Having a bit of a game plan provides an easier pathway to locating and catching fish at The Pen during the winter.
It may be tempting to start your plan on the bank for redfish and bass early and move out for trout later, but Donovan Hinton suggested that is the opposite of what you should do.
“During January, I would go in there hoping the wind doesn’t blow and beat us up and concentrate on the trout first,” he said. “Especially if the water is clean, which I expect it to be.”
Hinton suggested getting out there and throwing sparkle beetles or different swimbaits tight-lined on bottom or suspended under a cork. Live bait can also work during the winter if things get a little slow, so pick up some live minnows, if possible.
“Then I would move to the shoreline for the redfish and bass,” Hinton said. “If it’s calm, I’ll throw spoons, spinnerbaits, swim baits or the plastic cocahoe bodies on a jighead.
“But after that dies off, I’ll go back to the old faithful shrimp under a cork because it always works.”