Prevailing southwesterly winds have been creating below-average tidal levels and dirty water across Sabine Lake, the Galveston Bay Complex and their surrounding satellite bays, marshes and estuaries. Fishing guides and anglers have been working tides for redfish to adjust to unfavorable conditions.
Sabine Lake fishing guide Capt. Chris Phillips has been targeting redfish with his anglers along the north end of the ship channel. He’s been finding the reds near the edge of the channel in 3-4 feet of water, adjacent to the drop-off. Live shrimp rigged under a popping cork has produced the most bites.
A lot of the redfish in the Sabine ship channel have been just under the legal slot size limit, anywhere from 19 to 19.75 inches. However, there have been some mid-slot-sized fish mixed in, too, stretching from 22 to 26 inches in length.
“Points and areas where there are rocks, shell or rip rap protruding out off the bank have been holding the most fish,” Phillips said. “Moving around and covering water has been key. The reds have not been in schools, so it has been more productive to bounce around to different points with structure, rather than just sitting in one spot waiting for them to come through.”
Southwest winds have kept the main lake waters of Sabine off-colored, preventing anglers from finding and chasing open-water schools of redfish that would typically roam throughout the middle of the estuary this time of year.
Some Sabine anglers have reported decent numbers of redfish staging over clam shell beds near the mouths of bayous along the Louisiana shoreline. Fishable stretches of water along this bank have been limited, however, because a southwest wind blows straight into a large portion of it.
Capt. Wyatt Foster, a Galveston Bay fishing guide, has been chasing redfish in East Galveston Bay, bouncing back and forth between the back lakes and main bay waters along the south shoreline near Bolivar. Low tides have made it difficult to target the shallowest areas of the back lakes. He has been able to find decent numbers of reds in guts, depressions and deeper stretches leading into the mouths of these shallow areas.
“There has been some schooling activity along stretches of shorelines that have rocks along the bank that are near the
mouths of back lakes and marshes,” Foster said. “A lot of the fish in these schools have been oversized reds in the range of 29-35 inches.”
Foster has been chunking heavy buck tail and soft plastic jigs at schools of reds. In shallow back lakes, he’s been using spinner baits and swimbaits rigged on a light jig head.
Capt. Sammy Guerrero has been fishing upper West Galveston Bay and the Intracoastal Waterway in East Galveston Bay to keep his anglers hooked up with redfish. Heavy oyster shell reefs have provided the most consistency in the upper west bay, while stretches of rocks and points along the Intracoastal Waterway have held the most action for him in the east bay.
“With the water as dirty as it has been lately, it’s been difficult at times to catch reds on lures,” Guerrero said. “Live shrimp fished under a popping cork has been working the best for my anglers.”
The marshes and back lakes of lower West Galveston Bay, Bastrop Bay, Freeport and Chocolate Bay are where fishing guide Capt. James Frausto has been consistently catching redfish. He has been playing the tides, often fishing in the afternoon when the tide has been higher. Soft plastics and carefully placed flies have been drawing plenty of strikes for him and his anglers.
“Marsh ponds with widgeon grass that are loaded with baitfish have been chockfull of redfish lately,” Frausto said. “Most of the fish have been in the middle to upper slot size class.”
Frausto has been focusing on schools of reds rather than blind-casting areas in hopes of coming across a single fish or two. Periods when the tide is falling have produced a much better bite than when the tide has been coming in.
