The Last Push of the Outgoing Tide Is Still the Best Bet

What's Biting

Early spring is a transition, and transition fish are hungry but particular. Largemouth bass are moving from deep winter holes toward the first shallow flats, especially where dark mud, rock, or a southern-facing bank warms the water. In tidal water, stripers, redfish, speckled trout, and whatever else your local regulations allow are using creek mouths and drainages like conveyor belts.

The best window is the last two hours of the outgoing tide into the first hour of slack. That falling water pulls bait and shrimp out of the grass, marsh, and feeder creeks. Fish don’t have to work hard. They just sit downstream and let lunch come to them. Fish the first moving water you can find, not the biggest-looking body of water.

The Main Column: Fish the Drain, Not the Dream

My go-to setup right now is a 3/8-ounce jighead with a 3- to 4-inch paddletail in pearl, smoke, or anything that resembles a nervous little minnow. Work it on the bottom through the mouth of a draining creek, then let it pause beside the eddy. Most bites come when the lure is doing absolutely nothing, which is convenient because it gives you time to complain about gas prices.

In freshwater, use the same idea with a compact green-pumpkin jig or a Texas-rigged creature bait. Fish the channel edge where a shallow flat drops into deeper water. Make short casts, drag the bait two feet, and let it sit. If the water is below 55 degrees, don’t retrieve like the fish owe you money.

One morning, I had a young angler in the bow who had never caught anything bigger than a bluegill. The tide was falling hard, the wind was pushing dirty water into the creek mouth, and I handed him a light spinning rod with a paddletail. He made one ugly cast, bounced the lure twice, and hooked a redfish that immediately headed for the nearest oyster pile. The boy held on. His father shouted instructions. I shouted less useful instructions. The fish came aboard, the boy’s grin got wider than the boat, and then the redfish pooped all over the cooler. That’s a first fish you remember forever—and a cooler you never fully forgive.

Dock Talk

• Fish the outgoing tide when the water is stained but still warm enough to show bait flicking on top.

• Swap to a 1/4-ounce jighead in shallow water; dragging a bowling ball through six feet of water is not finesse.

• Tactical advice: make your best cast up-current of the drain and let the lure drift into the strike zone before you start working it.