Reports & Forecasts: November 2024

Trinity Bay - East Bay - Galveston Bay | James Plaag
Silver King Adventures - silverkingadventures.com - 409.935.7242
James reported experiencing one of the great runs of tarpon fishing in his life. “I spent all summer looking for ‘em, and finally found ‘em last week. I don’t know how many were hooked by all the people I saw working the schools, but it had to be hundreds. They were just spread up and down the coast for miles and miles. Of course, now we have a storm out there and the whole thing’s over with, but it was fun while it lasted. Fishing in the bays has picked up a little bit for the waders. They’ve been doing pretty well on the days soon after the fronts cool things off somewhat, but the hot weather comes right back and the bite gets tough again. What we need is a blaster front, which we usually get right around Halloween, and the bite will pick up significantly. The tides will start to fall out and the water will cool off, and we’ll have much better luck catching the trout and reds. November sets up to be a great month if and when that happens. It’s one of the best months to catch some of the bigger trout in West Bay and its satellites.”

Jimmy West | Bolivar Guide Service - 409.996.3054
When we talked, Jim said the dove season had turned out great. “I’ve got a bunch of birds now, so we’re hunting lots of days. We’ll continue hunting doves through the end of the year. And, of course, we’re looking forward to the start of big duck season right now. It’s hard to say how good that will be, with all the freshwater inland, but we should have plenty of birds on some of the properties I like to hunt. The fishing will begin to perk up quite a bit as we get into November too. Lately, we’ve had good numbers of redfish in the shallows in the upper portions of both Trinity and East bays, and once the water temperatures cool down some more with the stronger fronts, the trout will show up in the same places. Of course, it remains to be seen how good the fishing will be for the bigger trout, after all these flood events this year. Either way, I’ll go back to fishing some more, on the days when I don’t book a bunch of hunts. We usually catch a mix of upper-slot reds and bigger than average trout wading the afternoons this time of year.”

West Galveston - Bastrop - Christmas - Chocolate Bays
Randall Groves | Groves Guide Service
979.849.7019 - 979.864.9323
Randall mentions two really productive options for catching trout and redfish in the month of November in the area around San Luis Pass. “On the better days, when the tide is relatively high, the weather’s pretty warm, and the lakes and coves are full of water, the wading can be great for some of the bigger trout. We like to work areas with a mix of mud and shell on the bottom and throw slow-sinking twitch baits most of the time. If we see lots of mullet and other baitfish jumping out of the water or huddled and moving fast right at the surface, we’ll try topwaters. After strong fronts push through, the backwater areas become void of life for a bit, and the fishing is excellent out in the main basin of West Bay, in water too deep for wading. Out there, we usually find our fish in places where giant rafts of mullet are milling around and jumping. Often, the water looks pretty dingy in the places where the trout and reds are concentrated. And, we often see several kinds of birds, including cormorants, terns, pelicans and gulls working in the same areas. Soft plastics work best in that situation.”

Matagorda Bays | Capt. Glenn Ging
Glenn’s Guide Service - 979.479.1460
www.glennsguideservice.com
“November is one of my favorite months to fish the bays in the Matagorda area. November brings crisp, cool sweatshirt mornings and wonderfully mild middays. The fish will still be feeding full tilt on the last of the shrimp migrating out of the bays, so I’ll still fish the birds quite a bit this month. We usually see increasing numbers of redfish in the schools feeding under the birds as the month goes on, as well as a larger percentage of bigger, quality trout. Vudu shrimp, Hogie shrimptails and Bass Assassin Little P&Vs dangled under Coastal Corks will all produce plenty of bites. Paddletails and rattails rigged on eighth-ounce heads and fished closer to the bottom without the corks work well too. In addition to fishing the birds, we will start to focus on targeting bigger trout and reds around shell pads close to the shorelines and around marsh drains, especially after we get some stronger cool fronts. We should also start to catch decent numbers of fish in the Colorado River and Diversion Channel, mainly working the banks with four and five-inch Assassin Sea Shads rigged on quarter-ounce jigheads. Topwaters can work really well too.”

Palacios | Capt. Aaron Wollam
www.palaciosguideservice.com - 979.240.8204
Fishing in the Tres Palacios area has been very consistent for the last month. We got some big equinox tides in and that push of new water has triggered a good bite. Redfish have continued to fill our boxes this fall, with fish still found over shell and any structure on local shorelines. We have been troll-motoring shorelines throwing live and fresh dead shrimp about a foot under popping corks for best results. Trout fishing dramatically improved with the salinity finally going back up; deep reefs and wellheads out in West Matagorda Bay have produced the best fishing for folks using live shrimp under popping corks. Flounder gigging remains good, as most giggers have been averaging near-limits most nights, doing best when we have light winds. Shorelines with pea gravel and clay bottoms have produced most of the flatfish. Black drum remain steady over shell pads, and they seem to want fresh dead compared to live shrimp. We’ve have been posting up on shell beds and fishing the shallow ends of deep reefs for best results. Cooler water temperatures should make for excellent fishing next month, as bait starts to exit the bays. This time of year, locating lots of bait is key.

Port O’Connor | Lynn Smith
Back Bay Guide Service - 361.935.6833
When November arrives, Lynn expects to change up his basic plans a bit, to take better advantage of the cooling weather and water temperatures. “We generally don’t like to leave the dock early in the mornings this month. It’s better to leave around lunch time and fish into the late-afternoon hours. This allows the sun to heat up the water as much as possible. This plan pays the biggest dividends on the days soon after strong fronts pass over the coast. Most years, the fishing is good around the main-bay reefs and close to drains that dump water out of the coves and back-lakes on falling tides. One of the best scenarios of all develops on sunny days when the water in the shallowest portions of the bays heats up more than the deeper water, and then the tide rolls out in the afternoon, spilling the warmer water into the main bodies of the bays. When this happens, trout, redfish and flounder all stack up in the warm currents, normally close to the shorelines on the main-bay sides of the drains. This is a great scenario for fishing slow-sinking twitch baits. On the best days, topwaters work great too.”

Rockport | Blake Muirhead
Gator Trout Guide Service - 361.790.5203 or 361.441.3894
November is a favorite month for spending time in the outdoors in the Coastal Bend for Blake. Cast & Blast season heats up in earnest. “With the start of big duck season, I’ll be running more charters hunkered down in the blinds in the mornings until the shooting slows way down, or we get our limits, then fish our way out. Normally, the fishing for reds is great in the marshy areas where we hunt the ducks, and we’re able to find plenty by running around in the air boat. On the warmer days, with the better weather, fishing for trout can be outstanding this month too, especially in some of the local bays with lots of mud mixed with shell on the bottom. During the middle of the days and into the afternoon hours, the trout bite often picks up. We catch well on a variety of lures this month. It can be great for topwaters, as long as the weather isn’t really cold, with clear skies. But, on average, soft plastics work better. We catch plenty of fish on our old standby Norton Sand Eels in dark colors with bright tails and on Gulp! split-tails if the bite’s tough.”

Upper Laguna Madre - Baffin Bay - Land Cut
Robert Zapata | [email protected] - 361.563.1160
With so many people headed into the ranch lands to hunt monster South Texas bucks and into the marshes to hunt ducks, the traffic on the water in the ULM and Baffin Bay slows to a crawl this month. This is a great thing for those of us who love to target trout and redfish. During the Thanksgiving month, with the longer, cooler nights, the fish will spend more time in the deeper water after the sun comes up, waiting for the water in the shallows to warm up some. So, we often start off the day wading shallow areas close to deeper water, so we can cast into water over three feet deep and work our lures close to the bottom. Once the middle of the morning arrives, and on into the afternoons, we like to move shallower. We experience some really good fishing right against the bank in the Lagoon, also on shorelines and on the shallow spines of sand bars in Baffin, once the water heats up. The bite is often great then on slow-sinking twitch baits in bright, flashy colors like gold/chartreuse. On the mildest days, She Dogs and similar topwaters work well too.

Corpus Christi | Joe Mendez - www.sightcast1.com - 361.877.1230
In November, several different productive patterns emerge for anglers targeting trout and redfish in the Corpus Christi area. “If the weather’s warm, the fishing in the shallows is usually good this month. We catch lots of quality trout and reds trolling around close to the King and Kenedy Ranch shorelines in the Upper Laguna Madre and tossing our soft plastics at potholes and rocks, and along the edges of the big mats of dead grass. In this situation, the early morning hours usually produce the best action. Of course, we expect colder weather to become more regular this month, and when the water temperatures drop down into the 50s and stay there a while, the patterns change. Then, the ICW and the channels connecting to it become full of shrimp, trout and redfish. Most of the time, after this happens, gulls and terns will be working the waters of the ditches, dipping down to grab shrimp trying to escape from the trout. When all this sets up, the action is usually best late in the afternoons, often on flats close to the secondary channels. Sometimes, the first hour of darkness is much better than any other time of day.”

P.I.N.S. Fishing Forecast | Eric Ozolins
361.877.3583 - Oceanepics.com
November is regarded as the best surf-fishing month in Texas. The finger mullet migration is in full force, and mornings are loaded with explosive jack crevalle action. Jacks will hit large spoons, swimbaits and topwaters, but the surest bait for them is usually live mullet. Due to regulations for the winter, mullet must be of legal size. Casting out mullet will often entice bites from oversized reds. All big reds should be released, unless they’re kept for mounting purposes. These spawners are important to the fishery, and the quality of their meat noticeably decreases in edibility. Tarpon will be either on the beach or the jetties of south Texas until around Thanksgiving before they head out for the winter. Spanish mackerel and bluefish will also be wreaking havoc on bait in the surf. Near the end of the month, the pompano bite will begin to get good, improving with each passing cold front. Shark action will remain phenomenal, mostly for healthy, medium-sized bulls, large blacktips, and the occasional tiger. Abundant freshwater in Texas the past couple of months is making its way into the Gulf of Mexico, and it may force us to make adjustments to our strategies.

Port Mansfield, Texas | Capt. Michelle Frazier
[email protected] - 956.369.2045
The arrival of November means the season for wearing waders is fast approaching. Cold fronts will become stronger and more frequent on the Lower Laguna Madre. There will however still be plenty of warm days in between, making the water temperatures fluctuate. Monitoring the water temperature is helpful during this month. Air and water temperatures will affect where the fish can be found. Redfish can still be found fishing the drop-off in the East Cut. KWigglers punch/metal flake Wig-A-Los rigged on 2/0 quarter-ounce jigheads have been producing some nice fish. An occasional flounder can also be found fishing the same area. When the wind allows, wading the West Shoreline near the Oak Mottes and the mouth of Little Bay can also be productive for both trout and redfish. On days when the wind is a little stronger, fishing the cabins around the Saucer can be dependable. Trout are becoming more active and can be caught in the mornings on topwaters, but as the day progresses, soft plastics tend to work better. The Mansfield Knocker in the Ruby Tuesday color has been working well lately. Anglers should keep an eye on the weather, since November fronts can arrive suddenly and without much warning.

Lower Laguna Madre - South Padre - Port Isabel
Aaron Cisneros | tightlinescharters.com - 956.639.1941
It’s been really pleasant on the Lower Laguna Madre lately, with the arrival of recent cooler weather. Trout fishing has been good on most days. We’re finding all sizes schooling together. Early in the mornings, we’ve been finding them aggressively biting on sand bars. Four-inch Z-Man DieZel MinnowZ in the redbone color rigged on quarter-ounce Eye-strike Trout-eye jigheads have been producing more bites than anything else, especially when we’re working them low and slow. Later in the afternoon, trout fishing has been best on grassy flats covered by two to three feet of water. Then, we’re keying on slicks to pinpoint the best areas to target the fish. Redfish numbers are great, and we’re finding most of our fish in really shallow water. Back-bays, spoil islands and main-bay shorelines have all produced good catches at times. Bone Spook Juniors rigged with single hooks have earned lots of blow ups early in the mornings, when winds are relatively calm. Once the wind picks up, redfish follow the bait to flats riddled with numerous potholes in three to four feet of water. Four-inch Z-Man DieZel MinnowZ in the opening night color are perfect when worked really fast through the sandy pockets.