Get Ready for Spring - by Jay Forrest

After last months article I feel almost ashamed I didn’t go fishing in the “Deep Freeze of 2003”. Unfortunately I had a series of commitments over the coming week that required some preparation (a conference in Austin, our swap meet, and a meeting with my CPA) that kept me inside! (Well, that is my story and I am sticking to it!)

On the other hand, it will still be cold tomorrow. Maybe I can sneak in a few hours fishing the Guadalupe on my way to Austin tomorrow! If I can get away early???

We should be coming up on some spectacular spring fishing. This late cold snap should stack up the migrating white bass for a major run when water temperatures start warming back up. I had been concerned that our Colorado Bend outing might miss the peak, but this cold snap and a cool spell through next week may push it back so that we are perfectly timed.

Our lakes are high and the flooded grasses, weeds, and brush were holding catfish, bass and sunfish before the Big Freeze. Once the sun comes back out they should be heading back into the shallows. Good subsurface action should be available by mid-March. Topwater action should start warming up in April.

Word is that redfish were showing up on the flats before the freeze. By late March the mid and lower coast should be heating up. The biggest challenge seems to be low water in the Rockport/Corpus region. Many of the flats are dry and shell structures that normally hold fish are exposed. We need some good tides and rain to refill the bays and give the fish room to roam.

It is time to check out your fly lines, clean them, and replace the old, rough, and cracked ones. Check your backing on your saltwater rods (and those used for trout up north – no use losing the trout of a lifetime to old backing!). Oil and lube your reels (yeah, you should have done it last fall, but you ought to do it again, even if you did oil them last fall).

Clean out your fly vests or packs. Reorganize! Throw away and replace old tippet under 3X – it will almost certainly be brittle and weak. Restock your vest and pack with missing items or those you are running short of. Get rid of rusty flies. Reorganize your fly boxes. Consider putting together a bass box, a panfish box, a coastal box, and a trout box or boxes (for the coming month and next year).

I personally prefer chest packs and fanny packs over a vest, so I have different packs for different purposes. Consider putting together a coastal pack and a fresh water pack. The coastal pack should have heavier leaders and tippet (say 8 lb to 12 lb.), room for a fly box that will hold ten to twenty flies – some of which may be fairly large – (I carry a larger assortment of flies on the boat and only carry the flies I think I will need/want in the pack), and a water bottle for long sessions wading the flats. The freshwater pack should have moderate to heavy weight tippet (5X to 1X), room for two fly boxes (one for bass and one for panfish, or one for dry flies and one for wet flies when fishing for trout). Both packs should have nippers, hook sharpener, lip balm, a bandana, and possibly spare sunglasses. The freshwater pack may include fly floatant, indicator yarn, and lead shot.

I also pack a small, but larger, boat bag with my fishing license, additional flies, line cleaner, sun screen, hats, spare sunglasses, a knife, paper towels in plastic bags and or lens cleaners, a towel in a plastic bag, line cleaner, fly flotant, small binoculars, GPS, etc.

This creates a system that allows me to be ready to fish any time. All I have to do is pick up the appropriate pack, the larger bag, and the appropriate rod tube (I keep my most used rods in cases with the reels attached) and I am set to go fishing.

Getting this done before our great spring fishing hits will have you ready for the coming season and maximize your fishing time!