A LITTLE FRIENDLY COMPETITION:

By Captain Allen Sifford

This is the time of year when, like clockwork, cold fronts will move in about once every week. This creates a sort of chaotic frenzy amongst the fish. They will be found in all different depths of water with the rising and falling temperatures. Their movements will depend on what directions these fronts are moving in, which waters are affected and the severity of the temperature change.

For the most parts November is still a pretty warm month for south Texas. We usually experience a real drop in temperatures after Thanksgiving and on into December. Although I doubt we will have a white Christmas, we probably will not be seeing too many days of near eighty-degree temps for a while. I'm not here to predict the weather but I can tell you that the fish know the change is here and soon it will be too cold to enjoy feeding as often. Every day that we have near seventy degree temps, they (especially trout) will be taking advantage of whit is left of warm weather by feeding as much as possible and fattening up for the colder months ahead. These few warm days that we have left are also going to be some of the best days to hunt for trophy trout

In the first and middle part of December '94, many anglers were racking upon 26 to28 inch trout’s just about every day. Most were fishing the flats and if they did not have a good trout to bring back with them, they had a nice size Redfish to show off at the dock. In that same year I can recall a personal experience of my own. One day in December 1 went out on a scouting t1\p and brought my wife along with me for a little friendly competition and because her company brought me good luck. Actually had been on some nice fish for a few weeks and figured it would be good to spend a little time with my wife and let her enjoy some of the action too. Early that morning a cold front had moved in. I figured the fish were too thick and had been feeding in this area long enough that they wound not be affected by tile front, but I won discovered, that It was enough to move them off the flats sad into drop-offs. This was after we had been fishing the shallow waters for a little while with very few hits. My wife did get a real good strike while we were fishing in about a foot of water. We were not sure if It was a Redfish or trout since it got 'way but whatever it was, it boiled the water and made a big enough blowup on the water that it startled us both. I think that's why it got away. We fished the flats a little longer and then I decided since that was the only good strike so far, the fish must have moved to deeper and more protected waters. So we began fishing the drop-offs. Boy am I glad we did! We began having hookups one after another. My wife almost immediately limited out on her share of reds and started in on mine. Which is OK because I was having my fair share of luck with the trout, many of, which were nice, sized in the 26 to 28 inch ranges. The fishing soon slowed down and we picked up and moved down a little further to the south.

We decided to fish another area I thought might be holding fish. My wife was still having her fair share of luck catching reds and my luck seemed to be dwindling. Just a little friendly competition between husband and wife I kept thinking, while my wife seemed to be enjoying herself fight- one Redfish after another or was she gloating in her victory of out fishing me. Lock or not, I was bound and determined to catch a bigger Redfish than hers before it was all over. (So much for friendly competition. RA?) What! did not expect though was the 32 in inch monster trout that jumped on my bait and eventually onto my wall. No gloating here. HA!) I think my wife was a little mad at first but figured all around that it was a pretty close race and we would eventually call it a tie. She had more, OK all the nice size reds to show off at the dock, but my fish was the "biggest".

This same area produced several more trophy trout in the following years. One such trophy, a nice 33-1/4 inch trout was featured in last years December issue of Gulf Coast Connections. So get out there and get your lines in the water and get your fair share of the trophy fishing while it lasts! You might even want to take a kid or your wife along for a little "friendly competition."

Until next time, God bless ya Capt. Allen Sifford.

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