Upon typing this the city of Houston has been hit by yet again by another massive flooding event. My local community dodged a bullet this go round (not the case during Harvey). Although it will put a hamper on fishing for a few days I have no doubt the redfishing will quickly recover in the Galveston area just in time for a great fall.
We are just a few days away from the fall equinox (9/23/19) but what does that mean for flats fishing? Well the immediate change will be higher than normal water, this will be compounded by the flood water in the upper Texas coast. The middle Texas coast which I also frequent is already experiencing high fall tides but not from flooding. Luckily there is still great fishing to be had. You must simply look in areas that are normally too shallow for fish to swim and feed. A redfish (or at least the ones I fish for) have a tendency to feed in waters from 5"to 2' of water. So that sand bar that you passed by for the last two months with birds standing high and dry on it may be good place to start looking. Backwaters this time of year will often be 1-2ft over predicted levels so this opens a ton of real estate. You will likely have to do more looking around than you normally do, but once you establish a pattern you can often duplicate it the rest of the day and have a successful outing. In the following weeks we will also start to experience strong shifting winds from SE to N, NE, and hopefully NW as we start to get a few cold fronts pushing down. This particular phenomenon is when the fishing gets really good. The NW winds in particular will push out all that pesky high tide and the fish have no choice but to follow it out. Water will drop in the back lakes 2ft (or more sometimes)overnight. As a fly fisherman and sight-fisherman in general this is the time of year I live for. The days you can catch the water falling out hard can be described as catching more so than fishing. Schooling reds sometimes in excess of 100 or more move through the water aggressively eating every shrimp, crab, and small baitfish in their path. While they are in this feeding frenzy they will readily accept just about any small artificial lure or fly you can place in front of them. It makes for some truly memorable days on the water. The best season of the year is right around the corner and its going to be a great one! Be sure to plan some days on the water in the next couple of months you wont want to miss it. I still have some dates available for fall redfishing trips please email me ([email protected]) for more info and follow on instagram @frigatebirdfishing for great fishing content.
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Jake HaddockUSCG approved light tackle and fly fishing guide. Archives
January 2020
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