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If you have ever spoken to an angler from the Florida coast that has been lucky enough to fish the Texas coast, one of the phrases you'll more than likely hear is how "spooky" the fish are in Florida in comparison to the Texas coast. I'll try to shed some light on that subject for you.
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing like drifting a shallow flat covered in gin clear water with the ability to see everything that moves, wait, what's that? Your right! There's nothing moving.
Yet I find myself still being lured in because they just look so fishy
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You see the problem with that gin clear water is this. There's just not that many places for fish to take cover. Bait fish need a place to hide from predators, and those very predators need a place to take cover and ambush unsuspecting bait fish.
Where does this leave us as anglers? Yes I'm going to say it. Looking for off colored water.
Don't be mistaken by the term "off colored". I am not referring to muddy or even dirty water. And in order for us to be productive, we want to avoid muddy water all together.
But that's another topic, for another day. In this article we're going to focus on dingy, or off colored water.
When I was just starting to fish the crystal clear flats of southwest Florida, I learned rather quickly that locating fish was going to be tough. Most of time they could see me way before I saw them, and that left me with a lot of missed opportunities.
I had a choice to make if I wanted to tip the scale to lean in my favor.
One was stealth. In clear water there are a lot of things you can do to sneak up on a fish, but a shadow is hard to lose, and the fact that they see through water much better than we do almost insures we're not getting anywhere near them.
Number two was bit easier, it quickly became apparent that a little off color in the water led to more aggressive fish. Stealth was still important but without 100% visibility I gained an edge that led to a lot more hook-ups.
The difference was simple, spooky fish in clear water are running away on instinct. Put those same fish in an environment with a little less visibility and they become aggressive, allowing us the opportunity to slide in to striking distance.
The decision was simple. Look for off color water, or what I refer to was "water-breaks". Water-breaks occur when clear water meets dingy water leaving a distinct line. That line becomes a column for game fish to take cover. If you locate bait in water breaks, you have more than likely located the spot you need to drop anchor.
It's no secret that predators follow the food. So the next time you find yourself on that crystal clear flat, note the amount of bait and activity in comparison to the off colored water.
And the next time you see my scooter drifting across that crystal clear lake or flat, remind me of this article.
J.Dean
www.texasflats.net
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