Gulf Coast Region Week of June 26, 2024

Redfish Bay

GOOD. 88 degrees. Trout are good on piggie perch on the wells. Redfish are scattered in the back marshes and lakes on cut skipjack. Captain Aerich Oliver, Rockport Paradise Outfitters.

San Antonio Bay

SLOW. 88 degrees. Tides continue to be high and should rise again with the storm in the forecast. This is typical during hurricane season. Target redfish in the back lakes with cut bait. Drum are biting dead shrimp in the back lakes mixed in with the redfish on the flats. Expect some hard heads bites as a byproduct of fishing with dead shrimp. Trout are scattered but can be found on shell reefs. Report Captain Lynn Smith, Back Bay Guide Service.

Sabine Lake

FAIR. 86 degrees. Limits of trout at the jetties and channel using glo or glitter imitation glass minnows. Trout are good at the beach under the seagulls early in the morning, and on the short rigs. Some triple tails are mixed in but not biting. Redfish and trout can be caught in the Sabine Channel to the Sabine Pass on rock piles and shell flats with plastics against the bank drilling to 10-14 feet. Influx of freshwater in the lake has pushed fish to the south end, so focus on the south end reefs in 10-12 feet dragging plastics on the bottom for redfish, speckled trout and flounder. Report by Captain Randy Foreman, Captain Randy’s Guide Service Sabine Lake.

Bolivar

GOOD. 82 degrees. Water levels are perfect with tides and low wind this week changing back to four tide days over the weekend. Less freshwater on the bay side but it has not affected the bite. People are still catching plenty of redfish of varying sizes everywhere! Small croakers along with sand trout, sheepshead, black drum, speckled trout, and crabs caught along the jetty with plenty of stingrays and sharks. Pompano and jack crevalle are still running. The surf is producing redfish and black drum, gafftop, lots of stingrays, and bigger sharks along the whole peninsula with high activity towards Gilchrist and High Island. The sargassum, seaweed, is sporadic in spots per normal. People are using all kinds of different things for bait this past week with awesome results. Finger mullet has been a popular alternative. Report by Captain Shane Rilat, North Jetty Bait Camp.

Trinity Bay

SLOW. 86 degrees. Saltwater returning to the northwest side of the bay. Catches of speckled trout, black drum, and redfish coming off live shrimp and croakers. Report by Captain David Dillman, Galveston Bay Charter Fishing. Water clarity is improving rapidly. This storm surge has pushed a lot of salt water north and the fish have come with it! Reports of redfish being caught at HL&P Spillway and in Baytown off of live shrimp under a piling cork and free lining fresh caught shad. Trout are showing up north of Morgan’s Point being caught on live shrimp under a popping cork. Drum and sheepsheads are being caught around riprap with live shrimp under a popping cork. Pattern lately has been grass lines with rock early and pushing off to the deep offs later in the day. Pay attention to the weather and always wear your kill switch while operating a vessel. Report by Captain Zackary Scott, Zack Attack Fishing.

East Galveston Bay

GOOD. 87 degrees. Waders picking up decent numbers of speckled trout on soft plastics. Drifting the reefs with plastics or live shrimp will put fair numbers of trout in the boat. Report by Captain David Dillman, Galveston Bay Charter Fishing. East Bay and Intracoastal waterway are holding plenty of small speckled trout, black drum, sheepshead, and redfish caught on live shrimp, croakers, and topwater lures. Report by Captain Shane Rilat, North Jetty Bait Camp. Surface water temperature 84.6 degrees in East Galveston Bay. The tropical storm that rolled into Mexico last week pushed an enormous amount of water into East Galveston Bay, along with the Full Moon. This resulted in several days we could not fish due to tides. The Bay is still very off-colored, but fishing continues to improve. We are having to weed through a number of undersized trout to find the better fish along protected shorelines over shell pockets. Redfish are along the grass lines and over the shell. A few nice flounder busting bait up around grass lines and over shallow shell beds, with good current flow. The lighter the jig head the better, 1/16-¼ ounce, determined by the wind and current, and tails with paddles, performed the best for us again this week, as we were utilizing Anahuac based, WACky Shad XL's and top performing colors varied, depending upon water clarity and light conditions, with Rollover Moon, being a favorite of the fish this week. Success using Fish Smack Popping corks with a 1-2 foot leader above a pink tinted shrimp imitation lure, or tails with a 1/16 ounce jighead, with a hard pop and a 5-8 second pause gathering the most strikes. The topwater bite has also been good when utilized on our early morning and late afternoon trips, so if you like throwing walking baits, now is the perfect time to get on the water and make it happen. We are starting to see more solid fish show up on reefs in the middle portion of the bay, which is getting better as the days go by. We also found a few birds working in the middle portion of the bay over the past couple days and found some solid trout under them. The fishing pressure has been higher than normal for East Bay, so if you can go any day other than Saturdays, that would be my recommendation for your fishing pleasure. Report by Captain Jeff Brandon, Get the Net Guide Services, LLC.

Galveston Bay

SLOW. 86 degrees. Trout scattered along the shorelines and structure near the ship channel. Better number of black drum coming from the channel on live shrimp, along with sheepshead and the occasional redfish. Report by Captain David Dillman, Galveston Bay Charter Fishing.

West Galveston Bay

GOOD. 87 degrees. Tides are still running high, making it difficult to wade in some areas. Fair numbers of trout and redfish being caught on live natural baits and artificial lures. Report by Captain David Dillman, Galveston Bay Charter Fishing.

Houston

GOOD. Water stained; 83 degrees; 0.10 feet below pool. Water clarity continues to clear, and the lake is slowly returning to pool level. Coming off this full moon should get the fish going quite a bit. Largemouth bass are patterning up on structure shallow early and in the shade around docks and drop-offs late being caught on worms, grubs and crankbaits. Crappie are being caught on small jigs tight to structure in 8-14 feet of water in Luces Bayou and the East Fork. Catfish are on fire near the power lines and on the bulkheads close to the train tracks being caught on fresh caught shad. White bass are schooling up at the mouths of rivers and will be headed south very soon being caught on slabs and swim baits. Gar are thick in the creeks being caught on red rattle traps. Pay attention to the weather and always wear your kill switch when operating a vessel. Report by Captain Zackary Scott, Zack Attack Fishing.

Texas City

FAIR. 86 degrees. Winds finally have laid down, although the high tide is still above normal. Better catches of speckled trout, redfish, black drum, and sheepshead coming off structures like oyster reefs, rocks, and pilings. Live shrimp under corks is best. Report by Captain David Dillman, Galveston Bay Charter Fishing. Fishing is good to excellent. Anglers are still catching plenty of speckled trout, redfish, and flounder every day with some occasional black drum, sheepshead, sand trout, and gafftop. Successful wade fishing around Mosquito Island and the Moses Lake Tidal Gate in the mornings and late afternoons. Along the dike has been productive by the shrimp boat docks and piers. Live shrimp and finger mullet have been the best baits. We have been selling out of live bait almost daily as well at Lee’s Bait & Tackle. Report by Captain Shane Rilat, North Jetty Bait Camp.

Freeport

GOOD. 87 degrees. Fishing been steady for trout, redfish and flounder around the San Luis Pass, Bastrop Bay, Christmas Bay, Chocolate Bay and the west end of Galveston Bay. Wade fishing has been good in the guts at the pass and in west Galveston bay with croaker and shrimp for trout, redfish and a few flounder mixed in.The Freeport harbor has been steady with sheepsheads, drum, redfish and mangrove snapper free lining shrimp with a split shot. Report by Captain Jake Brown, Flattie Daddy Fishing Adventures.

East Matagorda Bay

SLOW. 84 degrees. Tides are lower in the bay. Trout are good drifting with live shrimp. Waders are having success for trout with croaker or artificials. Report by Captain Charlie Paradoski, Captain Charlie Paradoski’s Guide Service.

West Matagorda Bay

SLOW. 84 degrees. Redfish and drum are good drifting with artificials or croaker. Report by Captain Charlie Paradoski, Captain Charlie Paradoski’s Guide Service.

Port O'Connor

GOOD. 90 degrees. Water is muddy after the tropical depression. Expect the bite pick up where it left off. Trout are biting early in the morning at Bird Island on live croaker. Slot redfish are biting Spanish sardines and live shrimp near Alcatraz Island. Bull redfish and jack crevalle are in the back of the jetties between and Bird Island on live croaker or Spanish sardines. Drum outside of the north and south jetty within the first 100 feet on live or dead shrimp. Report by Captain Marty Medford, Captain Marty’s Fish of a Lifetime Guide Service.

Rockport

GOOD. 84 degrees. With storm surge fish have been scattered. Trout are great on croaker along grass and rocks in 3-4 feet of water. Popping cork and shrimp have been produced in flats while drifting. Redfish have been great on shrimp and cut menhaden or mullet in flats with these high tides they are up close in mangroves. Black drum are great on live or dead shrimp and fish bites in drains, sand pockets and along oyster beds. Report by Captain Kenny Kramer, Kramer Fishing Charters.

Port Aransas

GOOD. 84 degrees. Water has been dirty and high tides this past week due to tropical storm Alberto. Redfish are good on shrimp, blue crab and cut bait. Trout are good with croaker or shrimp free lined along rocks. Surf fishing has been producing good redfish and trout in the first and second gut with an occasional shark. Report by Captain Kenny Kramer, Kramer Fishing Charters.

Corpus Christi

GOOD. 88 degrees. Trout are good on piggie perch on the wells. Redfish are scattered in the back marshes and lakes on skipjack. Report by Captain Aerich Oliver, Rockport Paradise Outfitters.

Baffin Bay

GOOD. 90 degrees. The summer pattern has been interrupted with the high water levels created by the tropical system that affected the coast of Texas last week. Thankfully, the extra 3 feet of water is starting to fall back out and the patterns will re-emerge shortly. Continue to focus on finding large quantities of bait to help pinpoint places to target for big trout. We are still throwing top waters like the She Dog and the larger Skitterwalk, as well as soft plastics such as the DSL Big Poppa Pearl supermodel and the Coastal Brew 6 inch dart in Plum Punch and Hoochie Coochie. Areas with sand and grass, grass edges or drops will all be productive, especially when water levels get back to normal. Report by Captain Sally Black. The water is falling out after the recent storm flushing the bait into the bay. Patches of brown tide but primarily clear. Trout and redfish are excellent on pink and silver topwaters, or soft plastics in plum and chartreuse. Back of the bays seems to be best as the east winds blew the bait there. Flocks of birds working leading the way to fish. Report by Captain Cliff Webb.

Port Mansfield

GOOD. 92 degrees. Despite having extremely high water, fishing is still pretty good. Trout and redfish have been holding in the same areas they were prior to the rising water levels on grass flats. However, unless water levels start to fall fish will eventually spread out. We are catching most fish on Mansfield Knockers and Ball Tails. Bait is still present but has scattered a bit. Report by Captain Wayne Davis, Hook Down Charters. Our tides have come up tremendously due to the storm surge from the disturbance in the gulf earlier this week. This has greatly affected our strategies out there on the water, many areas where we normally fish are too deep therefore we are fishing shallow. Lots of freshwater has entered into our bays, which has helped clean out and lower the salinity in our estuaries. The bite has been aggressive amongst redfish and trout, smaller profile baits have been working great and producing committed strikes. MirrOlure Little John’s as well as DownSouth Lures in all colors have been working great. The floating grass can oftentimes be troublesome, therefore we are throwing mostly soft plastics with a 1/16 ounce jig head. Pay close attention to the surface of the water, look for bait flipping, slicks, nervous water, pelicans or osprey diving or floating. These important aspects can help guide you to a successful wade and help make your day on the water a great one. Remember to stay safe and courteous of other boaters and fishermen on the water, as always tight lines! Report by Captain Reanna DeLaCruz, Captain Reanna’s Baffin Bay Adventures.

South Padre

GOOD. 86 degrees. Trout are plentiful. Redfish are spotty but being caught on Gas Well Flats. A few bull redfish are in surf and south jetties hitting live shrimp. A lot of good mangrove snapper at the end of Brownsville Channel. Stay safe out there. Report by Captain Lou Austin, Austin Fishing South Padre.

Port Isabel

GOOD. 86 degrees. Trout are plentiful. Redfish are spotty but being caught on Gas Well Flats. A few bull redfish are in surf and south jetties hitting live shrimp. A lot of good mangrove snapper at the end of Brownsville Channel. Stay safe out there. Report by Captain Lou Austin, Austin Fishing South Padre.

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