Reports & Forecasts: May 2023

Trinity Bay - East Bay - Galveston Bay | James Plaag
Silver King Adventures - silverkingadventures.com - 409.935.7242
James was driving home from a productive outing when we talked. “We caught ‘em real good today. It felt a lot like old times. Big numbers of trout, eight or nine reds and a couple flounder, too. I only had one guy with me, so it was pretty steady action. We had our best luck today throwing a clear Assassin Sea Shad with some glitter in it. The color really made a difference, but that’s not always the case. We’ve also been having some good luck on one of my favorite little lures, the pink She Pup. We’ve been wading all the time lately, catching best in water less than waist-deep. We’re targeting our fish by picking specific little spots which have proven track records and plenty of bait around. The fish aren’t really throwing slicks right now. That should change as the weather warms up some more. Once it does, we can look for fish around the slicks. We should also have some birds working on a daily basis once we get to May. Overall, the fishing usually becomes steadier and more consistent once the water temperatures get above 80° and stay there, which usually happens sometime this month.”

Jimmy West | Bolivar Guide Service - 409.996.3054
Jim had experienced some excellent catching in the weeks prior to giving this report. “We’ve had a good bite right at dusk on several recent trips. We’re catching some pretty solid trout on twitchbaits, up to about seven pounds, with some others between five and seven. Topwaters get their attention too at times, but the fish don’t stick as good, so we’ve mostly been sticking with sinkers. As we get into May, the south shoreline of East Bay, places like Fat Rat Pass, Yates Bayou and other stretches are usually productive. We’ve got tons of fish in those areas already, and the bite is steady. Mostly, we’re throwing soft plastics around there, because we’ve got lots of undersized trout with a decent percentage of keepers mixed in. The best days, of course, have four tide movements. We have predictably struggled on the two-tide days, especially when the tide is really low in the mornings. Makes it hard to get enough bites to find the fish. In cases like that, most people are better off changing the priority and fishing for reds instead of trout, either targeting them around the bayous and drains, or working mud stirs out in the middle.”

West Galveston - Bastrop - Christmas - Chocolate Bays
Randall Groves | Groves Guide Service
979.849.7019 - 979.864.9323
Randall expects the patterns to change with the warming weather in May, making the fishing more consistent and productive on a daily basis. “We’re right in the middle of our annual shrimp migration. The bays are filling up with all kinds of other life lately as well. With all the shrimp on the move, it’s been possible to find plenty of schools of trout and reds under working birds. We’re eagerly anticipating the arrival of our ribbonfish. They should be coming in out of the Gulf sometime soon. Once they hit the beachfront, we’ll have great action catching trout on long, slender lures which resemble them. Pearl Skitter Walks and Super Spooks work great when the fish are feeding on top. Long soft plastics like Norton Sand Eels in light colors work well too, when the fish aren’t as willing to blow up. When we’re throwing topwaters in the back-lakes, gold ones seem to work better.” Randall would also like to shout out thanks to all the people at Sport Marine who just worked with him to rig out a new boat. He is impressed with the quality of the work they did and the equipment they provided.

Matagorda Bays | Capt. Glenn Ging
Glenn’s Guide Service - 979.479.1460
www.glennsguideservice.com
May is a top month for fishing in Matagorda. The water temps are warm enough to wade wet, and the weather is generally mild. Shad, glass minnows and shrimp are showing up in big numbers. It is often important this time of year to size lures to match the recent hatch, as the fish can really get picky when feeding on smaller baitfish. Drifting should remain productive in East Bay for anglers throwing live shrimp and soft plastics under Coastal Corks. As long as the wind allows, drifting deep scattered shell is the best bet for trout and reds. The reefs near Chinquapin and Bird Island will produce good catches too, for those wading and drifting. Wading is heating up on the grass beds on the south shoreline of West Bay, where an assortment of soft plastics like four-inch Assassin Seas Shads and Spook Juniors will draw fire from hungry trout and reds. Schools of black drum are plentiful around the bigger reefs. May often gives a calm window which allows us to catch some quality trout at the surf and jetties. And last but not least, the back-lakes are full of reds, flounder and drum this month.

Palacios | Capt. Aaron Wollam
www.palaciosguideservice.com - 979.240.8204
Warming temperatures have made the fishing more consistent in our local bays here in the Palacios area. We’ve experienced a steady trout bite both wading with lures and fishing with live shrimp under corks at the rigs. Early in the mornings, wading grass beds with topwaters has been really good lately, with solid slot-fish coming to hand on bone Spook Juniors and pink/chrome She Pups. The rigs out in West Matagorda have been holding lots of keeper trout around the deeper shell pads, so we’ve been dangling shrimp about four or five feet under popping corks for best results. The trout are averaging slightly larger this year than last year, and there are lots more of them, which provides hope for the upcoming months. Reddish continue to be found chasing shad and grass shrimp along area shorelines. Norton Bull Minnows in colors like pumpkinseed/chartreuse and quarter-ounce gold spoons have been the best lures for the reds. May is a great month to fish a lot of different areas―the surf usually heats up this month, the glass minnow run on the south shoreline in the afternoons, mid-bay rigs become more productive, and redfish begin schooling in large numbers in the marshes.

Port O’Connor | Lynn Smith
Back Bay Guide Service - 361.935.6833
Lynn had been concentrating mostly on catching reds on trips made prior to giving this May outlook. “We’ve had good numbers of reds in the back-lakes. The bite in there has been steady most days. Only thing that messes it up is a long and strong outgoing tide. The fish will feed really good right as it starts out, but then they’ll be tough to catch for a while. Once the tide really dumps out of the lakes, the fishing on shorelines adjacent to the drains is better. We’ve been wading some sandy, grassy shorelines in those situations and catching both trout and reds. In May, I expect the fishing around the pass and in the surf to pick up considerably. We like incoming morning tides in those areas. We’ll fish shorelines with a sandy bottom dotted with grass beds most of the time, and throw topwaters as much as possible. If that pattern doesn’t develop, I’ll likely be heading south. Cedar Bayou is still open, and with the water flowing through it, we get good fishing in the guts in Carlos, Ayers and Mesquite Bays. In good years, we catch some of the biggest trout of the year down that way.”

Rockport | Blake Muirhead
Gator Trout Guide Service - 361.790.5203 or 361.441.3894
Blake expects to be fishing several different productive patterns in the peak of spring, during the month of May. “I usually do quite a bit of wading on some of the main reefs this month. And, of course, we fish some of the shorelines in all the bays close to Rockport too, mostly targeting trout over sandy, grassy bottoms. I also like to keep a really close eye on the surf this month. Lots of years, I have some of my best trips catching bigger than average trout along the beachfront the first few times the green water moves in and it gets good. As far as lures and bait go, we throw soft plastics like dark Norton Sand Eels with chartreuse tails rigged on eighth-ounce jigheads more than anything else. We do normally have some really outstanding topwater action too, when conditions are right, usually on relatively calm mornings when the tide’s moving. This is especially true out in the surf. As the month moves toward its end, I usually experience something of a change in my fishing, as I turn to throwing live bait often and fishing out of the boat rather than wading.”

Upper Laguna Madre - Baffin Bay - Land Cut
Robert Zapata | [email protected] - 361.563.1160
With the warming weather in May and the generally light winds compared to March and April, fishing in the Upper Laguna Madre and Baffin Bay should heat up nicely. Early in the mornings, I like to start off fishing for trout in water about three feet deep or less, usually along grassy edges on a sandy bottom, also around rock formations. The bite on topwaters like She Dogs is usually good this month in the mornings, especially if winds calm down late at night. As the sun rises and water temperatures rise, we usually do better by moving into a little deeper water and switching to soft plastics like Assassin Die Dappers, using natural colors if the water’s clear and the sun is bright – darker colors with bright tails if the water’s off-color and the skies cloudy. If we’re not wading for trout, we will look for schools of redfish, either on the flats or close to the edges of the flats in deeper water. Sometimes, we find the schools when they move as a group out of the way of boat traffic. We work hard to keep the boat out of the schools by making long casts with the wind.

Corpus Christi | Joe Mendez - www.sightcast1.com - 361.877.1230
The generally mild and pleasant weather of May creates ripe opportunity for catching trout and redfish in Baffin Bay and the Upper Laguna Madre. In Baffin and areas south of there, some of the biggest trout like to hang close to large rocks, sometimes lurking right on top of them. So, fishing for them is usually good for people willing to cast right at the rocks with both soft plastics and topwaters. If the water’s clear enough, casting a soft plastic right next to a rock and letting it flutter down the face of the boulder is effective. If the water’s not as clear, dangling soft plastics under corks allows for bringing the lures over the rocks without snagging on them. Throwing topwaters eliminates the risk of getting hung on the rocks, and sometimes the trout snatch them right as they pass over the tops of the boulders. The reds begin schooling well, and can be located on calm mornings by watching for the wakes they push as boats pass by them in the shallows. Catching reds after spotting the school means working well upwind of the school and moving toward them slowly, either by drifting or trolling.

P.I.N.S. Fishing Forecast | Eric Ozolins
361.877.3583 - Oceanepics.com
May is one of the most interesting months along the Texas beachfront. Many species of bait are running with jack crevalle and skipjacks feeding on them. Jacks can be caught on live mullet and artificial lures like topwaters and spoons. Red drum will also be running the beach, perhaps in large schools, mostly slot-fish. All this activity attracts sharks. Many large sharks, like bulls and lemons, will patrol the shallows in the first gut. Some scalloped hammerheads should still be around, and the great hammerheads should start moving in. All of these sharks will bite baits deployed close to shore, especially during the late-afternoon and evening hours. Water clarity should be fairly clean, and the main issue will likely be sargassum weed. If the water is semi-clear, expect to catch Spanish mackerel. May is also a prime month for large trout in the surf. Topwaters work well, especially early and late, around beach structures. Tides will probably be high, especially at the beginning of the month. All anglers headed to the beach should be careful when driving, as decomposing sargassum covered by sand can create a quicksand effect with potential to sink a truck.

Port Mansfield | Ruben Garza
Snookdudecharters.com - 832.385.1431
Getaway Adventures Lodge - 956.944.4000
This time of year, the Saucer Area produces plenty of solid redfish and trout. Golden croaker or zombie colored Mansfield Knockers are great choices to start with. If they don’t work, KWiggler Ball Tail Juniors in plum perfect likely will. Both the middle sections and areas about 30 yards off the ICW work well. If traffic is heavy, spots north of the East Cut work better. In this area, I would start shallow and follow the mullet from the shallows to deeper water, starting with a gold, weedless spoon. If boat traffic is heavy, areas around Butchers and Dubb’s islands generally produce better. In those places, it’s best to start shallow and follow the bait to the deeper water throughout the day. If the wind allows, the west shoreline will bust wide open. The Century Point shoreline is often productive. Drifters do best by staying about three hundreds yard from the bank and fishing the deepest grass beds. Topwaters will work at those depths, occasionally producing really big trout. Another good spot on that side are the potholes around the first pier north of town. These can produce plenty of trout with occasional flounder.

Lower Laguna Madre - South Padre - Port Isabel
Aaron Cisneros | tightlinescharters.com - 956.639.1941
Spring fishing on the Lower Laguna Madre has been very good so far. Main-bay shorelines and back-bays alike have been full of fish and other creatures as the weather continues to warm and tides rise. Trout fishing has been steady on flats adjacent to the ICW. Our most useful lure has been the Z-Man StreakZ rigged on eighth-ounce Eye Strike jigheads, and the creole croaker color has been especially effective. Working the lures in fast over potholes and sandy areas dotted with small grass beds has produced the most consistent action. The good old bone Spook Junior is almost a sure bet when bait is active on the surface during the early-morning hours. Redfish numbers are holding high in the back-lakes. They’re preferring depths of two feet or less over soft, muddy bottoms this time of the year. The reds are taking small topwaters well much of the time, especially early in the mornings. Once the wind picks up later in the day, we switch to Z-Man PogyZ in the redbone color rigged on eighth-ounce Eye Strike jigheads and work them through areas with a good mix of sand and grass. Best action occurs when we keep the lures moving pretty fast.