2022 Fishing in Review – Still Rebuilding

For many years my January article has been a detailed month-by-month review of the previous year’s fishing along with some general observations and opinions. Rather than break down 2022 on a monthly basis this go-round, I’ve chosen to summarize what our experiences here in the Galveston Bay Complex were for the top three targeted species over the entire 12 month period. 

Trout

Higher bay-wide salinities for the first time in several years resulted in fish being more evenly spread across the whole bay system. This meant that concentrations of trout could be found in fewer places, and almost always in proximity to some type of live habitat, such as oyster reefs. Finding those patches of fish hasn’t been especially difficult, but when you do it’s best to keep it quiet and don’t spend a lot of time sore-mouthing them. We carefully choose our times to move in and fish these areas and, even then, we’re constantly looking over our shoulder for other boats, praying that no one takes notice while we’re there. Employing this strategy has resulted in lower daily numbers than in years past. Please note that when I say “numbers” I’m not referring to boxing trout but simply catching them. Back in the day it was nothing to catch 75-150 legal trout per trip because we had so many of them in so many different areas and there were plenty to go around. Nowadays, we tend to catch enough to make everyone happy and then move on to target redfish in an effort to ease the pressure on those trout schools. In addition, we’ve mentally lowered the bar when it comes to having a “good” day.

Overall trout sizes for the year were smaller, probably 14- to 18-inches on average, with the exception of an occasional 20 or 22-incher, and a few rarely caught 25 to 28-inch unicorns. There is a dire need to re-establish a base speckled trout population of resident fish and then manage it properly. This includes aggressive habitat restoration projects. Until this happens I do not believe we will ever again experience greater numbers of larger trout. 

While there are ongoing oyster reef and shoreline protection and restoration projects it hasn’t been enough to get us anywhere close to pre-Hurricane Ike levels. While still helpful, small-scale projects alone aren’t going to be enough – not in our lifetimes, anyway. It will take huge, thousand acre mid-bay and shoreline habitat restoration efforts involving all stakeholders to begin to see a significant improvement in our fishery. This is especially true during a time in which we are dealing with ongoing ship channel dredging activities that carry silt for miles, covering live reefs in the process, not to mention the huge tanker and container ship wakes that further accelerate the erosion of reefs and shorelines. We obviously have to have commerce but the price for progress sure seems higher than ever these days. 

It’s been three and a half years (September 1, 2019) since trout limits were reduced from 10/day to 5/day here on the Upper Texas Coast; (FM457 at Sargent and northeast to the Louisiana border). It was a move that I supported very strongly and one that I believed would make a difference. I want to believe that it did, but it reminds me of the ongoing highway construction projects in and around the Greater Houston area. It’s a continuous effort but it never seems to catch up with the population growth. The overall effort by anglers is growing at a faster pace than what our current trout fishery can sustain. Limit changes alone are just one piece of the puzzle.

For years, up until the Harvey floods that occurred in late August 2017, we caught many trout on a daily basis in the 3- to 4-pound range while 5- and 6-pounders were fairly common. Since then, we’ve been in rebuilding mode. The majority of trout we caught in 2022 were in the 1- to 4-year age class. A strong case can be made that we basically started over after those Harvey floods purged pretty much the entire Galveston Bay Complex of salt water (and trout) during that time creating a ground zero scenario.

Redfish

As has been the case for several years now, finding good schools of slot reds hasn’t been easy for us, other than when birds are working in the fall and winter months.  However, schools of oversized reds seem to be uncommonly abundant in just about every part of the Galveston Bay Complex. I can’t exactly put my finger on the reasons for the shift from slots to giants in recent years but I would love to know the answers. I’m not saying that we don’t catch slot reds anymore, but just that the numbers of them are not what they used to be. Aside from chasing birds, most of the 20-28 inch redfish we caught in 2022 were in coves and along shorelines lined with shell. The back lake schools we used to rely upon are definitely not as plentiful. Mud boils and slicks were the best signs we used to target slot reds while slicks, terns, and large areas of muddy water pointed us toward the oversized reds along the ship channel and in the open bays.

Flounder

While I seldom target flounder specifically we do catch our fair share. As a matter of fact we likely landed more flounder on my boat in 2022 than I can ever remember. I’m inclined to believe that the amount of time we spent fishing with soft plastics along shorelines and near bayou drains greatly increased our chances for the uptick in numbers of flatfish. The majority were caught on MirrOlure Lil Johns and Bass Assassin 4-inch Sea Shads, but we did land quite a few on MirrOlure Corkys while wading during the colder months. Our most productive months were November and December for not only numbers but also size.

Summary

For the majority of 2022, lower than normal rainfall, record high temperatures, and persistently high winds resulted in much of our bays hitting salinity levels that more closely resembled those of Gulf water (~ 36 ppt).  Extremely high salinities such as these are harmful to oyster reefs as high-salinity thriving parasites such as Dermocystidium can kill large areas of reefs. We need adequate rainfall to maintain the health of our bays from the smallest marine organisms all the way to the top of the pyramid.

Looking forward to 2023, I honestly feel like our overall fishing patterns for all species will mirror that of 2022, barring any significant changes. For what it’s worth NOAA’s U.S. Winter Outlook (released October 20, 2022) by the Climate Prediction Center (division of the National Weather Service) forecasts a third consecutive La Niña pattern, which predicts warmer than average temperatures for the Southwest and along the Gulf Coast and eastern seaboard. The prediction also calls for drier than average conditions across the South starting in December 2022 (noaa.gov). As I type this (November 28, 2022) we’ve had two recent strong cold fronts that brought 6 to 8 inches of rainfall in the past six days and air temperatures in the low-40s, so the jury is still out on La Niña, in my opinion.

The overall health and productivity of our fishery is controlled largely by environmental factors. However, it is also greatly impacted by human activities. When environmental factors have negatively impacted a fishery as is the case of Galveston Bay, then all human activities are placed under the microscope from that point moving forward, and justifiably so.  We need to be smart enough to believe what we see with our own eyes and then make honest assessments and react accordingly. We cannot continue to lower the bar and pretend that mediocrity is awesome. We need to collectively make a commitment to excellence. If nothing else, for our grandkids’ benefit.