David Woods is a South Padre Island fishing guide with over 20 years of experience. He is the author of three books offering expert fishing advice.
All eyes are currently on Milton and Tampa Bay. What a storm. My only hope is that everyone gets out of the way in time. The storm surge with such an unimaginably powerful system will be immense and the shape of Tampa Bay can exacerbate the dangers of a surge. May God be with them. The storm is to come ashore on Thursday. By the weekend, we should have a full assessment of what the storm has done and what the rescue, clean-up and recovery efforts will look like.
As for local concerns, we picked up some rain from Milton’s exterior before it headed offshore across the Gulf. Our biggest concern has been mosquitos and some of them are pretty big. Coastal Texas hosts several species of bloodsuckers and they are all pretty active right now. Long sleeves and pants at the boat ramp will do wonders for quality of life, especially at daybreak and dusk. I try to avoid using repellent before I go fishing. I am unsure if it repels the fish or not, but I don’t like to have the smell of it lingering on me at any rate. I would rather suffer a couple of mosquito nibbles than smell like that stuff all day in the bay. Each to their own, however. If you get too close to the shoreline and the mosquitos catch the scent of your breath, the bloodsuckers can get to you anywhere in the bay or on the beach.
Trout fishing is excellent. Red fishing is good. The beach is my pick for a hotspot this week. As a rule of thumb, when one side of the Gulf of Mexico is experiencing bad weather, the other side is usually on the fair side of things. That’s how the forecast looks right now. High pressure is building, which will mash the seas down flat and let the fish come shallow.
Focus your efforts on primary feeding times to catch the most fish. There is usually a bite around changing light conditions: daybreak, dusk, or sea breeze cloud cover. Anything that plays with how the sun hits the water tends to confuse baitfish and give predator fish a silhouette target to pursue. Fish are opportunistic and will turn on as the bait presents itself.
The other time you want to focus on is forcing tides. Consult a tide chart to find the periods with the strongest water movements. They may happen midday or during the middle of the night, but when they coincide with favorable light and weather conditions the bite can be phenomenal.
Baitfish, pilchards, shad and anchovies will push with each of the coming fronts and the fish will follow. The great thing about fall fishing is that as the fish move and migrate, just about everybody gets a look at them. No matter where you are fishing, there is a good chance of intercepting some moving fish as we progress through fall.
Live bait rules. Live shrimp, mullet or shad will produce nice creels of fish.
Tight lines, everyone. Stay safe, Tampa.