As the weather cools, look for fish to adopt typical winter patterns as they seek refuge from cold water.
Common areas to target speckled trout on cold days are bayous with at least 4-5 feet of water, small creeks with either deep holes or depth in the middle of the channels, and the Intracoastal Waterway. In some parts of the bays, trout will simply move off of the flats and into deeper water on the outside of the flat or down at the bottom of drop offs – it really depends on the topography of the area where you’re fishing. Jigs are probably the best way to catch good numbers of fish but slow, suspending twitch baits are far better when specifically targeting big trout.
Redfish exhibit a variety of behavior in the winter and can be targeted in many different ways. Even though there will be redfish on the flats even on very cold days, they are sometimes slow to bite early in the morning so you may want to wait until a little later to get out and start poling around looking for them. In deeper water, though, they don’t seem to mind extremely cold mornings at all. You can often find big schools of good-sized redfish laid up in waters ranging from 15-40 feet deep and they almost always eat when you get on top of them.
Either side of a point – where it drops off from shallow water to deep and swirling currents develop – tend to be great locations for these big schools to hang out for a while. I like to target the big fish with a cast-and-crank bait or 5½ inch soft plastic jerk bait on a heavy jig head.
Passes and bridges are also really good places to look for fish when the weather turns cold.
Good luck!
