June – A great month for sight fishing!

There is a reason there are so many redfish tournaments in the month of June. It can be a fantastic month to chase these marsh donkeys.  It does depend on what Mother Nature throws at us in the way of wind speed and wind direction, though.  In just about every article I have ever written, I discuss the weather. Obviously, it is a huge part of spending days on the water, but more importantly it dictates where we can fish.  I discuss topics like this in detail during the classroom seminars I present to individuals. In my opinion, above everything else, if you understand the layout of the bay system you are fishing, then you’ll begin to understand why fish are in certain areas and what makes them hold there. That is an article for another time, but in saying that, each day in June for me is a game time decision for a sight casting trip.

Under a normal summer weather pattern, the fishing possibilities are nearly endless. Normal water levels and a typical light southeast wind, there are so many places that will hold good numbers of reds and the occasional big trout. Right now, I am thinking of about 10-15 areas I would like to be troll-motoring through. Of these areas I could probably narrow it down to 3 or 4, given the fact that we know the temperatures can climb high during this month. For that, I would choose areas that have shallow flats with good bail off areas. A bail off area is a place where fish can go to be lazy and escape the midday heat. Something around 3 feet or more, adjacent to the shallow flat.  Many of y’all might be thinking that you just need to find some sort of creek that drains off a flat. And yes, you’re partly right, but here in my home waters of the POC/Seadrift area, many of these creeks are unfortunately running lanes for all boaters hopping between larger back lake areas. What I like to find and mark on my GPS are bowls or natural depressions on a flat itself.

While some flats are big enough to spend the entire day on, certain flats are rims, so to speak. The middle of the flat or a particular side/corner of the flat will have a bowl on it, where the water drops a foot or two. To us, that doesn’t sound like much of a difference but, to a fish, it might be all they need.

Our most memorable sight casting trips have us sitting on the same flat all day long. Mainly, because when we noticed the singles and small groups disappear from the shallow rim, we would go to the bowl and Power Pole down and just wait. I am a firm believer in the longer you sit quietly in an area, the more accustomed reds become to your boat being there. The deeper these fish go, the harder it is to spot them, but do it long enough and you will see a lot of reds crawling around, hunkered down on the bottom. To me, these bowls can be such small areas, and they hardly get any boat traffic over them.

Going back to how important it is to know the layout of your bay system, this will help you move from one area to another with no time wasted.  If we are fishing in an area that has us concentrating on a bowl or depression, whether it works for us or not, I am immediately thinking of my next move, not wanting to waste time on the shallow flats because of the time of day. Instead, I am thinking where is the next depression we can check with this wind and how does it work to our advantage. In other words, I am trying to mimic the same thing just in a different area, because we see that the fish are using it.

Every one of us out there nowadays has Google Earth at our fingertips. I can’t tell you how many evenings I sit at the computer scrolling through the timeline looking at different images from over the years, trying to find that new or old bowl/depression/bail off areas I haven’t discovered yet or maybe some of the ones I have forgotten about. Don’t get me wrong, not every area will work every time you go to it, but that’s why I revisit areas under different weather conditions. If you do that, you will find the times they produce big time for you. Now you have a pattern, and if you keep a logbook, you’re already starting off each outing just a little bit ahead of someone not paying the same attention.

Do I love sight casting reds in June? Absolutely!  It can offer so many different options and will make you do your homework to insure that each outing is successful. From the windy days to those days at the end of the month, just as the dog days of summer are about to set in. I’m talking the hot, slick-calm days. Each bay system has those areas that can produce on any condition. The question is, do you know which weather conditions make them produce the best?  Understanding the layout will begin to unlock that secret to you.

From Port O’Connor to Rockport, we offer navigational trips. These trips are designed to help anglers of all skill levels, whether you are new to an area or an experienced angler in a certain body of water; we offer tips and tricks for each. We emphasize safety and boating etiquette on these trips, as well as teaching you how to run new waters safely and marking your GPS for any hazards along the way. We help you to read the water from a navigation and fishing standpoint and have fishing discussions in each area we travel to on the day of your trip. Some of these discussions are weather, tides, seasonal patterns, and what to look for and how to approach these particular areas. Whether you are new to fishing or an experienced angler, we try to customize each trip to fit your needs.

Captain Nathan Beabout
USCG/TPWD Licensed
Full time guide since 2007
Seadrift, Port O’Connor, & Port Mansfield, TX
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