On Galveston: October 2006

Nothing has really changed; you can almost copy my report from last month and put it down. It is basically the same. We are having a great year. Our water temperatures have dropped about 6-8 degrees and with these last couple of little fronts we have been getting some shower activity. The water is in great shape and the fish are still biting. Some days are better than others and it's pleasing to note that it is mostly weather that has given us the little bit of inconsistency that pops up every once in while.

The trout have slowed up somewhat. We are still able to get near limits to limits every day. Over all it is not bad for the September transition, usually we go through that summer to fall transition and we lose our bite entirely but I think we have so many fish this year that once you get on a good school you are going to weed your fish out of them no matter what happens.

Shorelines are still a little bit slow. Wading is kind of spotty and topwater action is somewhat slow. As far as soft plastics, you can throw what you want to throw because they're all working well right now; Gulp, Bass Assassin, shrimp tails, shad tails, it really does not matter as long as you're on the fish you'll find plenty of action.

Most of the trout and reds I have been catching have been coming off slicks and mud boils, tide lines and breaks, and color changes, that kind of pattern, in anywhere from 5-7 feet of water. The trout are getting a little closer and starting to stage up a little bit off of the flats. Once we get the water temperature down into the 70's and low 80's we are going to start having some great wade fishing.

The oil wells have been the hottest ticket. I have not been fishing the wells much because I do not like to do that but a lot of the locals here are doing real well working all of those shell pads and the well pads in the middle of Trinity Bay. The same thing is going on over in East Bay, lots of fish on deeper shell structures. The structures are holding the good schools of reds also.

September, as usual has been a bonus month for reds so far. This is when we have a lot of good herds of reds start schooling out deep and that is what we have been finding and keying in on. Last Friday we had our 9 reds in the box and released at least another 35-40. It was a pretty good deal. The trout have been a little slow but we did get our limits. Again the reds are the bonus in September and eventually it will equalize and balance out and trout will take over again in October.

I general I'd say 2006 has definitely been the year of the trout; we have caught a lot of trout this year. Basically for the fall run, a lot of people will be concentrating on East and Trinity Bays, which are the two prime bays for that and the northern ends are the place to be. My pattern in October and November is an early morning wade until about 10 o'clock and then we will make a loop out deep and work the birds or slicks, whatever the fish are offering us. We normally do the ping pong thing, working the shorelines and then bouncing out to check on the deep structure.

Fishing is still good and it looks like we are staging up to have a really great fall because September has really been above average as far as consistency. It has been an awesome year and looking forward to a fantastic fall when the temperatures come down.