Mid-Coast Bays: April 2026
Lola Newman was excited to get into some hard-pulling black drum.
It seems like every year I wait impatiently for what I consider the first true signs of spring—trees sprouting new buds and flowers blooming along Lane Road, the route I travel every morning on my way to Charlie’s Bait Camp. For me, that’s when the spring season truly begins. I consider it a kind of mind and body reset for fishing. Deep down I’m hoping to find that all the grass beds made it through the winter without too much damage from the small freezes we had, and that all the immature baitfish also survived. I fished consistently over the winter and am very glad to report that with the rather mild conditions we experienced, the entire ecosystem appears to have come through pretty much unscathed, as of this writing.
Every spring when the water temperature is steadily hanging around the 70-degree mark, I make reconnaissance trips into West Matagorda, Espiritu Santo, San Antonio and Mesquite Bays. These are all major bays that I can fish readily without trailering my boat. By making these trips I can sample the size of fish and the locations they are using, and also determine what phase of the transition out of winter patterns they are in. Meaning, are they primarily in backwater areas, or are they holding around major shoreline structures such as deeper guts, points, grass beds or reefs? I also use these sampling trips to discover where the major concentrations of baitfish are staged and the sizes they have developed to.
All the bay systems mentioned presently appear to have good quality fish holding in both the backwaters and along the main bay shorelines. I judge the areas I pre-fish based on both the quality and quantity of fish I can either see or catch. I like to concentrate my spring trips where my clients will have the best shot at numbers of quality fish and possibly even a fish of a lifetime.
I will mention that the areas where I concentrated my pre-fishing forays, no matter the bay system, were predominately along the south shorelines. I do this in preparation for the gusty springtime winds of April and May that blow mostly from southerly directions and have to be dealt with on a daily basis. You can depend on April wind; it usually blows all day and settles only slightly overnight. Then, as soon as the sun peeks out, here it comes again.
Now don’t let me discourage you with all this windy talk. I would much rather have high winds than no wind at all, especially during periods when our tides are weak. Wind-driven water movement is basically our bread and butter once we get farther from the Gulf passes, especially in the upper San Antonio Bay areas. The wind pushes water over shell reefs and through guts and around points on main bay shorelines, pretty much emulating a normal tidal movement when there isn’t one.
After many hours logged in the different bays, it’s safe to say I will be fishing the San Antonio and Mesquite Bay areas predominately in April. There are already large concentrations of fish amassed on the main bay shorelines. Typically speaking there will be some areas where you will encounter mostly small trout in strong numbers. When my clients and I run into these little guys regularly, I will load them up and move to another area—not because we won’t eventually catch some keeper fish, but because I don’t want to injure or kill these little ones. Undersized trout are far more aggressive in their feeding and will swallow soft plastics, making it difficult to revive them sufficiently to keep them from becoming dolphin food.
In closing, I would like to mention something about the number of stingrays I noticed on all the major bay shorelines. The majority of the rays were between the size of a man’s hand and a dinner plate—the kind that can really nail you good. Now is a good time to go to www.foreverlast.com and order a set of Ray Guardz for all your family members who wade. When ordering online you can use my code GARY15 and get an additional 15% off everything you purchase. Foreverlast has many new wade fishing products available, so be sure to browse around. I think you will be impressed.
Fish hard, fish smart!
