On Galveston: September 2006

Hello Mickey here again. It seems like I just did one of these, I guess time flies when you are catching fish. It's been good, so sit back and let me tell you all about it.

Trinity Bay

Trinity's still hanging in there although we had some weather that brought spotty fishing in the last couple of weeks. We pulled some winds we normally don't get this time of year and could not get to the open water where the fish are holding, wind velocity above 15mph kept us stuck to the shorelines and it is slower there. Almost everything is still coming over mid-bay shell; we have been working the slicks and occasionally checking on the birds. There have been a lot of juvenile fish under them so far but you can hit a school every once in a while that has all keepers. For the most part I have not been working these birds too hard because it has been too inconsistent and I do not like catching those smaller fish and taking a chance injuring them. You can kill a lot of them this time of year with the hot weather; I really encourage everyone not to do it unless they know that they are on some quality fish.

Pretty much everything else has been on the same pattern I described last month and in July. We have been using Kelly Wigglers and Cocahoe Minnows. Color has not been a factor. We have been throwing everything from night glow with a chartreuse tail to a black with a chartreuse tail. You know me; my favorite color is anything red or plum. These colors pretty much work in all water conditions. There has been a little bit of top water action. Throwing top waters is easier when I have a light crew on the boat because you can not really have all four men on the boat throwing top waters, it can get pretty dangerous. With a light crew we have been doing real well in 7 8 feet of water with bone Super Spook and catching some quality reds and trout out of the mid-bay slicks. The top plugs work good until the sharks get bad and we have to take them off because the sharks can eat them up.

Other than that nothing has really changed when the wind is calm and we have good tidal movement we are spanking them pretty good, pretty easy limits. For about the past 10 days the fishing has been the best during the hottest time of the day, mid-day. I know a lot of people do not like to stay out there in that heat, they like to pop out there early and get them but we have been struggling in the morning. If we are wading it seems that we can get them early but boat fishing has been kind of early and around 11 o'clock here we go, they start lighting up. I have been riding around trying to hit different schools of fish seeing which one will pay off the best. A lot of big drum, trout, gafftop and reds are all mixed together in these big herds just working mud boils and slicks.

East Bay

Same pattern we're finding in Trinity is occurring over there too. Nothing has changed. I went over there a couple of times in the past week and did quite well. I limited one day and almost got my limit the next. We caught some good solid fish over there working the reefs from Hannah's all the way through the middle to the back. The shoreline reefs are producing best during early morning. Look for the best bite to be in 5-7 feet over shell and use your troll motor to stay on them. Pay particular attention to the slicks in these areas. We are seeing occasional trout at 27-28 inches on large topwaters very early as the sun is just coming up.

Trinity Bay, East Bay and the Ship Channel, it's the dog days so there are lots of rec boats and guides ganged up out there around Marker 54 to 56 throwing mostly croakers. There has been an incredible number of fish holding there since early summer and they are catching lots of fish, but this is not our game. We have moved up the channel to Marker 70 and 72 and all that area we have been out there working slicks. When we have a southwest wind the channel is going to have the best tidal movement and the greenest water and we are pretty much sticking to that. It has been quite a summer. The best I have seen in a long time. We have a lot of fish out there. What we are noticing now with all the rain we have been having- we are flushing the marshes and bayous out and we have a lot of juvenile fish in that 12-14 inch range. We have had a heck of a trout hatch the last couple of years. The future looks bright in our neck of the woods. Same thing in East Bay, a lot of small fish over there too so our future looks real good with all the numbers if we can just get everyone to take care of them. Please be careful, mash your barbs down and release them. These little fish can be hurt very easily as they really gobble a lure. Given their small size they almost get gut hooked.

I am catching fish every day and water conditions are good. It seems like every time we get one of these good rain flushes it stirs the water up and concentrates the fish and man we are having a field day. I know that these patterns will change and we'll have to move on to other things but it sure is good right now. Look for the wells to be our next solid pattern. Most of the wells in Trinity Bay have been pretty spotty up until now; you have to hit 4-5 of them and work them over with the trolling motor to find the bite but I think that will change during late August and September.

Unless I'm missing something, I think well hopping will be the best method throughout the month of September. I'll be hitting all the well pads from the front end of Trinity like the yellow separator wells all the way back to the river where the Exxon wells are. I've seen this pattern emerge before. With water conditions like we're enjoying right now the fishing at the wells starts off spotty but with good fish being a goodly portion of the few we're getting, I'm talking occasional fish between 23 and 26" are already showing up. It won't be long and pretty soon more schools begin hanging on the well pads and the action becomes very steady.

I mentioned earlier about the wind being a problem some days lately and one of my back up plans has been to hide in some of the back bays like Tab's, Burnett and San Jacinto Bay, places like that, when the wind picks up I am able to salvage a trip and go upstream and getting into those back waters catching redfish over the shallow rocks with spinner jigs. We are using the Strike King Spinner Jigs, color does not really matter. We are just working it over the rocks and the redfish are sucking them up, man it is a lot of fun. You just need to use your old bass fishing smarts. The fish aren't really giving us much to go on, they are not showing themselves or slicking or running bait, they are just there. You just have to stay on the troll motor and keep chunking and winding until they start popping. It's all easy from there.

In closing, I would like to say one thing. I lost a real dear fishing partner of mine. Me and this old man fished together for over 30 years, he was my father-in-law. He passed away on August 4, 2006 and we are going to miss him dearly over here on Trinity Bay. Vernon McPhearson was his name and they called him "Mac". He was a real good trout angler who has been fishing with me and Blaien Friermood and all our buddies for many a year. He blessed me with a good wife, his daughter, and we are really going to miss old Mac.