Record Warm February...

Watching Bruce & David show the February highs today and you clearly saw how most of this month has been very warm.   With a little over one week left, it appears this will go down as the warmest February on record.   Long range computer guidance indicates at least 5-7 more days above normal/average with no real cold coming until the 2^nd week in March.   I can almost promise March will end up colder than February and we’ll be back to wearing sweaters & coats again.   That will please many of you cold air “freaks”  as we have been way too warm way too early.   Today was another record breaker (83) making 5 out of the last six days with record warmth.  That streak could easily extend to 10+ days as the next cold front won’t arrive until the weekend at the soonest.   After a really cold December & early January, the last 4-6 weeks flip-flopped into the warm mode.   Not surprisingly, models are hinting the return to an east coast upper trough that will drive down the bitter cold still covering Canada.  RIGHT NOW, the trough is over the west coast & Rockies making places like Salt Lake City & Denver very winter-ish.  While Denver sits at 10 above zero, south Texas is near 80.  With that kind of temperature contrast, the battle zone is setting up for days of heavy rains moving along the same track with the potential for 6-12” over a wide area from Dallas to Little Rock to Louisville to Pittsburgh.  There are no signs that show heavy rains coming to us.   Over the weekend and into next week the cold front will slowly sag into the deep south.  That will bring us some rain and finally end our early Spring preview.  Stay tuned!

 

Was finally back to fishing with Capt. Hylton out of Shell Beach.   With no live bait available, we struggled to get 20 trout over 2 days, but they were quality trout between 13-17” with one topping 20” !   It was good to get back on the water & seeing trout start to bite again.   It was strange to see the shrimp bait wells at Campo’s totally dry & empty.  I suspect it will be well into April (if we have a cold March) before live shrimp are available for purchase.  Until then, the word is PLASTICS.