Galveston Bay, TX Fishing Report

Sorry about the delay between reports. I have been really busy with the Houston Boat Show in Jan., the Houston Fishing Show in March, ordering a new trailer, promoting my fishing seminar (www.galvestonbaysfishingseminar.com) getting the inside of my boat gel coated and running trips. I do love fishing for a living, but there are so many other things that I have to do and taken care of besides fishing! Ok enough about all that. As for fishing, my brother and I have been running our Spring Break specials. These are jetty trips for the family and kids. Just going out to the jetties and catching some fish! We still are offering our trout and redfish trips, but Feb. - Mar. is traditionally the toughest months to consistently catch good numbers of specks. I'm not saying you can't have good good days catching trout and reds, I'm just saying it hard to stay on the trout consistently. We have so many fronts that come in and they are so close together during Spring. This causes issues with our bays and water conditions. Now if you can find some bait and good water, you should be able to catch some good numbers of trout. The problem is these days are not the norm and one day you will catch them and the next day you can't buy a bite. Once mid April comes around all this should change. The trout start showing up in schools and making their way into our bay system. This is a welcomed site for fishing guides and saltwater anglers. From mid April all the way into late Dec. the trout will be easy to catch. I want to thank all our customers over the past month. Some of our trips have been slow due to the winds, some have been really great and some in between. Spring Break was really good again this year for our customers. Besides one broken reel and one trip cancelled due to the high winds every trip was good to great! There's still nothing like seeing that smile on that kids face while fighting a fish. Great job by all the parents that takes their kids fishing. I will start posting reports on a regular basis from here on out, so check back soon. Until next time, see you on the water.

We are catching trout in the 2-5lbs range in 2-4 ft of water. Best time to fish is in the afternoon wading on a flat near deep water.

Boat fishing is steady with trouts and reds being caught in the outgoing tide.

Trout are fair to good on the north shoreline on  soft plastics and bucktail jigs in limetreuse. reds and black drum at rollover pass

East Bay: Trout are fair to good on the north shoreline on Corkies and MirrOlures. Whiting and sand trout are good on the edge of the Intracoastal on fresh shrimp.

West Bay: Trout are fair in the mud and shell on MirrOlures and Corkies in the afternoon. Sheepshead, redfish and black drum are good at the jetty on shrimp and crabs.

trout on soft plastics on deep shell and east bay at outlets top of falling

Has another year really come and gone? Next week is Christmas, then New Years the following week. It just seems to fly by quicker and quicker every year. I'm looking forward to having another good year of fishing in 2013. My brother and I have been so blessed over these past couple of years with some excellent fishing. We have had some great customers and we really appreciate everyone that has fished with us this past year. There's nothing better in our business than to see that smile on a customers face after an exciting day on the water. Most of our trips over this past year have produced some nice boxes of fish and a lot of smiles! I also want to say thanks to all our sponsors, we appreciate all that they do for us throughout the year. Every sponsor we have has donated a door prize to the seminar I'm providing in April. We only have sponsors that we use their products or services and we have to believe in them. Customer service is very important to us and all our sponsors have really provide a great service to us over the years. We will still be running some trips in the next month or so, but it will be very limited. In January we will be getting some fiberglass and flooring work done on our boat and after that we are going to get a new trailer. By the way if your need any type of fiberglass repair or restoration done on your boat, give George a call, you can find all his information at www.houstonboatrepairs.com. Ok as for fishing, we have had a few good days and a couple of great days on the water over the past 10 days. The weather has really been a factor on us catching a lot of keeper trout or just a few. We are still using live shrimp under a cork fishing in about 3-6 feet of water for our best results. The wind and rain the past couple of days really had the water off color and the fish didn't bite. I had to move around a lot, but managed to catch some nice fish. Before the rain we had some awesome outings with near limits of trout being boxed. I want to say thanks to Mike for hanging in there and catching lots of under sized trout on a bad weather day. He was an excellent angler and caught over 25 specks with 8 of those being keepers. I also want to say thanks to Chris & Allen for fishing with me and they were lots of fun to fish with. Now Alvin, Patrick & Brent had a little competition on their trip and Brent took all the honors with biggest trout (23 and a half inch speck) and also most trout. I guess it was just his day, his trick was to stay on the phone and catch fish at the same time. LOL! I had a great time with them too. Well I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Until next time, see you on the water.

I woke up this morning and it was cold! Winter isn't officially here, but I guess mature nature decided to give us a preview of what winter feels like. The next couple of days are going to be pretty chilly, with the lows in the mid to low 30's. I have some trips scheduled for mid week and over the weekend and I think it will be pretty good. The trout should be in the places where we have been fishing and the redfish have moved in on these areas too. The water has been pushed out from this last front, but it should be back to normal by Wednesday. I look for a great next 5-6 days. A lot of the bait camps don't have live shrimp anymore, so if you want it you better call around. You can also use soft plastics or even top water this time of the year and catch plenty of fish. I like to use Gulps rigged under a popping cork, fishing it just like a live shrimp when I can't find live shrimp. The past couple of weeks have been good to great. We did have a little slow down period last week, but fishing over the past 2 weeks has still been great. On most outings we are still catching lots of small trout mixed with a good number of keepers and some nice redfish. I look for those smaller juvenile trout to move out into deeper water and start their migration. That means the bigger speckled trout should be more abundant. We are still fishing around the Kemah area, but depending on how this next couple of fishing trips go will depend if we start moving up north. I know the fish are there and it is about that time to make a move. I just hate to leave an area where the fish are biting to go to another area where fish are biting. I want to say thanks to Vincent and his family who fished with my brother Steven on a really windy day and they managed to box a nice variety of fish. Also Dustin and his friends Scott & Jordan had a great time catching over 50 trout, even though most of them were throw backs, we still had a great time catching some very nice redfish and even a 25lb. drum. I want to remind you that we offer gift certificates for Christmas. You can purchase one for a fishing trip or the seminar I'm giving in April. You can call me for all the details. I will post another report next week and let you know how the fishing turned out for these next trips. Until next time, see you on the water.

Catching limits of trout and redfish on soft plastics and bucktail jigs.

Flounder in the Yaht basin on white jigs tipped with soft plastics. Trout on shell beds bucktail jigs

Trout are good on soft plastics and bucktail jigs and redfish are hitting on the same or live mullet

Floundeer in the basin on white bucktail jigs and white soft plastics. trout still excellent on jigs and soft plastics in limetreuse

This Galveston Bay fishing report is going to be one of those reports that everyone loves to read and I love to write. The fishing over the past 10 days has been outstanding! We have only had one slow day over the past 2 weeks. Most every trip has produced limits and near limits of speckled trout and on most days we are catching some nice redfish to add to the box. We have been using live shrimp under a cork on most of our trips, although we have used some soft plastics to catch some schooling trout under some birds. It was real good for us last week and early this week for keeper trout. This time of the year can produce lots of borderline keeper juvenile specks. Some days we have caught over 50 trout with most of those being in the 14-18 inch range. We have been releasing a lot of 14-15 inch trout on every trip. The action has been great and the weather has been even better. The key to having a good box at the end of the day is to find the schools of fish that are holding keeper trout. Moving around and changing our drifts have produced better fish for us. As for locations, you can't go wrong in Trinity Bay this time of the year. Yes I know it can get crazy, especially fishing the birds, but the fish are there. Try to get away from all the other boats and try to go during the week. Take a day off from work and take advantage of the great fishing that we have this time of the year. There are plenty of other places you can catch trout besides Trinity Bay - East Bay, the Kemah Flats and up north is holding some good fish too. Just get out there and have some fun catching fish. I would like to say thanks to my crew including Bruce who won 1st place with the biggest legal redfish in the OEC tournament. All 3 guys were great and we managed to have a fun time and a great day catching a lot of fish even though the fish weren't cooperating all morning. I would also like to say thanks to Mariko, Jake and Adam. They fished 2 days with me and man did they catch a lot of fish. They were lots of fun and they made it easy for me, because they really knew how to fish. Victor and his wife Kim released twice as many as the kept on their outing and I managed to put Victor on his limit of trout, a couple of reds and one 5lb. flounder. I want to say thanks to all of my customers, my brother and I appreciate all of you! Good fishing with good people is what this business is all about. Well until next time, see you on the water.

Flounder at Galveston ship channel on white double tail shrimp

Well it is already October and this is my first report since August. What happened to September? Ok I am going to have to be a little more consistent with my fishing reports. Especially since the fishing has been really good on most of our outings. Let's talk about what's been going on. It is that time of the year where the trout are in transition. Once we get a few cold front every year during fall, the trout like to school up and chase all the bait that comes out of the bayous, lakes and marshes. Sometimes this produces easy limits and sometimes it produces lots of undersized fish and throw backs. The key to fishing this time of year is to find bait and slicks and fish them. Birds can be tricky. First most people don't really know how to fish them and ruin it for those who do. Second there are a lot of small fish and a wide variety of fish usually under the birds. So sometimes it pays off to get away from that type of fishing and concentrate on better fish on shorelines or over shell. Regardless of your choice just be courteous and boat friendly and everyone will catch plenty of fish. As for locations... well let's just say when it is right (weather) you can go just about anywhere and catch good fish. East Bay is still good to excellent on trout on mid bay reefs, West Bay is the same and everyone knows that Trinity Bay shines this time of the year! We have been fishing between East and Trinity for about 2 weeks now. We are using live shrimp under a cork for the best results. Artificials will be in our arsenal real soon. We are catching some nice trout and reds on most trips. Now remember we do call this fishing and some days for no apparent reason the fish just don't feed. One day you fish an area and you catch them with ease, then the next day you can't seem to buy a bite. For the most part though we are having some very good days on the water. The flounder run is near and we should have a great season for them. Just remember the limits! We do have some openings this month and next so give us a call if you want to get in on the action. Too many people overlook this time of the year for fishing. I want to thanks all our customer for fishing with us over the past weeks and a special thanks to Jeremy and his people from Nucor and Teejas Tubular, we had a great day on the water. Sorry about that clown in the picture, I will make sure I don't include it in any future pictures. Well until next time, see you on the water.

caught speckled and sand trout as long as we wanted to fish on jigs and soft plastics

We are still catching good quantities of reds and trout but you have to put up with 100s of sandies in the mix. East on deep shell is best for trout using limetruese/white and hot Pink/white bucktail jigas and soft plastics

We are catching good numbers of trout on deep shell beds on bucktail jigs and soft plastics. Limetruese is the best color. We are also catching some nice slot reds.

 First I want to apologize for such a long time in between reports. Summer is so busy for us and we are on the water almost everyday, unless mother nature keeps us off. The last couple of days the weather has done just that. Thursday we were on some nice trout until around 10:00 and a huge thunder storm made us head for the dock. My party (Greg and Rebecca) decided to call it a day and went home with a nice bag of fillets. Fri. and Sat. trips decided to reschedule. Starting on Sun. it looks like the weather is going to get good again. My brother and I really try to make good decisions when it comes to cancelling or rescheduling a trip. The weather can change from day to day dramatically! All we can do is check it out and go by what the forecast predicts. Some days the weather men and weather sites are so off. We are at their mercy though. Ok enough about that, as for fishing the past month has been good overall. We have had some good, excellent and a few slow days this August. Typical summer time fishing. We have used live croaker all month, dredging over shell from the channel, wells and in East Bay. We are getting close to moving up north a little and giving Trinity Bay a try. When we make this move we will switch to using live shrimp under a cork or some soft plastics. Soon the trout should start schooling up more and begin to chase some of the shrimp that will start to migrate out of the cuts, bayous and back lakes. Sometimes we fish the birds and sometimes we get away from all that and catch fish alone on some shorelines. Anglers can get crazy out there fishing those flocks of birds! I have posted a few extra pics. this report, since it has been so long since my last report. I promise I will try to post more often. I want to say thanks to all my customer this past month and a special thanks to Shanahan and his crew from Custom Controls Company. We had a great time on the water with them and hopefully next year we will catch even more fish. It took my party awhile to catch on to the croaker bite, but we still had a great time on the water. We finally have some openings, so if you want to get in on some of this good fishing that September usually brings just give us a call. Until next time, see you on the water.

Trout vary by the day. Still catching good amounts of fish on deep shell on soft plastics and bucktail jigs in limetruese 

Light winds the water is cleaning up. Tides are runing prety good. Trout are in 5 -7 ft of water. Flounder found in marshes. Look for deep water in 5 -15 ft of water along the channels. Use live bait or big nasty red shad.