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On Galveston: November 2007
Let's start off with East Bay:
The birds are continuing to work steadily over lots of smaller specks and sand trout. Here it is the first week of October and the water is still warm at about 85 degrees; I guess that's just part of living in Texas. At least the fish know it is fall, even though the water temperature has not given them the signal they seem to be getting into their fall habits. What I like to call the counterclockwise flow has begun. Heading into October and continuing through November we expect the trout to move along the shorelines of East Bay and the Ship Channel up into Trinity Bay. This flow pattern leads the schools to the bigger reefs and the upper reaches of the smaller back bays where they traditionally spend the winter in warmer water. Again the bird fishing is easy and you can find some keepers, but mainly small. There are also some trout along the shorelines and the shallow flats, especially in areas like Black's Cove and Rollover Pass. You're going to find a lot of pencils back there, but there definitely some good keeper fish too. Good baits have been MirrOlures and soft plastics. The bigger fish seem to be hanging around the north shoreline and there good numbers of reds in there too. We have had some good flounder showing up. The wade fisherman who are getting out really early or late in the evening seem to be doing quite well. The quarter ounce gold spoons are working really well for the reds and flounder right now. Fishing over mid-bay shell has also been productive with the keys being shad schools and slicks. If you are fishing out of the boat in those mid-bay areas with deeper water the 3/4-oz gold spoons have been good along with the MirrOlures and soft plastics that I mentioned earlier. In general, getting away form the birds and working the shad and slicks will get you into better fish. Working the tide lines over that mid-bay shell and any mud boils in the area will also pay off.
Trinity Bay:
We have had bird action over the river mouth and Anahuac Pocket. There are a lot of juvenile trout around 17" in there. The soft plastics are working well, the color does not matter. There is some good red fish action going on at the north end of the bay. If you catch the water clear up by the bayou mouths, good slot reds are making their way through. We are catching them on gold spoons and some topwaters and plastics. The bigger schools of reds seem to be scattered along the shorelines on the flats. Some have been coming out deep in about 8-10 feet of water. We have been finding those under mud boils and pods of shad. Wade fishing is still a little spotty. But with the water temperatures dropping these fish are going to hit the shorelines where the softer bottom and scattered shell is. The scattered clam shell over the soft mud will be real good in November. You can also look to the west shoreline along the reefs to producing good numbers of mature fish. You can catch them on MirrOlures and soft plastics. You will find that around Thanksgiving time these reefs will really pay off because the fish will really stack up on them. The birds will continue to work and naturally the bird trout will be a lot bigger as the water gets cooler. We have a lot of little fish moving back in after all the freshwater floods all year, and you will see the farther north you go the smaller the trout will get. It is just a natural movement we get every year. Everything is looking good. We are catching good numbers. I have had a lot of limits here lately on trout.
West Bay:
You will see a lot of birds working on Karankawa Reef down towards San Louis Pass and by Mud Cut and Chocolate Bay. Most of those fish are large sand trout, small specks and a few reds. You will hit a few schools with redfish under them. As it gets colder you will see all those fish moving back to the mid-bay shell along the north end around North and South Deer Island and Greens Cut. The fish will start to concentrate on all that shell through out the winter.
Wrap Up:
Fishing is good. It is not a 10 but I would surely rank it a very high 8 pushing 9 in many places. We are not catching the big trout right now which is normal because it is just not cold enough. Once we start getting that water temperature down into the low 70's and high 60's, we will start popping some really good fish. There is a lot of action happening right now. This is the time for upper and eastern end of the Galveston system!
Happy Thanksgiving - Good luck and good fishing to everyone!
The birds are continuing to work steadily over lots of smaller specks and sand trout. Here it is the first week of October and the water is still warm at about 85 degrees; I guess that's just part of living in Texas. At least the fish know it is fall, even though the water temperature has not given them the signal they seem to be getting into their fall habits. What I like to call the counterclockwise flow has begun. Heading into October and continuing through November we expect the trout to move along the shorelines of East Bay and the Ship Channel up into Trinity Bay. This flow pattern leads the schools to the bigger reefs and the upper reaches of the smaller back bays where they traditionally spend the winter in warmer water. Again the bird fishing is easy and you can find some keepers, but mainly small. There are also some trout along the shorelines and the shallow flats, especially in areas like Black's Cove and Rollover Pass. You're going to find a lot of pencils back there, but there definitely some good keeper fish too. Good baits have been MirrOlures and soft plastics. The bigger fish seem to be hanging around the north shoreline and there good numbers of reds in there too. We have had some good flounder showing up. The wade fisherman who are getting out really early or late in the evening seem to be doing quite well. The quarter ounce gold spoons are working really well for the reds and flounder right now. Fishing over mid-bay shell has also been productive with the keys being shad schools and slicks. If you are fishing out of the boat in those mid-bay areas with deeper water the 3/4-oz gold spoons have been good along with the MirrOlures and soft plastics that I mentioned earlier. In general, getting away form the birds and working the shad and slicks will get you into better fish. Working the tide lines over that mid-bay shell and any mud boils in the area will also pay off.
Trinity Bay:
We have had bird action over the river mouth and Anahuac Pocket. There are a lot of juvenile trout around 17" in there. The soft plastics are working well, the color does not matter. There is some good red fish action going on at the north end of the bay. If you catch the water clear up by the bayou mouths, good slot reds are making their way through. We are catching them on gold spoons and some topwaters and plastics. The bigger schools of reds seem to be scattered along the shorelines on the flats. Some have been coming out deep in about 8-10 feet of water. We have been finding those under mud boils and pods of shad. Wade fishing is still a little spotty. But with the water temperatures dropping these fish are going to hit the shorelines where the softer bottom and scattered shell is. The scattered clam shell over the soft mud will be real good in November. You can also look to the west shoreline along the reefs to producing good numbers of mature fish. You can catch them on MirrOlures and soft plastics. You will find that around Thanksgiving time these reefs will really pay off because the fish will really stack up on them. The birds will continue to work and naturally the bird trout will be a lot bigger as the water gets cooler. We have a lot of little fish moving back in after all the freshwater floods all year, and you will see the farther north you go the smaller the trout will get. It is just a natural movement we get every year. Everything is looking good. We are catching good numbers. I have had a lot of limits here lately on trout.
West Bay:
You will see a lot of birds working on Karankawa Reef down towards San Louis Pass and by Mud Cut and Chocolate Bay. Most of those fish are large sand trout, small specks and a few reds. You will hit a few schools with redfish under them. As it gets colder you will see all those fish moving back to the mid-bay shell along the north end around North and South Deer Island and Greens Cut. The fish will start to concentrate on all that shell through out the winter.
Wrap Up:
Fishing is good. It is not a 10 but I would surely rank it a very high 8 pushing 9 in many places. We are not catching the big trout right now which is normal because it is just not cold enough. Once we start getting that water temperature down into the low 70's and high 60's, we will start popping some really good fish. There is a lot of action happening right now. This is the time for upper and eastern end of the Galveston system!
Happy Thanksgiving - Good luck and good fishing to everyone!