The View: October 2024

Some years warm, some years cool – doesn’t really matter, right? It’s October and we love it.

Cooler weather gets our autumn fishing going with shrimp leaving the bays and birds working everywhere. Warm weather keeps us in a summer pattern.

Typical weather patterns seem to be later and later every year. The last few years, the first cold fronts have not arrived until November, so "working the birds" has also been late. However, while anglers are waiting on gulls to dive, mid-bay reefs are left alone. Fewer and fewer people seem to want to wade during the fall, but there are some great fish that hang on the reefs just waiting to eat a big Super Spook or She Dog.

The summer of 2024 saw drastic improvement as far as speckled trout quality in East Bay. Less pressure, tighter limits and fewer boats on the water due to slower economy and tighter budgets have all contributed to fewer fish leaving our bays.

It is actually pretty simple – when you take less, there remains more. It is all about debits and credits – the fewer debits you make on your credit card, the more left in the account. It is the same with our fishery.

Higher tides this month will be a boon for redfish. There are lots of shrimp in the back lakes and marshes and many will target those fish with small topwaters and live shrimp under a Mid-Coast cork.

Some of the largest redfish will be found in the middle of East Bay under birds. When things are really firing off in the fall there will be 10-20 groups working in the bay. One will have solid trout beneath, the other will be all redfish.

Waders along the south shoreline of West Bay will work the points of shell with Down South Lures and Bass Assassins. If you want both redfish and black drum take a bucket of live shrimp and work the points with a cork. There will be plenty of both in October.

Normally, the in-between days of summer and fall make speckled trout a bit finicky, especially when winds blow and you can't get to the fish. That's when redfish take up the slack. Higher tides push reds to the back lakes where they begin schooling along shorelines. It's not uncommon to find pods of 2- to 4-dozen fish with noses down and turquoise tails out of the water.

Most of the reefs have drop-offs from years and years of oyster dredging and the trout like to work the edge of the shell and the mud. Most of those hotspots are on the tips of the reefs and can be reached with a solid cast.

With the loss of seagrass across the entire Texas coast, shell has been a premium. I can’t remember a year where I have fished almost exclusively on shell as opposed to sand and grass.

Times – they are changing. Either we adapt to new fish patterns or fish empty parking lots.

Enjoy the cool fronts passing through, enjoy migrating ducks and geese arriving from the north, enjoy the autumn sunrises and sunsets. October in Texas rarely disappoints.

Sunrise Lodge and Properties is a full service waterfront hunting and fishing lodge and real estate company specializing in coastal homes, farm and ranch properties and vacation rentals.