Spillway Success

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Written by Mark Mussett Sunday, 29 August 2010 12:48

 

The fresh scent of rain hung in the heavy night air; a streetlight hummed at the silence, every so often joined by the noise of a passing car.  For the last several days, constant showers buffeted the Florida coast, a stern accent to the typical late summer afternoon rains you can set your watch to.  Frustrated at being shore bound for what seemed like an eternity, I decided I wouldn't let the dirty water, threatening thunderclouds, or rough seas enveloping my usual haunt on the flats keep me stuck inside anymore.

 Sneaking out of the house late at night and making my way down a vacant, rain soaked street with a medium-heavy spinning setup and a couple choice lures, I stalked slowly to crumbling seawall.  As I had hoped, the scene greeted me with the sites and sounds of feeding fish, for amidst the otherwise unenticing  waters, a rapid current of water poured from a storm drain pipe.  In it, hapless baitfish were being swept down a channel and into the waiting throng of snook stacked up behind the current breaks of dock pilings.

From the shadows of the dock came a reverberating splash, like someone trying to skip a bowling ball across the water; a lunker snook had just inhaled a midnight snack.  A few casts and excited boils behind the jerkbait was all I needed to confirm it was worth not only braving the rain, but taking advantage of it.

It's no secret that gamefish, regardless of where they live, feed aggressively when the current or tide moves rapidly.  Throughout the state of Florida, in fresh, brackish and salt water a productive wet-weather fishery awaits anybody willing to break out the poncho.  It can be hard to believe so many large, hungry gamefish gather to chase bait in a an area small enough to cast across, but it happens.  Finding these areas may take some effort, but often times you can access them from a main road and comfortably fish them on foot.

Why are they so productive?  The specifics depend on where exactly you're fishing, but the general idea is the same:  heavy rains cause water to flow from backwater ditches, creekmouths, storm drains, canals and water control structures at a fast rate.  As a result, baitfish are either flushed from the draining waterway or otherwise caught by the surging current.  Gamefish come to ambush the struggling bait as it's washed downstream, or else gamefish residing in the area are excited into feeding by the peak 'tide'.  The rush of water may begin with a modest shower, or perhaps fishing might be best a couple hours after a heavy storm has passed--those details depend on where you are, but visiting the area a few times will help you figure the right time to go fishing.

The fish you are targeting depend on your location and often on your preference.  In freshwater fisheries anglers routinely target catfish or largemouth bass near dams, locks or other water control structures.  A release of water can stir up the action further, and you can expect to add other species, like bream, into the mix.  Along the coast of West Central Florida snook take the cake, but trout, redfish, trash fish of every description and even tarpon  crash the party.  Where the 10,000 islands and the River of Grass collide, the potential for monstrous snook and tarpon of all sizes exists, but you can still expect to encounter some freshwater gamefish and exotics.  In Southeast Florida, again snook are the expectation, but you may also run across tackle-busting jacks, tarpon, and even some keeper mangrove snapper.  Regardless of where you are in the state, with a little searching you can find a nice creekmouth, spillway or run-off to fish when the rain comes down.

So with an abundance of fish to choose from, it is important to scale your tackle accordingly and match the hatch as best you can.  Fishing culverts where retention ponds drain into saltwater?  Tilapia and finger mullet may be the baits of choice.  In this case, the bigger baits help weed out the smaller fish, but the big fish might also take a two inch bait.  Whether you want to use 40 pound braid and a 50 pound leader to make sure you land the big boys, or else stick with 20 pound leader and 12 pound mainline to get more strikes and more of a fight from the smaller fish is up to you.  The same holds true in most similar situations, but perhaps with different baits.  Where freshwater is running off into saltwater, bluegill, shiners and shad work well.  If it's salt pouring into salt, shrimp and small pinfish may be hard to beat.  In a freshwater system, shiners, bluegill, crayfish, worms and stinkbait all produce.  Observe what you see floating by, and if you can determine what the fish are striking, do your best to use or imitate it.

Remember, a natural presentation is best, as the fish are targeting bait drifting with the current.  Rigging live bait with light weights, fluorocarbon leader and hooks which allow a natural range of motion works well.  Adding a float sometimes helps control your presentation.  Fishing these areas works best with an active approach, casting upcurrent, across the current, or drifting baits downcurrent and repeating the presentation as the bait leaves the strike zone.  Use weights carefully, because an abundance of snags along the bottom wait to snatch your tackle.

If you are going to use a weight, which does have the added benefit of keeping your bait in the active feeding zone longer (but the disadvantage of making the bait look a bit more unnatural) a knocker rig will serve in a pinch, but a dropshot rig is hard to beat.  Three-way swivels are the gear key to building the rig, with your mainline connecting to one ring of the swivel, your fluorocarbon leader and terminal tackle connecting to another, and a lengthy piece of light line (make sure it's lighter than your mainline) connecting the third ring to a dipsy or bank sinker.  The reason for the light line is so that if your sinker snags you can break it off without loosing your whole rig.  Another tactic in this case is to use splitshots at the end of the dropshot rig, as they tend to slide off the line in the event of a snag.

In the artificial department, topwaters, lipped plugs, jigs and even flies all have the potential to perform nicely.  Colors, sizes and even presentations depend on what the fish are responding to.  Remember, the fish are looking to eat on what's being washed out.  If they're hitting mosquitofish or grass shrimp, the gamefish may overlook a seven inch diving plug.  Also, if you are fishing from a boat, from a shoreline parallel to the current, or from a structure crossing the current you may need to adjust your presentation and approach.

One quick tip for the artificial game:  A dropshot rig can be used to usefully present a floating, shallow-diving lipped plug, as the weight will keep your rig mostly stationary, while the strong current will cause your bait to wobble, shimmy, and dive slightly.  You may even consider fishing a rig like this with a curly-tailed jig tied on in place of the sinker.

So next time the rains coming in sheets, don't feel trapped in front of the TV.  Instead, check your leader, tie up your bait and adjust your drag, because the bite is just turning on.