Playing the winds

Continued from page 1 top-water plugs.

WEST MATAGORDA BAY: 70 degrees. Redfish and speckled trout are fair on shrimp.

PORT O’CONNOR: 72 degrees. Bull redfish are good on blue crab. Speckled trout are slow.

ROCKPORT: 70 degrees. Redfish are good on scented plastics and live bait. Speckled trout are good on top-waters and plastics. Black drum are good on dead shrimp.

PORT ARANSAS: 73 degrees. Speckled trout are good on artificials and shrimp under a popping cork. Redfish are fair on shrimp.

“Knee deep to shin deep sand flats have been holding decent numbers of redfish,” Schneider said. “Small paddle tail soft plastics and swimbaits have worked best for fooling reds.”

Capt. Chris Munoz said Baffin has really been producing some solid trout.

“We are seeing very few small speckled trout,” Munoz said. “The areas I have been targeting have held mostly 18- to 22-inch trout, and just about every trip, a speck pushing 24 to 26 inches is caught and released as well.”

Munoz has been targeting gradual drop-offs over sandy bottoms, as well as areas with scattered grass beds.

TRINITY BAY: 73 degrees. Speckled trout, black drum, and redfish are fair to good on live shrimp.

EAST GALVESTON BAY: 73 degrees. Speckled trout are fair to good wading with soft plastics and top-waters. Redfish are fair on shrimp under a popping cork.

WEST GALVESTON BAY: 73 degrees. Speckled trout are fair to good wading with artificial lures. Redfish are fair to good on live bait and soft plastics.

TEXAS CITY: 71 degrees. Oversized black drum and redfish are good at the Galveston jetties on live halved crab and dead shad. Redfish and black drum are fair on shrimp under a popping cork.

FREEPORT: 70 degrees. Redfish are in the river, back lakes and bays on live shrimp under a popping cork and soft plastics.

EAST MATAGORDA BAY: 70 degrees.

Speckled trout are fair when winds allow wading with shrimp and soft plastics.

CORPUS CHRISTI: 70 degrees. Redfish are good on shrimp, cut menhaden and mullet. Speckled trout are fair on soft plastics. Black drum are fair to good on shrimp.

BAFFIN BAY: 65 degrees. Speckled trout and redfish are fair on live shrimp under a popping cork.

“The wind is really dictating where we can go right now,” he explained. “Areas with fishable water have not disappointed.”

Munoz said redfish have been cruising along the banks of main bay shorelines and striking gold spoons and small swimbaits.

Farther south, Capt. Todd Grubert has been putting his anglers on consistent action from speckled trout out of Port Mansfield.

PORT MANSFIELD: 69 degrees. Speckled trout and redfish are fair over potholes on soft plastics.

SOUTH PADRE: 73 degrees. Speckled trout are fair on soft plastics and shrimp. Redfish are slow.

—TPWD

“We’ve been dealing with a lot of wind, but we are still catching plenty of fish,” Grubert said. “There’s been quite a few trout in the 4- to 6-pound range landed while wade-fishing grass beds. In areas where the grass transitions to more of a sandy bottom, the trout bite seems to slow down.”

Stretches of grass both north and south of Port Mansfield have been holding steady numbers of trout.

“The top-water bite has been pretty good, and soft plastics are working well, too,” Grubert said. “Quite a few reds from 20 to 24 inches have been mixed in with the specks and willing to strike the same baits.”

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Capt. Roger Kohutek has been finding plenty of redfish over sand flats with scattered grass beds south of the Port Mansfield harbor in knee-deep water.

“Shallow sand flats have been holding good, clean water, even on windy days,” Kohutek said. “The flats are not loaded with bait, but there’s decent numbers of redfish cruising across them, looking for an easy meal. Spoons and soft plastics have been producing steady action.”

The majority of the redfish have been in the mid- to lower slot range, with some undersized fish mixed in.

Kohutek said the best trout bite has been taking place north of the fishing village, along the west shoreline in thigh- to waist-deep water.

“The trout action has been really good when the wind allows us to fish the areas they have been concentrated in,” Kohutek explained. “Top-water lures and soft plastics have been the best bait options.”

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