The Coastal Bend is the stretch where you stop covering water and start hunting fish. Aransas, Copano and Corpus Christi Bays run clear enough over grass and sand that you are looking for a tail, a wake or a shadow, and everything that costs you visibility costs you fish.
Glare comes from three directions
Overhead sun is the obvious one. The second is the surface, which throws light back at you at a low angle and is worst early and late, exactly when you want to be looking. The third is the bottom: white sand potholes bounce light up through the water column, which is why a fish over sand is easy and the same fish over grass is invisible.
Polarised lenses handle the surface reflection. They do nothing about light coming into the side of your eye, which is what a hood is for.
Why a hood beats a cap on a platform
A brim shades from directly above. A hood adds the sides, and on a flat with no breeze the side light is what washes out the water in front of you. Guides down here run hoods up in full sun for that reason, not for the sun protection alone.
It also solves the Texas problem: at fifteen knots of southeast wind a boat cap leaves, and you spend the run holding it on instead of watching water.
Light colours, on a hot flat
Dark sleeves absorb and then radiate heat straight back at you when you are standing still on a platform with no shade and no air moving. Lighter fabric runs measurably cooler in that situation, and it reflects less light up into your own eyes than a bright white deck does.
This is the one region where we would steer away from the darkest option in the range.
When to go
March through November is the window for the flats, with tarpon showing in the passes late in summer. January and February are cold and unpleasant to stand in and also the clearest water of the year, which is a real trade if you can handle the standing.
The short version
- Hood up in full sun, not just when it is hot.
- Polarised lenses, and keep the side light out.
- Lighter colours on the flats, not black.
- Fish the clear cold days if you can stand still in them.
Gear for it. Have a look at the Coastal Bend, the Catfish Hunter or what to wear fishing.