The View: May 2026
If you like fishing over oyster shell; May is your month. When prime aquatic real estate like oyster reefs become submerged with fresh, clean salt water from the gulf, species like speckled trout and redfish gravitate to the structure. Water is power – I like bloated tides.
The mid-bay reefs in East Matagorda Bay really start to hold fish during May. If the middle of the bay is green with an incoming tide, I beg my clients to get wet and wade the shell with me. I can't tell you how many large trout have come from these reefs on She Pups, Top Dogs, Super Spooks and Skitter Walks. If anglers are reluctant to get out of the boat, all that scattered shell in the middle of East Bay holds just as many big trout and redfish. Some days they school and other days you have to hunt for them.
You would be surprised how many huge trout are caught out of the boat by Matagorda captains. You don't often see them at the cleaning table, thanks to conservation-minded attitudes, but there are some long specks that hit soft plastics, Gulps, DOA Shrimp and live shrimp under a popping cork.
When tides are above normal, fish the falling tide. When water levels on flats are low, wait for the incoming tide and look for the slicks. With the warm water this month there should be plenty of mullet, shad and minnows that produce big oily slicks when gorged by trout.
When water levels are normal, there are hotspots on flats and shorelines where fish appear first on the incoming or outgoing tide. That’s not necessarily the case on flood tides. Waders who enjoy good catches concentrate tight to the shorelines or relocate to shorelines in the back lakes.
Fish disperse with all of the water, but when the water begins to fall with the outgoing tide, the trout show up where they always do.
Expect this May to be breezy; but, don’t fret, all that extra water affords much more leeward shorelines to fish. With meteorologists prediction a shift to an El Nino pattern, expect lower barometers and more wind. That bodes well for our drought. We need the rain and the fish need it just as bad.
Hypersaline bays stress the food chain, just like they stress our woods, pastures and yards. Rain is a good thing and we are praying for a wet 2026.
Another bright spot this month could be the surf. Trout to five pounds and more redfish than you can handle are normal, especially around the jetty.
We toss Bass Assassins, Down South Lures and MirrOlure Soft-Dines, but a live shrimp free-lined along the rocks really gets rocked.
Sand and grass along the south shoreline of West Bay will consistently hold solid trout and redfish. Glass minnows, mullet and shrimp flood the grass beds and the fish thump topwaters better than any month of the year.
It’s technically still spring but for us it’s the beginning of summer and we can’t wait. Our fishery is in good shape and we are encouraged by the size and quality of upper age-class fish showing in our bay system. Keep doing what’s best for our resources. Please release more than you take.
