BigBendFishing.Net

just wanted to get some input from some of yall that live closer to the gulf.....with all the recent extremely cold temps, large amounts of rain and now snow.....what effects do yall think this will have on the opening week of trout season???? I have been itching to get down to the Keaton area, and have already made plans to be there the 4th-7th of March...but if this type of weather continues, would it not be a good idea to delay the trip a little????

What does it take to push the trout from the creeks to the flats?? Usually the 3rd week of March is wide open and catching them are easy....just worried about going a 2 weeks early this year, especially with these screwed up fronts we have been having...and add to that that I can only schedule a few trips a year due to family and work schedules....

any input would be appreciated....

With as much fresh water as we've had and the low temps, I would say those fish are out of the creeks looking a suitible salinity level and water temp. This is just my opinion anyway.

Fish stay in the area - they get warmth from the limestone and mud. Protection from the same areas. They live in a littoral zone and for the most part are a custom to great swings in salinity. As in the picture below - the road to econfina was flooding from recent monsoon like rain...the seawall at the ramp had water up to the edge and we launched at the top of the ramp. Caught redfish and trout in the same creeks and bars as usual with tannin water flowing out of the swamp. The trout in the picture was caught 1 foot off of the saw grass.
The old timers used to talk about bluefish at the econfina ramp - never seen that - but it is pretty fresh up there

As far as delaying a trip - you don't know unless you go - you sure ain't gonna catch anything at the house.

I dont want to ever and I mean ever miss a trip to the Gulf...but due to the fact that I can only schedule a few trips a year, I try and do as much planning in advance as I can.....I know the weather is out of my control, but I was just wanting some input from the "locals" with regards to how the fish react to these types of conditions.......

In the Spring if we have water in the ditches we have a good trout/red bite that year.
Trust me............we have water in the ditches.

We don't even have DITCHES anymore in some spots!!

anybody seeing #s of mullets these days? Usually in the winter every creek I enter has tons of mullets. I haven't seen those large schools this winter. Any thoughts? I assume it can't be the water b/c mullet do pretty well in fresh water.

We really need to be careful speculating on the effects of more water on a particular species of fish. If we make it sound too good...the next thing you know FWC will be reducing the bag limit because there are fewer fish per gallon of water than this time last year!

AMEN BROTHER

Brian,the mullet are holding in the deeper warmer water.