When the going gets tough - adjust!
It pays to experiment. Last week, windy conditions made for choppy waters and tough fishing conditions. Poor water clarity made it difficult for the fish to see my lure and nearly impossible for them to eat it.
After struggling to catch a few trout and redfish with a Z-Man TRD, I decided to try something different. Conditions called for a small, slow moving lure that was highly visible. Unfortunately, none of my favorite lures met all these criteria. Thankfully, in the bottom of my tackle box, I found a pack of TRD CrawZ. The lure was small. It looked like it would have great action when slowly crawled along the bottom and the dark color should visible in the muddy water. I had never fished with a TRD CrawZ, but it met all the criteria. So, I matched it with a 1/5-ounce NedLockZ jig and started fishing.
My first cast was into a small creek with a shallow, oyster-lined channel. The same place I had been unsuccessfully fishing prior to switching my lure. The retrieve was very slow. Mostly, letting the current sweep the CrawZ along the bottom. When the lure was just a few feet from the skiff, a small redfish ate it. Turns out, there was a school of fish right in front of me that I could not see in the poor water conditions. I quickly deployed the Power Pole to hold me in position and began working the school. The redfish were not large but there were a lot of them and they loved the TRD CrawZ.
By paying attention to conditions and adjusting accordingly, a tough day of fishing was transformed into a pretty good one. It really does pay to experiment.
Contact Captain Greg Peralta at captgregp@gmail.com or call (843) 224-0099.