The WOOA Reports: Fishing with Jimmy Houston

We fished the Arroyo area with “Americas Favorite Fisherman” and my friend………. Jimmy Houston. We worked the flats and fished up the Arroyo Colorado in search of some Rod Bending Action. LeeRoy Gonzales was our guide and he had his hands full with both Jimmy and myself on the boat. Our plans were to work the Arroyo in search of Tarpon and Snook. We ran back up in the Arroyo where there were no houses or docks and we worked the shoreline and the drop offs. The fish were there, we saw some Snook working the shorelines, their tails were out of the water but they were not interested in our lures.

The main difficulty we had was that thunder storms moved thru the area the day before and that shut down the bite. They had what I call “Lock Jaw”. Sometimes I can make them bite but not this time, they were not interested.

Based on the lock jaw effect, we moved onto the flats in search of Reds and Trout with top-water and soft plastics.

We used Bomber baits and found some good fish. We had thick fog, we had 40 degrees and we had 90 degrees in the 2 days we fished with Jimmy. Let’s just say, we had some tough conditions. We worked the baits slowly and we were tenacious. We had to stay at it and experiment with that they wanted. We caught both Redfish and Trout. The biggest Trout was 26 inches and the best Red was 25 inches. The weather patterns really made us work hard for the fish but we did get the rod bending action that the Arroyo is known for.

Anglers Note:

When weather patterns change, that can really turn off the bite. Knowing that, move to your tackle box and realize that you will need to change it up over time to see what will work. We used dark colors and lighter colors to find what worked. The trick for this trip was the traditional red and white soft plastic and top-water of either Blue and White or Red and White. We found that the top water bite was “on” but only if we patterned the area with a vengeance, I mean cast and cast and cast…..and cover all the water as you drift. The fish would not come to the lure, we had to hit them on the head with it to make them strike. Stay at it and keep changing up the lures to find out what works.