With the end of the summer upon us, the kids are back in school, and so are the redfish. Schools of redfish are providing coastal anglers with plenty of excitement, both shallow and deep. Some of the most consistent action has been taking place along our upper Texas coast bays and marshes.
Sabine Lake area fishing guide, Capt. Chris Phillips, has been finding solid numbers of slot redfish along the edges of rocks and rip rap in the ICW. His anglers have been having the most luck using live shrimp rigged under a popping cork.
“The water in the ICW has been in really good shape lately, especially when barge traffic is light,” Phillips said, “and as long as the tide is moving, even if the water gets churned up by a barge, it has been cleaning up fairly quickly.”
Phillips said most of the redfish action has been taking place while on a rising or falling tide. When the current slacks off, the fish have been harder to catch. The majority of the reds his anglers have been catching have been in the 22- to 26.5-inch range.
Other Sabine area anglers have reported a consistent bite from red drum along the ICW and ship channel near the edges and rocks and rip rap while throwing crankbaits. Some have even been able to sight cast to reds that are feeding on crabs over shallow stretches of rocks. The fish have been easy to spot during the mid-morning to mid-afternoon hours while the sun is overhead.
Gary McElduff has been finding schools of slot redfish feeding on shad and finger mullet along grassy banks on the north side of Sabine Lake. Most of the fish that he’s been catching have been concentrating over small shell reefs. Top-waters and soft plastics rigged under a popping cork have been the ticket.
Tim Young said that banks with rock and rip rap along the western portion of Trinity Bay have been holding small schools of slot redfish, as well as oversized reds.
“The best bite has been early in the morning on top waters,” Young said. “Most of these fish seem to be a little spooky, so you have to be able to make long casts in order to catch them. When the conditions are calm, they have been biting pretty good. Once the wind picks up, the bite tends to shut down.”
Many Trinity Bay and upper Galveston Bay anglers have been finding pods of redfish along the edges of the Houston Ship Channel. The fish have been moving around quite a bit while feeding over structure. Both slot reds and bull reds have been caught on live shrimp and soft plastics.
The Galveston Redfish Series held its 2025 Championship Event called the All Out Shoot Out recently, where the Top 10 angler teams from the series competed to try to catch and as many fish as they could between 4 and 8 pounds. The tournament format was catch, video, release, so anglers entered their fish via video on their smart phones, in hopes of racking up as much weight as possible.
Two teams were able weigh in over 100 pounds of redfish during the event, while chasing schools of fish. Jared Esley and Terrell Maguire took first place in the event and weighed in 19 redfish for a total of 120.32 pounds. D.J. Rouse and Jason Finley came in second place in the event and weighed in 16 redfish for a total of 109.64 pounds. Both teams were able to follow schools of reds all day long in back lakes and marshes from lower Galveston Bay to Freeport.
