I mentioned in a previous post how March is my least favorite month to fish, and this March lived up to that. I’m glad it’s over. I had a few poor trips with just 1 or a few fish to show. Reports from some friends were similar; one or two fish at a spot, hard to pattern, etc. That being said, a few nice trout were caught, if you could find them. In fact, I had one day where I found a school of trout and it was just like a fall bite, with one fish after another, all of good size. The topwater bite is beginning to heat up and will only get better as the bait fish fill in.
Anyway, it’s April now, and that means trout are getting ready for the first spawn of the year and will be feeding consistently. We should see reports of some of the biggest trout of the year caught in April through June.
I fished yesterday afternoon and found the trout feeding well beginning at the first drop. Many were small males but a couple bigger females were hanging around different parts of the structure. Pretty much everywhere I stopped I caught a few trout. They were very aggressive and if you missed a bite they would come back a second or third time. I eventually found a school of very nice trout, 16-18″ that were stacked up. They were hitting suspending lures and bucktails well, but the hot bait of the day was a Z-Man Trout Trick on a gold TroutEye jighead. This combo caught them almost every cast. It’s fun to get in to a school of feeding trout, because you can experiment with different lures to see what works the best. In fact, this is exactly how Bob Sanders discovered the Trout Trick in the first place. It was easily the best lure yesterday.
I also ended up with my first bluefish of the year (meh) and a nice flatty at 16″.
A nice afternoon trip for sure!
APRIL CONTEST
In the month of April, any purchase of $50 or more on our online store will be entered into a drawing for a fishing trip with Ralph and Dave. We will make the drawing at the end of April and will post the winner’s name on our media. The trip must be claimed within 1 year. If you are out of town, you must arrange to be in Charleston on the agreed upon date to claim the trip. It is sure to be a fun and entertaining day!
Our resident Bucktail tier, Rex, posted this nice red he caught on a TroutEye Bucktail
