, water surface temperatures in bays along Texas’ upper and middle coast hit 70 degrees and even a degree or two more in some shallow bays. It was close to that in some of the west-facing coves and shorelines of East Texas reservoirs.
In a normal year — whatever that is or, more correctly, used to be — those water temperature readings would be nudging into the 50s.
Winter may be coming, but it certainly is not here yet. And fishing along the coast and on the lakes reflects this lingering Indian summer. Fish in the lakes and bays are behaving like it is two weeks from Halloween and not three weeks from Christmas Eve.
This is great news for anglers. The mild conditions have fish actively feeding — gorging, really — ahead of what they intuit is coming, making for an extended season of very good and wonderfully comfortable fishing.
And many Texas anglers, especially those in urban areas, have additional reason to cheer the arrival of December. It marks the start of the state’s “winter” rainbow trout stocking program that puts some great, easily accessed fishing almost in their backyards. More on that in a minute. Topwaters in the morn
On the lakes, largemouth bass continue smashing topwater plugs fished around or over cover in fairly shallow water.
“Topwater fishing is good — really good — for the first couple of hours, just like it has been for the past two months,” said Will Kirkpatrick, longtime guide on Sam Rayburn Reservoir. Kirkpatrick has had best success working walk-the-dog surface lures (he is partial to a 3/4-ounce Spook) in areas where torpedograss and hydrilla grow in 6 to 9 feet of water.
When the morning topwater bite fades, he has been switching to an unweighted, soft-plastic stickbait, working it slowly in the same areas. Later in the morning, when fish ease deeper to avoid the direct sunlight, he has been using a Texas-rig softplastic stickbait to fish in/ around bottom. All have been productive, he said.
That will change with some colder weather that drops water temperatures into the low 60s or upper 50s, forcing the threadfin shad those bass are shadowing to move deeper into coves. But, for now, with water temperature running 65 to 68 degrees and even higher, fall fishing tactics are paying off.
It is much the same situation on the coast, where anglers are enjoying an extended autumn that is producing some spectacular fishing. Anglers targeting speckled trout have had their way with the state’s most popular inshore game fish. The fastest fishing has been for anglers targeting schools of trout — speckled and sand trout — feeding on white shrimp migrating from bays to the Gulf and attaching flocks of gulls and terns that give away the location of the fish. “Fishing the birds” has been most productive in East Galveston Bay and East and West Matagorda bays.
The only downside has been that the schools of trout under the birds have, for the most part, been smallish specks, most of them under the 15-inch minimum length requirement.
Anglers targeting larger specks have focused on reefs and shorelines holding pods of menhaden or mullet, either drift-fishing the open-water reefs or wadefishing the shorelines.
Those bay shorelines and areas near passes between the bays and Gulf also are yielding some very good flounder catches.
The peak of the fall flounder migration from bays to the Gulf, where the flatfish spawn during winter, usually peaks in mid-November, and with it comes the best flounder fishing of the year as anglers plunder concentrations of the flatfish moving toward and through bay/ Gulf exchanges.
Come December, that fishing usually tapers off dramatically as most of the fish have exited the bays. But not this year, it seems. While flounder fishing over the last week or so has not been as fast as it was around Thanksgiving, it has been good enough that many anglers in traditional fall founder hotspots — funnel areas such as Bolivar Roads, Rollover Pass, Galveston Ship Channel, Texas City Dike and Sea Wolf Park — have landed their two-flounder limits. Time to start gigging
December’s arrival reopens the opportunity for flounder fishers to take the flatfish by stalking shallow flats during the night and using gigs to impale the fish. Gigging is prohibited Nov. 1-30 as a way to reduce harvest pressure on the vulnerable flatfish. But the method becomes legal again Dec. 1.
Flounder fishers/giggers should remember, however, that the two-fish daily limit remains in effect through Dec. 14. After that, the flounder limit reverts to the five-fish daily bag limit in effect outside Nov. 1-Dec. 14.
While flounder fishing will cool as December wears on and what passes for winter inevitably comes to Texas, fishing for another popular fish will catch fire. Without that cooler weather, the fishery wouldn’t exist.
Rainbow trout are a cold-water species, unable to survive in water much warmer than about 70 degrees. That is why, with the exception of a stretch of the Guadalupe River below Canyon Lake and a stream high in the Guadalupe Mountains of the Trans-Pecos, Texas holds no waters where freshwater trout stand a chance of surviving year-round.
But freshwater trout can survive quite well in Texas waters during the few months — usually early December through March — when daily peak water temperature in most of the state is almost certain to hold well below 70 degrees.
That cool-water window allows Texans to enjoy what for more than 40 years has been one of the most popular put-and-take fisheries in the state. Over the coming three months, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department inland fisheries crews will load more than 300,000 hatchery-produced rainbow trout into trailers and distribute them to 150 or so public waters across the state for anglers to catch.
The trout-stocking program focuses on putting fish into public ponds and lakes in and near urban areas, aiming to create cool-season fishing opportunities within easy striking distance of the largest concentrations of anglers or would-be anglers.
The program, funded with a portion of the $10 freshwater fisheries stamp tied to the state’s freshwater fishing license, has become a welcomed winter option for many anglers. Almost all of the stocking sites are in city, county or state parks with easy access for bankfishing, making them attractive for anglers who lack boats.
The fish themselves are suitable for targeting by anglers of all skill levels. The hatchery-raised trout, most of them 10 inches or so but a few bigger ones added to the mix, are not nearly as wary as their truly wild counterparts. They can be caught on tackle as basic as a cane pole or spin-cast rod/reel rigged with a small hook and baited with kernels of corn, meal worm, nightcrawlers or other “natural” baits. And they also will cooperate with anglers using fly-fishing tackle or spinning gear and trying to trick the fish with flies, in-line spinners or other artificial lures. Rainbows for all
Anglers hitting a stocking site on the day a load of rainbow trout are released (or even a few days later) stand a good chance of catching at least a couple of the delicious trout and maybe even a five-fish daily limit.
Texas imposes no minimum length for rainbow trout on all public waters with the exception of two sections of the Guadalupe River downstream from Canyon Dam.
The first trickle of trout began flowing into stocking sites last week. That flow will increase this month, peaking in January.
About 30 stocking sites are in the Houston area, and four of them will see trout injections in the coming couple of weeks. Resoft Park Lake in Alvin is scheduled to be stocked Dec. 12, Community Park Lake in Missouri City will get trout Dec. 18 and 22,and First Capitol Park Pond in West Columbia will be stocked Dec. 13. Mary Jo Peckham Park in Katy will be a season-long hot spot as the popular pond will see trout stockings every two weeks beginning Dec. 8.
A schedule of trout stockings as well as directions to waters to receive the fish, regulations, basic fishing tactics and other information on the program can be found on the TPWD website at tpwd. texas.gov/troutstocking.