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On Galveston: February 2011
Captain Mickey from Galveston. Happy New Year's to everyone. Can't believe this weather is hanging in there for this time of year. Really getting some beautiful weather between fronts and water conditions are staying good, pretty much ditto everything from last month's report is still going on. Nothing has changed all that much, fishing is really good for this time of year which is hard to believe. The only change that I've seen is that the upper reaches of the rivers and the bayous are holding a lot of redfish right now and some trout. A lot of trout are coming from the shell ledges off the river banks there in the San Jacinto River just north of I-10. Drift fisherman are catching them pretty good with heavier swimbaits. All you have to do is find the right depth. More than likely these swimbaits are producing well because they are easy to work in the six to nine foot depths where these fish are holding. But on warming trends, when these fish pull up on the flats adjacent to the ledges, they are doing pretty good with Corkys and MirrOlures.
Moving on down, Burnet Bay has been producing some good trout for the drift fisherman. San Jacinto Bay is doing about the same thing with the swimbaits and eel-type baits like Bass Assassins and Big Nasty Voodoo baits.
Trinity Bay - Pretty much the same as I reported last month. There has been a lot of fish being caught in Upper Galveston Bay, Sylvan Beach, and Seabrook Flats. Drift fishing with swimbaits, MirrOlures and a few Corkys is productive here too. Over in Trinity Bay's north-end, like Jack's Pocket out deep through the F-Lease Wells, a lot of nice trout are being caught. Nice trout up to five pounds! Drift fishing has also been good there with the three baits mentioned above. I think the most important thing right now is that whatever your confidence bait might be you can catch fish on it.
On the flats, every time you get a fairly good warming trend and the water comes back up after a front, the wade fishermen are catching some pretty good fish up shallow. Areas like up in the back part of Jack's Pocket and over near the Trinity River mouth have been particularly good. As far as the Trinity River goes, they are starting to catch quite a few, even the guys who are in there fishing for catfish are catching some reds and a few trout and they are not even trying too hard; they are after catfish. That ought to tell you something. Bayous like Long Island Bayou and Old River Lake, lots of redfish up there. I haven't fished up there as that is not my gig, but they are doing quite well on redfish. I'm told that some days they will see large schools of reds surfacing and hundreds of them will be swimming around right at the surface. They tell me it's pretty cool! The water is becoming exceptionally salty upstream, salinity levels in the bay are higher than normal for this time of year, so it's really no surprise that they're finding their way up there.
As far as our reefs go, on the south end of Trinity Bay, they are normally good in the wintertime but for some reason they are just not producing like they should this year. You can catch a few fish there but your better fish and steadier action are in the northern ends of the bays. Same goes for East Bay, the upper end of Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge all behind Rollover pass, those flats become real good behind fronts when you get a warming trend and you can wade that soft mud and those scattered shell towheads all in the back end of that bay and do real good on Corkys right now.
Just a tiny bit of bird action going on every now and then. The fish will find a school of really small whisker and eyeball shrimp and drive them to the surface and of course the birds get on them and have a field day. Believe it or not you can still catch a few decent fish under the birds and it is not often that we see thing type of thing going on this late in the season.
Moving down around the Texas City area, the flounder run has diminished in the Galveston Channel but they are still catching a few on swimbaits, mud minnows and finger-sized mullet. Working right on the bottom along the ledges is the best bet if winter flounder fishing is your bag.
West Bay fishermen have been doing real good. Drifting streaks over the shell beds between North and South Deer Island, south of there all along the old intra-coastal has been paying off pretty good too. A lot of guys are drifting till they find them and then putting out a drift jug and pretty much staying with the same pattern.
Tri-Bay fishermen are catching fish up in Bastrop and Chocolate Bayou along the shorelines. Trout and redfish have been coming steadily by working the points along the bayou edges with swimbaits and soft plastics.
We had quite a bit of rain recently, as much as four to five inches in some areas, and it seems to have sparked a pretty good bite. We got a little bit of flushing action in the upper lakes, small bayous and drains. For the most part it didn't even phase the salinity levels so we could actually use a bit more rain at this time.
As far as the open bays go, the fish are scattered and are definitely concentrating way up north near bayou mouths or in the bayous themselves and across deeper flats that lie close by. As a lot of these big northers come in a lot of those fish will come out of the bayous and hit the flats and everybody will enjoy good fishing.
Moving on down, Burnet Bay has been producing some good trout for the drift fisherman. San Jacinto Bay is doing about the same thing with the swimbaits and eel-type baits like Bass Assassins and Big Nasty Voodoo baits.
Trinity Bay - Pretty much the same as I reported last month. There has been a lot of fish being caught in Upper Galveston Bay, Sylvan Beach, and Seabrook Flats. Drift fishing with swimbaits, MirrOlures and a few Corkys is productive here too. Over in Trinity Bay's north-end, like Jack's Pocket out deep through the F-Lease Wells, a lot of nice trout are being caught. Nice trout up to five pounds! Drift fishing has also been good there with the three baits mentioned above. I think the most important thing right now is that whatever your confidence bait might be you can catch fish on it.
On the flats, every time you get a fairly good warming trend and the water comes back up after a front, the wade fishermen are catching some pretty good fish up shallow. Areas like up in the back part of Jack's Pocket and over near the Trinity River mouth have been particularly good. As far as the Trinity River goes, they are starting to catch quite a few, even the guys who are in there fishing for catfish are catching some reds and a few trout and they are not even trying too hard; they are after catfish. That ought to tell you something. Bayous like Long Island Bayou and Old River Lake, lots of redfish up there. I haven't fished up there as that is not my gig, but they are doing quite well on redfish. I'm told that some days they will see large schools of reds surfacing and hundreds of them will be swimming around right at the surface. They tell me it's pretty cool! The water is becoming exceptionally salty upstream, salinity levels in the bay are higher than normal for this time of year, so it's really no surprise that they're finding their way up there.
As far as our reefs go, on the south end of Trinity Bay, they are normally good in the wintertime but for some reason they are just not producing like they should this year. You can catch a few fish there but your better fish and steadier action are in the northern ends of the bays. Same goes for East Bay, the upper end of Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge all behind Rollover pass, those flats become real good behind fronts when you get a warming trend and you can wade that soft mud and those scattered shell towheads all in the back end of that bay and do real good on Corkys right now.
Just a tiny bit of bird action going on every now and then. The fish will find a school of really small whisker and eyeball shrimp and drive them to the surface and of course the birds get on them and have a field day. Believe it or not you can still catch a few decent fish under the birds and it is not often that we see thing type of thing going on this late in the season.
Moving down around the Texas City area, the flounder run has diminished in the Galveston Channel but they are still catching a few on swimbaits, mud minnows and finger-sized mullet. Working right on the bottom along the ledges is the best bet if winter flounder fishing is your bag.
West Bay fishermen have been doing real good. Drifting streaks over the shell beds between North and South Deer Island, south of there all along the old intra-coastal has been paying off pretty good too. A lot of guys are drifting till they find them and then putting out a drift jug and pretty much staying with the same pattern.
Tri-Bay fishermen are catching fish up in Bastrop and Chocolate Bayou along the shorelines. Trout and redfish have been coming steadily by working the points along the bayou edges with swimbaits and soft plastics.
We had quite a bit of rain recently, as much as four to five inches in some areas, and it seems to have sparked a pretty good bite. We got a little bit of flushing action in the upper lakes, small bayous and drains. For the most part it didn't even phase the salinity levels so we could actually use a bit more rain at this time.
As far as the open bays go, the fish are scattered and are definitely concentrating way up north near bayou mouths or in the bayous themselves and across deeper flats that lie close by. As a lot of these big northers come in a lot of those fish will come out of the bayous and hit the flats and everybody will enjoy good fishing.