"Must-have" fly fishing patterns in descending order of importance:

Use large streamers and slow topwaters early searching before floating grass picks up... move to sight-casting mode with rising sun around 8:30 to 4:00.... Get OUT of the boat when you have bait and know fish are there, Check white sand/ grass flats mid-day for cruising, sunning trout with long leaders (up to 12' and 12#) and small wtd flies (Blind Chicken, White, gray, and ginger bead-eye seaducers, grass shrimp size 2-4) and small dark ( #4 black, dark olive, and purple) crabs...stay with picky, spooked fish until they are out of range, go to small grizzly, tan, and black flies on picky (full Moon) fish

New "KIll switch" rule in effect for boat operators at be faster than headway speeds for 2019/2020 Devastating Arctic storm last week with 17* and 20* evenings send fish deep to escape blast significant kill of game fish, bait turtles and plants. Warming water and sun showing many live but stressed fish along with the dead TPW"s Spring sampling will give an idea of storms lethality please let stressed cold fish recover and get an appetite before fishing them and limit your kill ...SUnny warm to cloudy with SE winds to 15 before light Friday AM front w/ N winds to10 bringing showers and clouds thru next week with lows in the 50*s to high mid 60*s thru early next week Tides below normal with new warm water in with SE winds and Saturday Full Moon before blast: Reds on dark crabs> olive, black purple and blue Fishing good on edges, grass flats and lake's draining creeks check Port Aransas and Rockport edge flats and channel edges on mid-week walks for large reds and big single trout,, tan toads, seaducers and kwans working well on sight casting reds, with trout to 25" on large streamers/ seaducers prospecting deep thru potholes trout to 8.5# on slow sinking lures, wading early this week Blind cast early and late to drop offs to deeper water (3') before moving in shallow to sight-casting mode after 0900 w/ tan, slow sinking flies on first half of cloudy mornings gurglers and small deer hair flies later in day with active shallow water fish blind casting grinders on overcast AM water near ICWW, small to 25" reds podding up in grassy lakes, feeding on small white shrimp... getting trout to +26" on White, tan, and lt pink seaducers..thru 3'-4' potholes consider wading to lower profile going thru shallow lakes and skinny flats.... consider 10' to 12' tapered leaders w/ 12# to 16# fluoro tippet in clear water.. poling from deck, will lower early AM profile and shadow lengths try early AM top water and mid-water for trout to mid 20"s on seaducers and black streamers. .please fight fish to be released quickly, and gently release large female trout (Males grunt when held and most trout over 21" are females) fish have been finicky with good anglers grinding out a dozen fish with many refusals. try black / purple on picky reds. please avoid running shorelines to find fish...,if you ease in and drift out of flats, there will be fish there most of the time . try tan, olive, and black crab, seaducers, clousers sizes 4, 2 and 1 and go to all grizzly "roadkills" for picky fish...cover water with baitfish patters to 2/o with or w/o weight on low water near drop offs and ICWW..check ICWW edges late for fish crawling up to warm up and eat on low barge traffic days The ANW Refuge is CLOSED to inland boat traffic since 8/27 /17 and closed annually with whooping cranes here 10/15 to April 15 2021 The Refuge whooping cranes wintering here with young birds at ANWR please avoid kicking up these birds in refuge's edge lakes near ICWW with your boat / activity..... birds are here and spreading out beyond Refuge boundaries 2nd Split of SOUTH ZONE TX DUCK ended Jan 31st 2021