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TEXAS SALTWATER FISHING REPORT SABINE LAKE: 73 degrees. Speckled trout and redfish are fair on 1/4-ounce jig head with glow chartreuse plastics, gold spoons and 1-ounce silver spoons on the bottom. BOLIVAR: 75 degrees. Redfish, including bull reds are good on live finger mullet, fresh cut bait and squid. EAST GALVESTON BAY: 74 degrees. Speckled trout are good but small under birds on soft plastics. Redfish are good along shorelines and in marshes on live bait. WEST GALVESTON BAY: 74 degrees. Black drum and redfish, along with the occasional small speckled trout are fair on shrimp and soft plastics. TEXAS CITY: 74 degrees. Redfish and speckled trout are fair on live shrimp and soft plastics. FREEPORT: 80 degrees. Redfish are schooling and good under birds on scented plastics under a popping cork. EAST MATAGORDA BAY: 79 degrees. Redfish are fair on shrimp. Speckled trout are good under the birds on scented plastics under a popping cork.
WEST MATAGORDA BAY: 79 degrees. Redfish are fair on shrimp. Speckled trout are good under the birds on scented plastics under a popping cork.
PORT O’CONNOR: 81 degrees. Redfish and black drum are good at the jetties on dead shrimp and sardines. ROCKPORT: 77 degrees. Redfish are good in the flooded grass on finger mullet and live shrimp. Redfish and scattered trout have been caught along the jetties and surf on free-lined mullet.
PORT ARANSAS: 84 degrees. Redfish and speckled trout are good in the shallows of the bay system on cut bait. CORPUS CHRISTI: 78 degrees. Redfish are good at the jetties on live shrimp. Speckled trout are fair at the gas wells on live shrimp. BAFFIN BAY: 75 degrees. Speckled trout are fair on soft plastics and live shrimp. Redfish and black drum are good on shrimp. PORT MANSFIELD: 81 degrees. Redfish are fair near the East Cut and outside the jetty on shrimp and soft plastics. SOUTH PADRE: 81 degrees. Speckled trout are fair in the gas well flats. Redfish are fair in North Bay and South Bay on shrimp. PORT ISABEL: 81 degrees. Speckled trout are fair in the Intracoastal Highway on shrimp and soft plastics. Redfish are fair at the jetties on shrimp.
November 12, 2021
Shallow bass Continued from page 1
“It consistently catches bass. The longer worms seem to work best. I rig them Carolina-style, sort of. I peg them about a foot above the hook with a toothpick. That’s kind of a short leader but it works really well.” Jones fishes the worms on a 2/0 hook with a 3/8-ounce weight. His reels are spooled with 20-pound test monofilament line. Chad Foraker was fishing in that same tournament and won the big bass division with a 10.89-pounder. His style of fishing is to target big bass in shallow water. “I love to fish shallow water, especially up in the creeks,” he said. “I caught that big bass in 3 1/2 feet of water. My partner and I motored up to the creek and saw about 10 to 15 boats come out of it. That wasn’t a very good sign. But we went on into the creek and didn’t catch a thing at first. Then we started seeing big gizzard shad getting thumped by bass.” Foraker said in shallow water, he gets
to the back of creeks and looks for hydrilla, stumps and shad, especially big gizzard shad. “It’s a pattern I’ve been using here for years,” he said. “When I caught that big bass I was fishing a plum-colored 10inch power worm. It was Texas rigged with a 1/4-ounce weight and a 5/0 long shank hook. I had pitched the worm to a stump. The line sort of came tight and I knew I had a bass. I just didn’t realize how big she was. She didn’t do anything crazy, and once I wore her down, we got her in the boat.” Foraker lives in East Texas and fishes a lot of lakes, but said Fork is among the best. “The shallow-water pattern I’m on now is perfect for this time of year,” he said. “Fishing that shallow water with the big worms does not draw big hard bites. Most are soft, with a slight bit of pressure when a bass picks up the worm. Over the years, I’ve hooked bass up shallow that were in the 10-to 13-pound class.”
Spotted seatrout limits Continued from page 8
delineated the 10-fish limit in the Upper Coast. The proposed rule would maintain the restrictions set in the emergency rule and expand the boundary of the area to include the East Matagorda Bay system. The new rule would expire Aug. 31, 2023 and revert to previous rules regarding limits. “This would allow two spawning seasons under more restrictive limits,” Geeslin said. “We hope to achieve recovery in the systems in two to three years.” April is the beginning of spotted seatrout spawning and regulation change would intend to reduce harvest of mature female fish and preserve reproductive potential.
—TPWD
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