The Captain's Chronicle

April was a fun month of fishing! We finally got to wet wade, once the water temperature gets above 80, that is when I start wet wading. The main target for me this month was to catch big trout up on the shallow grass flats. There is an abundance of mullet, shad and some shrimp all over the flats. With that said, I mainly used topwater baits (bone/chromse she dog), Texas Custom Jay Watkins lures, Norton Sand Shad Jrs, 4" bass assassin paddle tails, and 5"-6" Coastal Brews. Ar

March brought us warmer temperatures, even more bait and some solid fish! With water temps hovering in the 70s, in the afternoon when it creeps up to 79 or 80 wet wading felt comfortable, and I am someone who gets cold easily. Topwater bite is still good, with all kinds of bait in the bay systems around Rockport from mullet, shad, and perch. Multiple times on trips we have heard big blowups from fishing eating bait at the surface. When I'm not throwing topwaters, I am throwin

February brought the same weather patterns and low water levels as January. There has been more bait showing up too, and where there is bait, there is normally trout and redfish hanging around on the outside of the group. Getting them to eat has been a different story though sometimes, one day I saw probably 30 reds cruising alongside horse mullet and casted it in front of them and they did not want anything to do with it. It was still crazy to see them right there, less than

January brought some cooler temps and some clear water. It is a great time of year because any time of the day can be good to catch them! The warmer days that lead up to the cold fronts tend to be the best, but the days following the fronts when everything glasses off can be an amazing time to see some redfish tailing with their nose down digging in the mud. These are the days too where you can see the schools of fish in the water because it is so clear. I am still throwing t

December brought more intense cold fronts, which brought fish together even more. Similar to November, trout and redfish were found on grass and mud. Bigger trout tended to be up shallower, while you could find smaller trout schooled together in deeper parts of a drop off. Redfish were found in schools more, making it a pretty sight when you could see them tailing and attacking bait fish. Colder water (water temps in 50s and 60s) means clearer water, and I targeted areas of t

With water temperatures in the upper 60s and 70s, fishing conditions lined up nicely for November. Trout were still holding around lighted piers at night. We had great success throwing topwaters — the MirrOlure She Dog in bone/chrome was the go-to — along with soft plastics. Redfish and trout were often mixed together on muddy grass flats in knee- to waist-deep water. We also picked up a few solid flounder in muddier sections of the flats. Bait was abundant, and wherever ther

Finally some cooler weather rolling in! We had our first noticeable cold front of the year and it did its job knocking water out. When this happened we hit up deeper areas adjacent to shallow flats. It also made for great fishing when the water came back in and they moved up into shallow water. One day we found the most redfish tails I have ever seen, but they were sticking straight up buried in the grass/mud digging stuff out, similar to black drum. When this happened we wen

September was an awesome month to find trout and redfish in grass and shell. Redfish were on the move chasing mullet on grass flats. Although tough to get to eat at times, you would have to put the lure right on their nose for them to notice, but once they found it they put up an amazing fight. Trout could be found in deeper grass and on reefs. When I fished the beach there were still plenty of sharks.

Fishing in August was awesome! Pods of redfish could be found tight on shorelines pushing shrimp early in the morning. Later in the day...