Chilly waters, hot bites

Brody, the amazing fish-finding and stock-trading dog, likes to fish in cold weather. I guess this is because he has a fur coat, and cold weather is more comfortable for him.

 

However, Brody says the fish are easier to find in cold weather. As it turns out, both are true. 

 

On a recent Saturday morning, the air temperature was 28 degrees. The surface water temperature was a chilly 48 degrees. Frost covered the dock and deck of the skiff. It was cold. Really cold.

 

So, I dressed in a base-layer, mid-layer, and windproof hoodie. Brody wore his fur coat. Dressed for the elements, we launched the skiff.

 

Our plan was to fish the incoming tide and target trout. Then when the tide went slack, pitch lures to dock pilings for redfish. Brody said that the incoming tide would raise the water temperature in the creek. This would trigger the trout and redfish to feed. It sounded logical. Of course, I am the only human who takes stock trading and fishing advice from a dog.  

 

Brody indicated we should fish a creek channel with a depth transition from 5 to 15 feet. On the depth finder, trout were visible hugging the bottom. As I deployed the trolling motor, I noticed Brody pawing at his water bowl. He normally does this when it is empty. This time, it was frozen. Did I mention it was cold?

 

Rather than make a long cast, I vertically jigged a Z-Man Finesse TRD on a 1/10th ounce NedLockZ jig right on the bottom. The strike was extremely light. Just a slight tick. Sometimes, I would not feel the bite but observed a twitch in the high visibility 8-pound braided line as the jig descended. For the next hour or so, we released a bunch of trout. 

 

When the tide went slack, the trout bite stopped. So, Brody and I switched to pitching dock pilings for redfish. In the clear water, we could see schools of redfish milling around the dock pilings and oyster beds.

 

By now, I was feeling pretty cold, and my fingers were frozen. I told Brody let’s catch one and then go home. He agreed, saying he was hungry, and it was time for breakfast.

 

I flipped a short cast to a redfish cruising near the dock and it jumped on the Finesse TRD. After a short fight, we set up my phone for a selfie with the redfish. As the phone counted down, Brody decided to eat breakfast on the skiff.  

 

Thankfully, I was able to release the fish unharmed.