The View: August 2026
It’s an August day, flags are limp at the bait camp, you are already sweating as you launch the boat before sunrise.
Bay or surf? Neither are a bad choice in August. The reefs in East Matagorda Bay are a good place to start. You need calm, green water to fish these pieces of shell during an arid August. I start at Drull’s Lump, Halfmoon or Long Reef and look for flipping mullet. If I see mullet, I begin wading on the far west end of the reef and work my way to the east. If there is a chop on the water, the She Dog is my bait. If calm, the subtle Super Spook Jr. gets the call. Barefoot, Red Cone, Three Beacon and Bird Island reefs are solid choices as well.
Say my first choice of the morning is the surf. I arrive and look for hopping shrimp, nervous shad and jumping mullet, and begin working the second bar with a topwater. If a get a blowup I get out and wade the first gut so I can fan-cast both the first gut and the top of the second bar.
This is the scenario on a day with an ardent incoming tide. If the tide is falling, I have had better success using my Power Poles or spot-locking with my trolling motor, staging in five-foot depths and casting back to the beach from the boat.
The new trolling motor technology of spot-lock allows your boat to remain outside the big waves while not fighting an anchor to hold you in place.
Concerning the surf: waves, tides, moon and water clarity determine fishability. There is no shame in arriving on the beach and turning back around and heading to the bay. Sometimes conditions look prime for a tranquil Gulf of Mexico, but as you break the jetties, 2-3 footers are rolling on the sand; and there is nothing worse than a humid August day rocking and rolling.
If it is too rough in the surf, work the jetty. We rig Gulps or live shrimp with a 3–4-foot leader under a Mid Coast Cork and toss it tight to the granite. In August, if the channel is really green, there is a good chance of a snook as well.
If it’s still too rough for the jetty, we might make the long run to West Bay and Halfmoon Reef, about 20 miles away. It is an August hotspot on a moving tide and a trout haven since the restoration of the reef was completed almost 15 years ago.
August has the propensity to slick off to almost nothing and when that happens prepare for birds to work in East Bay. It might be a tern or laughing gull, but if you see just one bird hovering and diving on surface activity, give it a cast. I cannot count the number of times that finding so few as a pair of birds turned a slow morning into a hero morning.
It has been a consistent 2026 thus far. Our fishery has been noticeably more bountiful this year. Expect more of the same with changing weather patterns returning to a welcomed wet atmosphere. Freshwater is life to everything, including our fishery.
Please continue taking care of our waters. Catch and release is cool. Please release more than you take and do what’s best for our bays.
This year’s abundance of fish is a result of sound conservation and a change in angler attitudes of returning more than we take.
