The View: September 2026
If you can’t get excited about the outdoors in September… Well, you might need a B12 shot! Specks, whitewings, redfish, bluewings, tarpon, tripletail, and weekend football. The last four months of the year are traditionally the best for Texans.
I look forward to north breezes that cut the humidity and mercury readings. Cooler nighttime temps do wonders for coastal fishing and for captains who have been fighting the heat for the past three months. Expect tides to swell and expect redfish to fill the back lakes and grassy shorelines, all while readily eating small topwaters and weedless soft plastics. Bloated water levels also encourage large, solitary trout to extend their boundaries to the upper reaches of estuaries.
We find large schools of redfish on the north shoreline. Live shrimp, mullet and topwaters work well. Back bay areas like Oyster Lake, Crab Lake and Lake Austin hold healthy populations. Don't be surprised to see birds working in the back lakes on calm days as shrimp begin to leave the marsh.
Reefs along the north shoreline of West Bay hold trout, redfish and black drum on live shrimp. Shell Island, Twin Island and all the points along the north shoreline are littered with shell. Redfish have been known to school in large numbers in late September in these locales. The bruiser redfish will be on the beachfront and along the jetty rocks. Cracked blue crabs and fresh pogies are a nice snack for the big spawners.
If water temperatures continue to hang in the 80s, East Matagorda Bay trout will remain in a summer pattern. That means over deep shell in East Bay, where Bass Assassins, Down South Lures, MirrOlure Soft-Dines, Gulps, and live shrimp are best under a cork. Small topwaters like She Pups and Super Spook Jrs get blown out of the water as well.
Most waders forget about the grass beds in September, but they still hold fish; redfish especially. Guts and cuts along the south shoreline often get overlooked, and West Bay becomes a ghost town in September, though fishing remains consistent.
Wading the mid-bay reefs in East Bay produce throughout the year. With higher tides, the muddy bottoms around Brown Cedar Flats hold both trout and redfish for waders and drifters. The far east end of the bay gets really good this time of year.
Lots of tarpon were found along the beach from Matagorda to Port O’Connor in August and those same migrating schools should still be there this month. Our tarpon fishery is an untapped resource, but it would blow your mind to see all the huge schools of poons rolling and daisy-chaining so close to the beach.
Lots of tripletail have been showing on the beach with all the sargassum seaweed in the Gulf. Don’t be surprised to see a few inshore dorado show on those same grass lines in the heat of the day.
Teal season runs Sept 19-27 this year and we will be hunting the mornings and fishing the afternoons. Don’t forget about dove season getting started on Sept 1. Few things rival a dozen acrobatic teal cutting their wings over a prairie pond and dropping into your decoys. Summer rains have marsh ponds in great shape and second-cropped rice fields are being flushed as we speak.
Forecasted wet fall and winter seasons should bode well for habitat after the past two seasons of drought. Dove numbers look strong as well. Regular duck season in the South Zone will run Nov.7-29 and Dec.12-Jan.31, 2027.
Please continue to take care of our fishery. Catch and release is cool and releasing more than you take does nothing but improve our estuaries.
