Reports & Forecasts: February 2023

Trinity Bay - East Bay - Galveston Bay | James Plaag
Silver King Adventures - silverkingadventures.com - 409.935.7242
James mentioned some good catching on trips prior to giving this report. "We have been catchin' 'em pretty good wading since the weather warmed back up after the cold snap. We're mostly hitting areas with scattered shell on the bottom close to some of the main reefs. Fishing has been pretty good in Upper West Bay and Lower Galveston Bay on this pattern. Best bite has been on the hard baits when we're wading. We're catching good on the old school MirrOlures in classic colors like chartreuse/gold, also on sinking Leles. On some days, the Paul Brown Lures are working great, too. Over in East Bay, the fishing is best up in the marshes. There's lots of trout over there, mostly small ones, but it's usually possible to catch a limit of eating-sized fish on soft plastics with a little effort. One of the best lately has been a Bass Assassin Sea Shad in a color called Laguna shrimp. I've also been catching well on the new Artemis Shad, which is a full-sized swim bait. All of the fish, the trout, the reds and the flounder, love that thing, and it's really easy to use. It works great when reeled straight in."

Jimmy West | Bolivar Guide Service - 409.996.3054
Jim has had a great season hunting ducks, but that action will wind down at the end of January, and he'll be back to fishing regularly. "We've had some decent fishing lately, when the weather's not too cold. The fish are plentiful up in the bayous and marshes. The recent heavy rains have sent quite a bit of freshwater into the back of East Bay, but the fish appear to have hunkered down. People wading the shorelines back there are catching pretty good, trout up to about five pounds, by working lures right close to the bottom. Wading is generally the way to go in February. The fish are usually pretty shallow this time of year, and it's a great time to catch some of the biggest trout in the bay. All the shorelines in East Bay have potential, depending on the wind direction, and Trinity Bay is holding up good right now, too. There's not much freshwater rolling down the river, so there's plenty of places in the north end of the bay to wade. After fronts, the fishing is best in the holes and drains, but the action picks back up in the shallows once the water warms back up."

West Galveston - Bastrop - Christmas - Chocolate Bays
Randall Groves | Groves Guide Service - 979.849.7019 - 979.864.9323
Catching fish around San Luis Pass in February means looking for bait, mostly mullet, Randall says. "Since we have so few shrimp in the bay this time of year, the search for mullet is the key to finding the trout and redfish. Normally, we're looking for them in open areas of the main bay, in water ranging from about four to maybe seven feet deep. The search can be somewhat time-consuming. Finding a few mullet isn't necessarily enough; a concentration is a much better indicator of the presence of predators. So, once we find a decent concentration of bait and succeed in earning a few strikes, we are persistent in the area, doing what we can to pin down the precise locations of the schools of trout and reds. When fishing these areas out of the boat, we throw Norton Sand Eels mostly, rigging them on three-eighths or quarter-ounce jigheads. Of course, wading is a better option during warm spells. When wading, we like to fish in places close to reefs, with a mix of mud, grass and scattered shell on the bottom, throwing Paul Brown Corkys and other slow-sinking twitch baits, and topwaters, when the bait is most active at the surface."

Matagorda | Tommy Countz Guide Service
Tommy Countz - 979.863.7553 cell 281.450.4037
Tommy mentions a long list of potentially productive options for catching trout and redfish in the Matagorda area in February. "We like to drift the area around Raymond Shoal if we're fishing out of the boat for trout. Over there, we look for muddy streaks in the water, if the overall condition of the water is clear. And, we use relatively heavy jigheads, either three-eighths or quarter-ounce, rigged with soft plastics like Norton Sand Shads in colors like tequila gold or electric chicken, depending on the water quality. Of course, the wading is great in East Bay for big trout at times, too. Folks who do best at that generally focus on the late-afternoon hours and work places with a muddy bottom. They mostly throw slow-sinking twitch baits and topwaters. It can be slow, without lots of action, but the potential for the trout of a lifetime is definitely real. And, the fishing for redfish is great in West Matagorda Bay this time of year. It can be good anytime, but the best conditions of all involve a really low tide, which stacks the fish in the guts and drains in places like Cottons and Greens bayous, on the south shoreline."

Palacios | Capt. Aaron Wollam
www.palaciosguideservice.com - 979.240.8204
Winter fishing has been good in the Palacios area and we appear to have dodged the bullet on a big fish kill in the cold weather event which happened near the end of 2022. The three local rivers continue to produce best in cold weather. DSL soft plastics in magic grass and blue moon rigged on three-eighths ounce heads have worked best in the depths of the rivers, worked low and slow, bumping the bottom. When the weather warms, the redfish move way up into the marshes in big numbers, feeding on crabs and grass shrimp. We've been catching plenty on pumpkin-chartreuse Lil' Johns and Johnson gold spoons. With high tides, the guts on the south shoreline of West Matagorda fill up with both trout and reds, primarily in places close to the mouths of bayous. Action is best in that area in the afternoon, with a falling tide. February should provide excellent action as water temperatures climb. We catch best in the second half of winter on shallow, muddy flats close to deep water, with some scattered oyster shell on them, like those near the front of the harbor, and at the mouths of the local rivers.

Port O’Connor | Lynn Smith
Back Bay Guide Service - 361.935.6833
Lynn expects to be chasing some of the big trout in the Port O'Connor area come February. "I like to fish in places with some shell scattered about on a muddy bottom this time of year. The best areas are on flats with shallow water lying close to a channel or some other kind of drop-off into deeper water. The big trout like to come out of the depths and look for a meal in the shallows during the warm hours of the afternoon this time of year. So, we don't leave the dock early most days. We like to take off late in the morning and fish through the afternoon. The back-lakes in the area offer great potential for a shot at a big trout and of course, plenty of redfish. The bite on slow-sinking twitch baits is usually good this month. During the warm spells, the topwaters work great too. If the weather's warm, we want to see a lot of bait in the areas we're fishing, but on the colder days, with gloomy, gray skies, finding even a few mullet in the right kinds of places can lead to some really good catching."

Rockport | Blake Muirhead
Gator Trout Guide Service - 361.790.5203 or 361.441.3894
Blake will be fishing much more of the time, once duck seasons ends and February arrives. "The fishing in the Coastal Bend is great this time of year. We've got lots of shallow areas close to deep water, and good tide movements in lots of places. By the end of duck season I normally have a good grasp on the location of plenty of schools of both trout and reds. We like to fish shorelines adjacent to guts and drains leading into the backwater areas quite a bit this time of year. If the tide is high, and coming in, the fishing is often good inside the shallow back-lakes and coves. If it's low and/or going out, the bite is often best on the main bay shorelines near where the cut funnels water in and out of the shallows. We throw topwaters some of the time during February, if the weather's warm and we see lots of mullet jumping, but Norton Sand Eels in dark colors with bright tails work better more of the time. We usually catch a nice variety of fish this month, plenty of slot reds and eating-sized trout, also some of the biggest trout of the year."

Upper Laguna Madre - Baffin Bay - Land Cut
Robert Zapata | [email protected] - 361.563.1160
With the cold water temperatures typical of February, it pays to keep the breathable waders in good shape. It is also a good idea to wear ForEverLast Ray Guards, as the best fishing for big trout is usually done by wading, and stingrays will be present in places where trout are found. During the long nights, water temperatures decline and drive the fish into deeper water, but they move back into shallower water once the sun rises in the sky and heats up the day. The trout move slowly this time of year, and people hoping to catch them by wading should move slowly too, while exercising as much stealth as possible while working through the water. I target trout this time of year in potholes and along grassy edges. I like to work my lure from the grass into the sandy areas, to attract the attention of trout lurking there to attack their prey. The action can also be good along drop offs at the edges of some of the channels leading into the intracoastal waterway. Bass Assassin Die Dappers in colors like salt&pepper/chartreuse, chicken on a chain or trickster rigged on eighth-ounce or quarter-ounce jigheads work best.

Corpus Christi | Joe Mendez - www.sightcast1.com - 361.877.1230
February ranks right at the top of best months to target trophy trout in the Corpus Christi area, Joe says. "Some big trout come out of Baffin Bay and the ULM this time of year. Other parts of the area produce monster trout too, notably Nueces Bay. We seem to have escaped a bad fish kill during the cold snap that hit right before the turn of the year, so we're set up for some excellent action come February. Best fishing for big trout in these parts in February often occurs on warm days between fronts. Some of the best catching will be in shallow water close to grass mats and drains on the King and Kenedy ranch shorelines. The fishing is also good out of the boat in parts of the Badlands, on the flats near the Point of Rocks and at Cathead and East Kleberg, around the main rock formations. Soft plastics rigged on light jigheads work well when wading, but folks fishing out of the boat do better using slightly heavier heads, three-eighths ounce or heavier. In clear water, natural colors work best. If the water's murky, dark colors with bright tails show up better."

Padre Island National Seashore | Eric Ozolins
361.877.3583 - Oceanepics.com
We've had mostly clear, clean water throughout most of the winter along the Texas beachfront, despite the rapid rising and falling of the water temperatures. Pompano have been around in good numbers, biting best in ice cream conditions. They will readily bite fresh shrimp or Fish-Bites when the weather calms. The cooler parts of the weather pattern in late-winter will elevate the potential for catching both black and red drum from the beach, including slot-size fish and oversize. Black drum will take the same baits as the pompano, while the reds prefer shrimp and cut mullet. On the calm days, catching monster surf specks is possible. Slow-sinking MirrOlures and other twitch baits worked at a slow pace produce best. Trout sometimes stack up in blow-out holes around the sand bars, also near the bases of the jetties jutting out from the sand. In the heart of winter, sandbar sharks are the only big sharks to target. They reach a maximum length just over seven feet. We do have plenty of Atlantic sharpnose and bonnethead sharks, too. All the sharks prefer water temps over 60° and any cold snap usually ends the action with them for a while.

Port Mansfield | Ruben Garza
Snookdudecharters.com – 832.385.1431
Getaway Adventures Lodge – 956.944.4000
This is the season when fronts regularly pass over the coast switching the winds and dropping the temperatures. The best catching usually occurs either the day before or the second day after the passage of a front. If winds fall light, the action is usually good along area shorelines and around some of the spoil islands. Topwater action is limited this time of year, but when it's on, a Ruby Tuesday Mansfield Knocker is a great plug to throw. The KWigglers Wig-A-Lo in flomingo, bone diamond, lagunaflauge and pollo loco rigged on eighth-ounce heads work better most of the time. Up north, the area around Gladys Hole produces great catching this time of year. On the east side, the flats around Jones Cut and Dubb's Island hold plenty of fish. Most of the trout hang out in the relatively deep potholes over that way. This is also true around the East Bay. Down south, West Bay, and Peyton's Bay are hotspots. The Pipeline and the Saucer also attract lots of fish and anglers. Most of the catching in these areas in February occurs in some of the deepest potholes. Sometimes the sight of a single mullet flipping can lead to the mother lode.

Lower Laguna Madre - South Padre - Port Isabel
Aaron Cisneros | tightlinescharters.com - 956.639.1941
Winter fishing in the Lower Laguna Madre has rebounded nicely since the cold weather event at the end of 2022. We're finding our trout mostly in about two to three feet of water covering a grassy bottom with plenty of sandy potholes. Small topwaters are drawing lots of strikes when bait is active close to the surface. The bone Spook Jr is predictably working best. The Z-Man StreakZ in space guppy color rigged on an eighth-ounce Trout Eye jighead is also producing lots of fish. With these, a slow retrieve which keeps the lure close to the bottom is best. Redfish continue to come to hand in good numbers, with the best bite coming during hours when a strong tide comes in. For the reds, we're fishing shallow flats with a muddy bottom close to deeper water. Z-Man StreakZ in smokey shad color have worked best to trick the reds. All these fish drop off into deeper water if and when cold weather sends water temperatures plummeting. So, keeping track of recent weather trends is important, including watching the tide charts. The trout bite well in the afternoon, with the tide flowing out of shallow areas into the Lagoon, at times.