Winter Fishing

In my neck of the woods, the winter has been a mild one. Winter fishing has been off the charts. When the wind normally howls before and after a cold front, fishing success drops like a rock. So we try to fish ahead of the front as the pressure drops. But this winter – at least so far – the fronts have been few and far between along the southern Atlantic coast. Consequently, we have been able to fish in light winds and moderate temperatures, something the fish really like! We went this past week into the marsh and estuaries of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) on the Georgia coast. While the Georgia coast is only about 100 miles long as the crow flies, it has well over 500 miles of fishable shoreline in and around all the creeks, rivers and barrier islands. Georgia is home to over one-third of the total salt marsh estuary on the Atlantic coast. And the best part of all of that is – there are lots of fish and comparatively not many fishermen! During 2011 there were 61,000 resident and non-resident saltwater licenses sold in Georgia. To put this number in perspective, Florida has more resident and non-resident saltwater licenses sold than ALL coastal states combined, both Atlantic and Pacific. I heard, “Get to the fishing!!” OK, here is what we did. We had a high, outgoing tide in the morning leading up to dead low around noon time. For me, this is an ideal situation. I like to fish the last of the outgoing down to low and then the first of the incoming tide. In Georgia, this is particularly important. The tides can run as much as 8 or 9 feet difference between high and low tide. The fish that are in the creeks and up on the marsh flats at high tide are more concentrated and easier to locate in low water. When you have tides like these, it is easy to get caught up in a creek when the water is dropping. Some creeks will literally have no water in them at low tide. You can be in 8 feet of water at high tide and think you are fine, only to realize that half way through the tide you can’t get out of that creek!

I avoid that mistake by lots of exploring. Oh yes, I have been caught – several times in fact – but over time I have investigated all the areas I usually fish. I go at low tide and find the creeks that I can enter at dead low tide. If I can get into them, then I can get out of them were I fishing there on an outgoing tide!

We always look for bait. It’s not the bait we buy at the tackle shop, it’s the bait we see in the area we plan to fish.

As we idled up to our chosen creek I stopped the boat and shut the engine down. All eyes were on the water at the mouth of the creek. We looked for activity, for movement, for any sign of something alive in the water. A school of small baitfish at the mouth of the creek means we have activity. And, activity usually means fish.

So many times in the past when we fished a creek where we did not see bait, we did not find fish. It didn’t take a brain surgeon to see that the creeks with no bait also have no fish!

A small school of glass minnows “showered” as what appeared to be a flounder struck at them. That was the key we were looking for, so I dropped the trolling motor and began to move into the creek.

Entering a small creek with an engine running, even at idle speed, will do a couple of things. That engine stirs the mud bottom as it churns. But, more importantly, it scares the fish. Some would argue that the fish are used to engines. But, in a shallow, narrow creek, the fish have nowhere to hide, and you will see them darting and running ahead of the boat.

I always use the trolling motor to get back into a small creek. Don’t have a trolling motor? Use a pole and pole your way back into the creek. Noise in the boat – dropping something, slamming a lid, running an engine – is the worst enemy of a fisherman. Total silence is the key. I even find myself whispering or at least talking very quietly when I am back in a creek like this.

After reach the hole or bend I plan to fish, I ease a pole into the mud or pitch a small anchor up into the marsh to hold the boat against the tide. I avoid dropping an anchor where I plan to fish. In larger creeks I may just use the trolling motor, but here in this small creek, I need to be stationary.

With the boat sitting still (and quiet!) we wait. The tendency is to immediately get a bait in the water. But, you need to let everything settle down and get the fish used to this huge object floating over them and next to them. So, I grab a cup of coffee and sit for about fifteen minutes. My party does not understand, but a few fish tales and stories pass the time.

Every noise makes a difference when fishing shallow water in a tight space. Even the splash of your bait hitting the water can spook fish. So, when we cast, we cast softly and try to get as quiet a water entry as we possibly can. Often we use just a hook and a ">live shrimp because it makes so little noise when it hits the water. But, lighter jig heads can also enter the water quietly.

I cast a ¼ ounce jig head with a live shrimp up ahead of the bend we fished. I let it sink into the bend and then worked it up and down one time. The bite was simply a feeling of pressure on my line – a little “tick” followed by a feeling of being hung on the bottom. I set the hook, and a nice two pound seatrout came to the surface shaking its head. I handed to rod off and grabbed another rod to cast. Another cast, another trout. This went on until the tide stopped running.

I told my anglers the fish would quit until the tide started coming back in, and true to form, they did. As much as one teenager fished, he caught nothing during the slack tide.

But as the tide began to come in and the current picked up, the fished turned on and we began catching them again. Only on this incoming tide, we began catching redfish – spot-tail bass. An occasional trout came in but mostly it was reds.

We quit fishing after about 2 hours of incoming tide. It was a toss up as to why we quit – we were running out of bait at the same time we were getting fewer hits. The water had risen enough to let the fish get back onto the shallow flats at the same time we ran low on shrimp. So, we pulled the small anchor out of the grass, dropped the trolling motor, and headed out of the creek – once again without running the engine.

I fish this creek about once every two weeks – no more. I always troll or pole into it and out of it, and I never run my engine there. It has been good to me over the years, so I really protect it as much as I can. I know of no one else that even thinks about fishing in this creek – it’s small and out of the way. And the people I take there to fish are never from the local area – usually not even from Georgia!

Take care of your fish and they will take care of you!