In the Aransas, Corpus Christi Bay area, drifting over sea grass and mixed shell is the key to finding specks. Live croaker is popular in that area but so are plastics like Little Fishies and DOA Terror-Eyz.

From Matagorda into Galveston Bay, anglers typically drift over shell and target emerging slicks, where the specks have been feeding on baitfish. Live shrimp under popping corks and topwaters are the best bets here.

On the extreme Upper Coast in Sabine Lake, anglers target big schools of menhaden (called shad locally) and drift with live or fresh dead shad under popping corks in the open area from about a mile north of Garrison Ridge up toward the Barrel Channel on the north end.

As summer segues into fall, finding trout schooling under the birds in all of these areas will become more commonplace, and the strategies will change to using shad- and shrimp-imitating soft plastics fished with a fast retrieve.

During the winter, lots of anglers wade-fish for big trout on mud flats adjacent to the Intracoastal Canal. On warm afternoons big trout move up to feed over the mud, which retains heat and is a few degrees warmer than surrounding areas. The typical strategy involves using slow-sinking lures like the MirrOlure Catch 2000 or B&L Corky. Trout have very slow metabolism this time of year and the super slow sinking of these lures appeals to that.

Anglers trying this method for the first time should be warned that even huge trout sometimes hit only lightly during winter. If you feel something taking the slack out of your line or a soft "tick," then start reeling in slack and set the hook as soon as you feel pressure. Sometimes it's nothing . . . but quite often it's a big speckled trout that you otherwise might have missed!

FLOUNDER
As this issue hits the newsstands flounder action will be slowing a bit, but contrary to popular belief, there still are fish to be caught.

To consistently bag good numbers of quality-sized flounder during summer, concentrate on the wide and deep parts of cuts in a bay system. The largest concentrations of flounder are usually in the first eighth of a mile of these cuts during the dog days of summer. That's because the cuts have more tidal water exchange on each tidal movement, which keeps these areas somewhat cooler than the shallow backwater.

I'm not saying these areas hold any more flounder than other cuts, but I've caught more in them than in other locations on bay systems in summer, so that's where I go to catch them. Cooler water temperatures usually mean a higher content of dissolved oxygen, which benefits flounder two-fold. First, it gives them more oxygen, which they need to be effective predators, and second, it attracts more baitfish.

Scientists are learning that one of the reasons certain fish species in bay systems do not feed as aggressively during summer as they do in spring and fall is decreased levels of dissolved oxygen. It's important to remember that tides dictate how flounder will be feeding. On a fast-falling tide, they move in close to the drainage in tight schools. When the tide is falling slowly, they might scatter out around the mouth of a drainage or up into the marsh.

They'll do the same thing during the first hour or so of an incoming tide. Then they usually move into the cuts. I've always had far more success on incoming tides during summer months. In fact, I usually check the tide charts and mark off the days with the highest tides to concentrate my fishing on them.