Store
Subscribe!
Reports & Forecasts: June 2011
Lake Calcasieu Louisiana
Jeff and Mary Poe | Big Lake Guide Service | 337.598.3268
Its hot! Times are tough in the lake, but fishing in the shipping canal, jetties, and offshore are as good as any time of the year! Most of the trout will be coming out of deeper water with good tidal movement. Some of the reefs in the lake will also produce good amounts of both trout and reds. Most of the action will be found in depths ranging from seven to ten feet. When the tide is really rolling, a heavier leadhead works better, since it will sink better. Another thing that helps is casting up current. We mainly use quarter ounce heads, but we sometimes prefer three eighths or half ounce. When fishing at the jetties, look for green water and bait to locate trout. We stick to natural colors in pretty water and go to something brighter whenever it's a little stained. Be sure to work the entire water column. Trout are known to suspend. Huge schools of bull reds will be feeding under birds in the middle of the lake. Look for water flying and birds picking, and they'll be willing and ready to eat whatever you put in front of them.
Trinity Bay - East Bay - Galveston Bay | James Plaag
Silver King Adventures | silverkingadventures.com | 409.935.7242
The key to good fishing this time of year is lighter winds, James says. "Just this past Friday, everybody I talked to had great fishing, because the winds were light. Most of the guys were keying on slicks and rafted bait and catching plenty of fish out in the middle. On my boat, we had our limit of trout by nine o'clock, fish up to about four and half pounds. We are catching most of the fish out of the boat on red shad and pumpkinseed/chartreuse Bass Assassins. When it's windy, we are wading protected shorelines. That's been a little hit or miss. On the good days, we're catching limits, and bigger fish too, up to twenty seven, twenty eight inches. On the tougher days, we aren't catching very many at all. Topwaters are working better when we're wading, especially the bone/silver Top Dog. We're also using the Flutter Jigs with the Bass Assassins when we're wading and throwing at shallower structures. All this should remain consistent right into June. Every time the winds get light, it will be lock and load time."
Jimmy West | Bolivar Guide Service | 409.996.3054
As is normally the case, the amount of catching lately in the Galveston area depends heavily on the weather, according to Jim. "We're whackin' 'em when winds are light. There are lots of fish out in the middle. You can get some on top early, but then soft plastics work better through the day. Just the other day, I had a group that caught forty trout by ten o'clock. It was easy because the wind let up and the water was pretty. If it's windy, though, it's much easier to catch fish wading than out of the boat. On most any wind direction, there are places to hide and have success, if you wade. Fishing out of the boat in the middle when it's windy isn't nearly as good. We should see these patterns continue into June. I'll be chasing birds and working slicks around the reefs when winds are light and heading to protected shorelines and into the marsh when it's windy. The potential for catching in the surf will also pick up this time of year. As long as there's no east in the wind, the Bolivar Pocket can produce some great trout during June."
West Galveston - Bastrop - Christmas - Chocolate Bays
Randall Groves | Groves Guide Service
979.849.7019 | 979.864.9323
The high winds have made fishing a challenge lately, but Randall, as always, is up for it, especially since his new JH Performance boat makes navigating easier in the chop. "Had to use the old Navy Seal training today. Water was mucked up pretty bad and the guys wanted to take home some fish anyway. We wound up with a limit of reds. Had to cut up mullet to get 'em, but we did get 'em. Topwater fishing has been great on the calmer days. We've had the best luck on the One Knocker Spooks. Glowsickle Norton Sand Eels have been working great too; I think they do a super job of imitating a ribbonfish. I like to fish 'em fast on a three eighths ounce head. The heavy head allows you to work it fast and deep at the same time. I'm looking for things to get even better in June. We are seeing lots of shrimp and mullet in the bays already. As summer gets closer and starts, the fishing should kick off in the surf and behind the Pass."
Matagorda | Tommy Countz
Bay Guide Service | 979.863.7553 cell 281.450.4037
June fishing in the Matagorda area is usually excellent and there are different places and different ways to catch plenty of fish. "West Bay is normally my top option this month. I'll work the shoreline grass beds early, throwing small topwaters like the junior versions of the Skitterwalk and Super Spook, then switch to dark soft plastics later, normally a black magic Sand Eel or Bull Minnow. It pays to be thorough when working the grass beds and guts associated with the bars outside the coves over there. If winds are lighter, I like to wade the mid-bay reefs in East Bay. Some quality fish will also be caught drifting scattered shell in the west end of that bay, keying on slicks. Another thing we look to do in June is fish the surf. We need a couple of days of light winds and green water to the beach, then we get there as fast as we can. I'll also be looking for signs that the tripletail have come into the bays. With light winds, we are able to get at the pipes, wells and buoys where these fish like to hang out. They are among the tastiest fish of all."
Palacios | Capt. Aaron Wollam
www.palaciosguideservice.com | 979.240.8204
Fishing has been tough lately due to all the high winds. Most of our fishing has been in protected areas of the bays including local rivers and creeks. The bait has definitely arrived in our bays and all the fish we have been catching have been fat and healthy. Our best method of fishing the last couple of weeks has been fishing Gulp!s under popping corks on windward shorelines. New penny, pearl, and nuclear chicken have been the best colors, rigged on quarter ounce chartreuse jigheads. On the occasional days when we've had lighter winds, SheDogs in black/chartreuse and bone/chrome/bone have been the best topwaters. I am looking forward to June. Once these winds will lay, we can get out to the rigs in West Matagorda as well as into the Matagorda Surf. These two hotspots hold lots of fish in the summer months and would be a good place for someone catch lots to fish.
Port O'Connor | Lynn Smith | Back Bay Guide Service | 361.983.4434
Lynn reports steady fishing on reefs in Port O'Connor area bays as of the time of this report. "The reefs are just covered with trout. We're catching multiple limits of keepers in the seventeen to eighteen inch class, with a few twenty inch fish mixed in. The best bite has been on soft plastics, with a little topwater action. In June, I expect the topwater action to pick up, especially when I'm able to target grassy shorelines with sand pockets. I'll fish areas like that in West Matagorda and Mesquite bays in June, keying on rafted mullet and trying to work the areas with a good mix of sand and grass on the bottom. The reefs in Mesquite and the other little bays in that area will also be good at times, particularly when winds are lighter. Topwaters will work around the reefs, but often, soft plastics work better over the shell. As always, when summer starts, we keep our eyes turned toward the Gulf. We look to fish the surf as much as we can. Normally, when the surf is right, you can catch all the trout you want on top in the first two guts off the sand."
Rockport | Blake Muirhead
Gator Trout Guide Service | 361.790.5203 or 361.441.3894
Blake reports that the fishing in the Rockport area has been on a steady roll this spring. "We had a great run on topwaters recently, and crowds were really light up until just recently. The fish have been numerous in quite a few different types of places, including on mid-bay reefs and along area shorelines with lots of grass dotted with sandy pockets. The topwaters work great on the grassy shorelines especially. When they stop working, I won't hesitate to switch over to my old standby Norton Sand Eels in pumpkinseed and purple/chartreuse. I will be looking to head out and try the surf starting this month. In some years, the best trout fishing of the summer will be had along the beachfront. I'll also look to venture a little further off the beaten path and fish some areas that don't get as much traffic as the crowds get bigger with the coming of summer. Eventually, I'll also make a switch to fishing live bait a little more, if the lures aren't working as well. The hotter the water gets, the better the bait seems to work."
Upper Laguna Madre - Baffin Bay - Land Cut
Robert Zapata | [email protected] | 361.563.1160
Every angler should like the month of June, because it's such a consistently good month for fishing. The water temperature and the weather during June are consistently good and so is the catching. The trout are still spawning, although not as much as in April and May, so I'll be looking for them in shallow grassy areas up until mid-morning. I'll be starting in the mornings in less than two feet of water and then moving to three or four feet of water if the water temperatures get up into the eighties. The trout will many times suspend themselves about two feet below the surface, so this is a good time to fish with suspending baits like the MirrOLure Catch 5 in the color CHBL or "sardine". If the water clarity is good, I'll be fishing with a sixteenth ounce Spring Lock jighead rigged with a plum/chartreuse, bone diamond, pumpkinseed/chartreuse or pearl five inch Salt Water Assassin, an Assassin Die Dapper or a Berkley Gulp! Ripple Mullet. If the fish are playing hard to get, there's always live bait, like croakers free lined on #5 Mustad Croaker hooks.
Corpus Christi | Joe Mendez www.sightcast1.com | 361.937.5961
Joe reports excellent fishing lately in the areas around the Land Cut, and he expects the catching to continue through June. "Fishing has been good down south for a while now. It's kind of funny. I've been using an old-school lure most of the time, a strawberry Kelly Wiggler shrimp tail. I started throwing those back in the late 80s, and they still work to this day. Back in those days, these were basically all we had in terms of soft plastics, the strawberry one and the root beer one. Now, there are millions of soft plastics out there on the market, but the old school lures still work. We've had a big shrimp hatch this year, and anything dark that looks like a shrimp will probably catch plenty of both trout and reds. I like to use a quarter ounce jighead when throwing at ledges in the Land Cut or at rocks. Sometimes, I switch to heavier heads if it's windy, so I can maintain contact with the edge and feel the lure better. Our water is in pristine shape right now, so I expect the action to continue to be hot through the summer."
Padre Island National Seashore
Billy Sandifer | Padre Island Safaris | 361.937.8446
June is one of the best fishing months for surf fishermen. All the sharks but makos can be expected and the biggest fish (tiger shark) ever landed from the beach was in June. King mackerel and large jack crevalle may be encountered. Speckled trout and redfish are available on a wide variety of artificial lures or live bait. Tarpon schools may be encountered migrating up the coastline. Ice chests will be filled with whiting on fresh, peeled, dead shrimp and "Fishbites." Spanish mackerel and ladyfish will be abundant. Best bet is to slowly drive the shoreline carefully observing everything but most especially the birds. You can actually pick your target species by the type and size of birds working bait. Tiny birds mean small anchovies and they mean mackerel and ladyfish. Birds a bit larger mean pilchard and Spanish sardines and they lead to trout, reds and a variety of other fish species. Pelicans and mixed flocks of big birds means bigger bait and jack crevalle, tarpon and possibly kings. Grass is usually fishable in June with pretty water and moderate winds.
Port Mansfield | Terry Neal
www.terrynealcharters.com | 956.944.2559
Summertime and the fishing is easy! All you have to do is find a concentration of bait. Five or more mullet jumping at the same time is usually a good sign. Gulf tides coming through the East Cut continue to flood the flats on a regular basis. Along with that crystal clear water, huge schools of mullet and their natural predator, spotted seatrout, also roam the flats. We have also begun seeing an amazing number of flounder along the East Cut - mostly small ones but the number of more mature flatties seems also to be increasing all the time. While we are enjoying excellent fishing, the areas available are fewer than normal. The die-off of our seagrass as the result of last summer's deluge of freshwater continues to be a problem. When the wind gets up we lose water clarity very quickly in some areas and there's lots of dead grass moving with the wind. The Gulf is warming up and should bring blue water fishing in close. Keep what you can eat and release the rest.
Lower Laguna Madre - South Padre - Port Isabel
Janie and Fred Petty | www.fishingwithpettys.com | 956.943.2747
It's hard to believe, but the only clear water we're seeing is right before and a couple of days after a norther comes through, when you can catch fish on everything from gold weedless spoons to topwaters. The majority of the time, we're battling 20 to 35 mph onshore winds. Since we lost most of our turtle grass last summer, there's nothing to keep the silt from stirring, so we're learning to live with muddy conditions, throwing the Cajun Thunder round cork trailing a Berkley Gulp three inch shrimp and popping it hard. We've been able to limit on trout fairly easily most trips, but reds are harder to find when we can't see wakes or potholes. We are limiting on redfish, but they're on the smaller size when the tides aren't cooperating. When we get a strong outgoing tide early, the fish are bigger. Freddy says, "We're starting to see shrimp jumping in the cloudy water and cleaning trout that are stuffed full of brownies. Normally, this time of year, perch peck everything, but the lack of grass on the west side has the little predators hanging out elsewhere."
Jeff and Mary Poe | Big Lake Guide Service | 337.598.3268
Its hot! Times are tough in the lake, but fishing in the shipping canal, jetties, and offshore are as good as any time of the year! Most of the trout will be coming out of deeper water with good tidal movement. Some of the reefs in the lake will also produce good amounts of both trout and reds. Most of the action will be found in depths ranging from seven to ten feet. When the tide is really rolling, a heavier leadhead works better, since it will sink better. Another thing that helps is casting up current. We mainly use quarter ounce heads, but we sometimes prefer three eighths or half ounce. When fishing at the jetties, look for green water and bait to locate trout. We stick to natural colors in pretty water and go to something brighter whenever it's a little stained. Be sure to work the entire water column. Trout are known to suspend. Huge schools of bull reds will be feeding under birds in the middle of the lake. Look for water flying and birds picking, and they'll be willing and ready to eat whatever you put in front of them.
Trinity Bay - East Bay - Galveston Bay | James Plaag
Silver King Adventures | silverkingadventures.com | 409.935.7242
The key to good fishing this time of year is lighter winds, James says. "Just this past Friday, everybody I talked to had great fishing, because the winds were light. Most of the guys were keying on slicks and rafted bait and catching plenty of fish out in the middle. On my boat, we had our limit of trout by nine o'clock, fish up to about four and half pounds. We are catching most of the fish out of the boat on red shad and pumpkinseed/chartreuse Bass Assassins. When it's windy, we are wading protected shorelines. That's been a little hit or miss. On the good days, we're catching limits, and bigger fish too, up to twenty seven, twenty eight inches. On the tougher days, we aren't catching very many at all. Topwaters are working better when we're wading, especially the bone/silver Top Dog. We're also using the Flutter Jigs with the Bass Assassins when we're wading and throwing at shallower structures. All this should remain consistent right into June. Every time the winds get light, it will be lock and load time."
Jimmy West | Bolivar Guide Service | 409.996.3054
As is normally the case, the amount of catching lately in the Galveston area depends heavily on the weather, according to Jim. "We're whackin' 'em when winds are light. There are lots of fish out in the middle. You can get some on top early, but then soft plastics work better through the day. Just the other day, I had a group that caught forty trout by ten o'clock. It was easy because the wind let up and the water was pretty. If it's windy, though, it's much easier to catch fish wading than out of the boat. On most any wind direction, there are places to hide and have success, if you wade. Fishing out of the boat in the middle when it's windy isn't nearly as good. We should see these patterns continue into June. I'll be chasing birds and working slicks around the reefs when winds are light and heading to protected shorelines and into the marsh when it's windy. The potential for catching in the surf will also pick up this time of year. As long as there's no east in the wind, the Bolivar Pocket can produce some great trout during June."
West Galveston - Bastrop - Christmas - Chocolate Bays
Randall Groves | Groves Guide Service
979.849.7019 | 979.864.9323
The high winds have made fishing a challenge lately, but Randall, as always, is up for it, especially since his new JH Performance boat makes navigating easier in the chop. "Had to use the old Navy Seal training today. Water was mucked up pretty bad and the guys wanted to take home some fish anyway. We wound up with a limit of reds. Had to cut up mullet to get 'em, but we did get 'em. Topwater fishing has been great on the calmer days. We've had the best luck on the One Knocker Spooks. Glowsickle Norton Sand Eels have been working great too; I think they do a super job of imitating a ribbonfish. I like to fish 'em fast on a three eighths ounce head. The heavy head allows you to work it fast and deep at the same time. I'm looking for things to get even better in June. We are seeing lots of shrimp and mullet in the bays already. As summer gets closer and starts, the fishing should kick off in the surf and behind the Pass."
Matagorda | Tommy Countz
Bay Guide Service | 979.863.7553 cell 281.450.4037
June fishing in the Matagorda area is usually excellent and there are different places and different ways to catch plenty of fish. "West Bay is normally my top option this month. I'll work the shoreline grass beds early, throwing small topwaters like the junior versions of the Skitterwalk and Super Spook, then switch to dark soft plastics later, normally a black magic Sand Eel or Bull Minnow. It pays to be thorough when working the grass beds and guts associated with the bars outside the coves over there. If winds are lighter, I like to wade the mid-bay reefs in East Bay. Some quality fish will also be caught drifting scattered shell in the west end of that bay, keying on slicks. Another thing we look to do in June is fish the surf. We need a couple of days of light winds and green water to the beach, then we get there as fast as we can. I'll also be looking for signs that the tripletail have come into the bays. With light winds, we are able to get at the pipes, wells and buoys where these fish like to hang out. They are among the tastiest fish of all."
Palacios | Capt. Aaron Wollam
www.palaciosguideservice.com | 979.240.8204
Fishing has been tough lately due to all the high winds. Most of our fishing has been in protected areas of the bays including local rivers and creeks. The bait has definitely arrived in our bays and all the fish we have been catching have been fat and healthy. Our best method of fishing the last couple of weeks has been fishing Gulp!s under popping corks on windward shorelines. New penny, pearl, and nuclear chicken have been the best colors, rigged on quarter ounce chartreuse jigheads. On the occasional days when we've had lighter winds, SheDogs in black/chartreuse and bone/chrome/bone have been the best topwaters. I am looking forward to June. Once these winds will lay, we can get out to the rigs in West Matagorda as well as into the Matagorda Surf. These two hotspots hold lots of fish in the summer months and would be a good place for someone catch lots to fish.
Port O'Connor | Lynn Smith | Back Bay Guide Service | 361.983.4434
Lynn reports steady fishing on reefs in Port O'Connor area bays as of the time of this report. "The reefs are just covered with trout. We're catching multiple limits of keepers in the seventeen to eighteen inch class, with a few twenty inch fish mixed in. The best bite has been on soft plastics, with a little topwater action. In June, I expect the topwater action to pick up, especially when I'm able to target grassy shorelines with sand pockets. I'll fish areas like that in West Matagorda and Mesquite bays in June, keying on rafted mullet and trying to work the areas with a good mix of sand and grass on the bottom. The reefs in Mesquite and the other little bays in that area will also be good at times, particularly when winds are lighter. Topwaters will work around the reefs, but often, soft plastics work better over the shell. As always, when summer starts, we keep our eyes turned toward the Gulf. We look to fish the surf as much as we can. Normally, when the surf is right, you can catch all the trout you want on top in the first two guts off the sand."
Rockport | Blake Muirhead
Gator Trout Guide Service | 361.790.5203 or 361.441.3894
Blake reports that the fishing in the Rockport area has been on a steady roll this spring. "We had a great run on topwaters recently, and crowds were really light up until just recently. The fish have been numerous in quite a few different types of places, including on mid-bay reefs and along area shorelines with lots of grass dotted with sandy pockets. The topwaters work great on the grassy shorelines especially. When they stop working, I won't hesitate to switch over to my old standby Norton Sand Eels in pumpkinseed and purple/chartreuse. I will be looking to head out and try the surf starting this month. In some years, the best trout fishing of the summer will be had along the beachfront. I'll also look to venture a little further off the beaten path and fish some areas that don't get as much traffic as the crowds get bigger with the coming of summer. Eventually, I'll also make a switch to fishing live bait a little more, if the lures aren't working as well. The hotter the water gets, the better the bait seems to work."
Upper Laguna Madre - Baffin Bay - Land Cut
Robert Zapata | [email protected] | 361.563.1160
Every angler should like the month of June, because it's such a consistently good month for fishing. The water temperature and the weather during June are consistently good and so is the catching. The trout are still spawning, although not as much as in April and May, so I'll be looking for them in shallow grassy areas up until mid-morning. I'll be starting in the mornings in less than two feet of water and then moving to three or four feet of water if the water temperatures get up into the eighties. The trout will many times suspend themselves about two feet below the surface, so this is a good time to fish with suspending baits like the MirrOLure Catch 5 in the color CHBL or "sardine". If the water clarity is good, I'll be fishing with a sixteenth ounce Spring Lock jighead rigged with a plum/chartreuse, bone diamond, pumpkinseed/chartreuse or pearl five inch Salt Water Assassin, an Assassin Die Dapper or a Berkley Gulp! Ripple Mullet. If the fish are playing hard to get, there's always live bait, like croakers free lined on #5 Mustad Croaker hooks.
Corpus Christi | Joe Mendez www.sightcast1.com | 361.937.5961
Joe reports excellent fishing lately in the areas around the Land Cut, and he expects the catching to continue through June. "Fishing has been good down south for a while now. It's kind of funny. I've been using an old-school lure most of the time, a strawberry Kelly Wiggler shrimp tail. I started throwing those back in the late 80s, and they still work to this day. Back in those days, these were basically all we had in terms of soft plastics, the strawberry one and the root beer one. Now, there are millions of soft plastics out there on the market, but the old school lures still work. We've had a big shrimp hatch this year, and anything dark that looks like a shrimp will probably catch plenty of both trout and reds. I like to use a quarter ounce jighead when throwing at ledges in the Land Cut or at rocks. Sometimes, I switch to heavier heads if it's windy, so I can maintain contact with the edge and feel the lure better. Our water is in pristine shape right now, so I expect the action to continue to be hot through the summer."
Padre Island National Seashore
Billy Sandifer | Padre Island Safaris | 361.937.8446
June is one of the best fishing months for surf fishermen. All the sharks but makos can be expected and the biggest fish (tiger shark) ever landed from the beach was in June. King mackerel and large jack crevalle may be encountered. Speckled trout and redfish are available on a wide variety of artificial lures or live bait. Tarpon schools may be encountered migrating up the coastline. Ice chests will be filled with whiting on fresh, peeled, dead shrimp and "Fishbites." Spanish mackerel and ladyfish will be abundant. Best bet is to slowly drive the shoreline carefully observing everything but most especially the birds. You can actually pick your target species by the type and size of birds working bait. Tiny birds mean small anchovies and they mean mackerel and ladyfish. Birds a bit larger mean pilchard and Spanish sardines and they lead to trout, reds and a variety of other fish species. Pelicans and mixed flocks of big birds means bigger bait and jack crevalle, tarpon and possibly kings. Grass is usually fishable in June with pretty water and moderate winds.
Port Mansfield | Terry Neal
www.terrynealcharters.com | 956.944.2559
Summertime and the fishing is easy! All you have to do is find a concentration of bait. Five or more mullet jumping at the same time is usually a good sign. Gulf tides coming through the East Cut continue to flood the flats on a regular basis. Along with that crystal clear water, huge schools of mullet and their natural predator, spotted seatrout, also roam the flats. We have also begun seeing an amazing number of flounder along the East Cut - mostly small ones but the number of more mature flatties seems also to be increasing all the time. While we are enjoying excellent fishing, the areas available are fewer than normal. The die-off of our seagrass as the result of last summer's deluge of freshwater continues to be a problem. When the wind gets up we lose water clarity very quickly in some areas and there's lots of dead grass moving with the wind. The Gulf is warming up and should bring blue water fishing in close. Keep what you can eat and release the rest.
Lower Laguna Madre - South Padre - Port Isabel
Janie and Fred Petty | www.fishingwithpettys.com | 956.943.2747
It's hard to believe, but the only clear water we're seeing is right before and a couple of days after a norther comes through, when you can catch fish on everything from gold weedless spoons to topwaters. The majority of the time, we're battling 20 to 35 mph onshore winds. Since we lost most of our turtle grass last summer, there's nothing to keep the silt from stirring, so we're learning to live with muddy conditions, throwing the Cajun Thunder round cork trailing a Berkley Gulp three inch shrimp and popping it hard. We've been able to limit on trout fairly easily most trips, but reds are harder to find when we can't see wakes or potholes. We are limiting on redfish, but they're on the smaller size when the tides aren't cooperating. When we get a strong outgoing tide early, the fish are bigger. Freddy says, "We're starting to see shrimp jumping in the cloudy water and cleaning trout that are stuffed full of brownies. Normally, this time of year, perch peck everything, but the lack of grass on the west side has the little predators hanging out elsewhere."