Reports & Forecasts: August 2022

Trinity Bay - East Bay - Galveston Bay | James Plaag
Silver King Adventures - silverkingadventures.com – 409.935.7242
August usually means fishing pretty deep water in parts of the bays without any visible, defining features, James says. “I spend a lot of time fishing out of the boat when it gets as hot as it's gonna get. I like to target trout around old well pads and other structures that break up the bottom. Reading the tide and setting the boat up in exactly the right place so we can cast our lures out and work 'em through the strike zones in the right direction plays a big part in our ability to catch fish in places like these. People without intimate knowledge of underwater structures will be better off targeting fish under birds, around slicks and around big rafts of jumping mullet this time of year. Small topwaters work great sometimes, but old school 51 and 52M MirrOlures and other sub-surface lures work better, on average. This time of year, we start thinking about targeting the silver kings too. We need some relatively calm weather to get after them consistently. The wind has recently stopped blowing so much on a daily basis. If we wind up having a calm summer, the tarpon fishing might be fantastic.”

Jimmy West - Bolivar Guide Service – 409.996.3054
Jim says the fishing has been excellent lately in a couple of specific types of places. “I've been fishing the surf some. Fishin's good out there when we go, because we always wait for the right conditions. On average, the trout run a little bigger out there lately than in the bays, so it's good. I expect quite a few more good days once the winds calm and stay calm for a while, which they usually do in August. Fishin's been good in the bays lately too. Just regular fish, no big ones, but real good numbers. We're finding them by keying on slicks, in places with shell on the bottom. There's a little bit of bird activity at times, but using the slicks is the real key. The big mud stirs help too. The bait will root around on the bottom and the reds will be where the bait is. When you find a big mud stir, catching fish usually means finding the slicks in the muddy water. And, you have to find the small ones. The big ones are basically worthless, because they're too far from the fish. Looking for small slicks and working upwind of them is the way to go.”

West Galveston - Bastrop - Christmas - Chocolate Bays
Randall Groves - Groves Guide Service – 979.849.7019 | 979.864.9323
Randall says the fishing has been steady and the catching good so far this summer in the area around San Luis Pass. And he sends out a reminder: it's always cooler on the water than it is in town! “We've been catching good numbers of trout in the surf when winds are calm. And, the fishing for both trout and reds has been excellent in the immediate vicinity of the pass since the menhaden showed up. The best part of the recent run has been the explosive topwater bite early in the mornings. This kind of fishing is about as much fun as we have all year. Of course, later in the days, when the sun climbs high overhead, soft plastics like Norton Bull Minnows typically work better. Lately, we've been doing best on the glow color with chartreuse tail, rigged on a three-eighths ounce Norton screw-lock jighead. As the heat drags on, the fishing usually picks up in the deeper water, like around six feet or even more, behind the pass, where we target our fish by watching bird signs, looking for slicks and following herds of bait. This pattern should kick off any time now.”

Matagorda | Bay Guide Service
Tommy Countz – 979.863.7553 cell 281.450.4037
Like most everybody else, Tommy likes to fish the surf when he can during August. “Whatever else we're doing, we keep our eyes on the surf. When the water gets green to the beach, the fishing is just better out there than it is in the bays, on average. Especially for about two days after the winds die, and the water clears up. When we can't fish the surf, I like to wade West Matagorda Bay most of the time, this month. If tides are high, I like to stay tight to the banks. If it's low, we fish in the guts, where the water's deep enough. In either situation, it's best to throw soft plastics on light jigheads, like sixteenth-ounce. Putting on a light jighead forces you to slow down, and that works better in the hot weather. If you can see the lure right at the surface, you're working it too fast. Some people struggle with this, so they do better by dangling their soft plastic under a small cork. Another option that works well during the peak of summer is drifting the areas around the reefs in East Bay, using heavier jigheads, to keep the lure close to the bottom.”

Palacios | Capt. Aaron Wollam
www.palaciosguideservice.com – 979.240.8204
Light winds have finally allowed us to work all the patterns and places we like during summer, and we've been catching plenty of fish. Our trout bite has been steady over deep shell and around rigs in West Matagorda Bay. Out there, we're using live shrimp rigged about four feet under popping corks. We had a good run in the surf already, and expect plenty more. The catching was great on SheDogs with chrome on them. Most of the trout were solid keepers, up to about twenty two inches. The reds have been biting great in the local rivers. We're trolling banks and throwing three-inch Gulp! shrimp dangled under corks at the ledges. The rivers are all pretty salty right now, with the drought, and the fish are hanging in the deeper holes. Tripletail up to twenty three pounds have been hanging around structures in the main bay. We're using popping corks with big fresh dead shrimp rigged anywhere from three to six feet under 'em for best results. In August, I expect these patterns to continue to produce. We'll be heading out and coming back to the dock early, to beat the worst part of the heat.

Port O’Connor | Lynn Smith
Back Bay Guide Service – 361.983.4434
August is one of Lynn's favorite months, because the Port O'Connor area offers so many good options for catching trout and redfish within a short distance from the dock. “We love the surf in August. Usually, winds are light and the green water stays close to the beach. You really can't beat early morning sessions catching surf trout on topwaters. We also do well on the trout in West Matagorda Bay this time of year, usually throwing topwaters and tails on flats with grass and sandy potholes lying close to deep water, in places close to the jetties and the pass, also up the bay toward Port Lavaca on the spoil banks, at times. The deep reefs in Espiritu Santo Bay can be good for trout too, when the water's moving. Reds will also be found in all these places, but folks specifically targeting them do better by fishing around the mouths of the sloughs connecting the backwater areas with the main bays, sometimes in the coves and lakes too. The reds will blow up on topwaters even better than the trout sometimes, especially small ones like Spook Juniors, but soft plastics usually work better to get their attention.”

Rockport | Blake Muirhead
Gator Trout Guide Service - 361.790.5203 or 361.441.3894
Blake had been fishing the surf quite a bit in days prior to giving this report. “The surf got really good once the wind laid for a while. The water's been beautiful out there lots of days. The fishing has been easy for the most part. We're catching plenty of trout and a decent number of reds on topwaters. This is not unusual in the surf close to Port Aransas and Cedar Bayou. August is a great time to fish that stretch of water, historically. In the bays, we're finding some trout on sandy shorelines with some grass and potholes, but the action has been faster around some of the reefs surrounded by deeper water, out in the middle. This pattern also produces great catching once we get into the middle of the dog days of summer. Reds sometimes start schooling and become easy to catch in places close to all of the channels leading out of the jetties in Port A. Places like Super Flats in Aransas Bay and East Flats in Corpus Bay sometimes hold big schools by the end of August. The fishing around the humps over in Ingleside can be great this time of year too.”

Upper Laguna Madre - Baffin Bay - Land Cut
Robert Zapata – [email protected] – 361.563.1160
So far this year, the fishing has been good. Lately, I've been able to locate good numbers of keeper trout early in the mornings. We're catching them best on Bass Assassin Die Dappers in colors like chicken on a chain and salt&pepper/chartreuse, rigged on sixteenth-ounce Spring-lock jigheads. We always use a fluorocarbon leader about twenty inches long, to prevent the chance the fish won't strike because they're leader shy. With the clear water lately, that's a must. The trout have been hanging in two to three feet of water, along grass lines and around rocks. I've also been finding good numbers of schooling redfish and black drum while running slowly across the flats in two or three feet of water. When I find the schools, I circle upwind, then approach them with the wind, using the trolling motor. Die Dappers in natural colors rigged on eighth-ounce heads cast to the outer edges of the schools usually won't spook the fish. A half-ounce weedless gold spoon will attract the attention of the reds most of the time too. The black drum don't strike lures nearly as readily; they like shrimp flavored Fish-bites and free-lined live shrimp better.

Corpus Christi / Joe Mendez – www.sightcast1.com – 361.877.1230
With the water so clear in the Upper Laguna Madre and Baffin Bay, fishing should be good for anglers targeting both trout and redfish in the area in August. “We're able to see the rock formations well when the water's clear like this. Also, the deep outside edges of the grass beds are easy to see. When we're fishing for reds this time of year, we usually look for them shallow early in the mornings. They often push wakes when they move to get out of the way of the boat if we pass reasonably close to them. Later in the day, the bright skies and clear water have been allowing us to keep track of the schools even when they move out in the middle. We look for reddish-gold patches in the water when we're working that drill. Trout fishing is best in relatively deep water most of the time this month. All the major rock formations in Baffin have great potential, as does the line of rocks lying offshore of the Kenedy Ranch, from Penascal Point to the Land Cut. Our catching's usually best on soft plastics worked low in the water column this time of year. Unless we're sight-casting our fish in the shallows!”

P. I.N.S. Fishing Forecast | Eric Ozolins
361-877-3583 | Oceanepics.com
In August, with the typical hot water and light winds, fishing for speckled trout in the surf early in the mornings usually produces excellent results. These trout can be large and they're muscular, so they put up a great fight. One of the best ways to have fun fishing saltwater in Texas is to throw topwaters along the shore in deep holes or cuts between the sandbars. When conditions are right, the trout attack lures like SheDogs and others with vengeance. Spoons and swim-baits work well at times too. Other species present this time of year include king mackerel and tarpon. Both can be caught on relatively light gear. We should have dusky anchovies running the beach by August, heading toward the peak in September. Skipjacks follow them faithfully. Spanish mackerel should become somewhat plentiful too, especially when bait balls are present. Fishing for sharks will be slow during the daytime hours, but fishing for big tigers and hammerheads at night will become more consistent. Both these species love to eat big stingrays. So targeting them with whole rays is a great way to get a big bite. With sharks, the mantra of “big bait, big fish” rings true!

Port Mansfield | Ruben Garza
Snookdudecharters.com – 832.385.1431
Getaway Adventures Lodge – 956.944.4000
August heat can be brutal do deal with. Water temps reach their highest point of the year, which usually means the fish will retreat from the shallows sometime in the middle of the mornings and stay in relatively deep water through the hottest parts of the days. In the mornings, we like to look for schools of mullet in the shallows while driving the boat along really slowly. We can usually watch them head toward the deeper water as the sun climbs into the sky, followed by the trout and redfish. This is easiest to see on the east side of the bay, in places with a bright, sandy bottom. Topwaters work well early this time of year. We've been doing best on Mansfield Knockers in the golden croaker color, rigged with single hooks. Weedless spoons work well too. In the deeper water, later in the day, KWigglers on eighth-ounce jigheads in colors like plum/chartreuse and pollo loco work great. If the bite is tougher, dangling a Gulp! in new penny color under a popping cork often draws plenty of attention. The jetties should produce well too. Out there, use a wire leader, to cope with the teeth of sharks, king mackerel and Spanish mackerel.”

Lower Laguna Madre—South Padre—Port Isabel
Aaron Cisneros | tightlinescharters.com – 956-639-1941
So far this summer, the fishing in the Lower Laguna Madre has remained good. Lately, with the hot temperatures, we're finding most of our trout in water about belly-deep, meaning three or four feet. The best bite by far has been when the tide's coming in, during the morning hours. With the strong current, we're catching best using quarter-ounce jigheads on KWiggler soft plastics, in dark colors with light tails, like plum/chartreuse. The heavy heads are required, so we can keep the lures down in the water column, in contact with the bottom at times. Keeper trout ranging up to about twenty-four inches have been schooling with smaller fish, so we're culling through lots of bites at times. The reds have been somewhat more difficult to locate, with lower tides. They retreat to deeper, cooler water when the tide falls out. Gold weedless spoons have worked best for them, as they're feeding on pinfish. They're biting early along shorelines with deep water close by. In the afternoons, the bite in guts funneling water off the flats is better. We're also catching a fair amount in water too deep to wade later in the days. I expect these patterns to continue producing, in this heat wave.”