West Bay - Tough Fishing

[Mell Wader]

I am not sure of an explanation, but it appears the summer fishing patterns to date have been extremely different compared to this time last year. I am wondering if anybody has an thoughts on this from their fishing experiences so far. I am wondering if Ike had anything to do with the fishing so far. It is sort of an anomaly, as the spring fishing seemed to be real good. I have noticed that many of the coves are not holding has much grass as last year. The Reds are not as abundant. Also, many of the reefs have not held the concentrations of mullet. You have to grind hard to peek away any fish. From what I have been told lots of trout and reds have come out of east bay (upper & lower). Maybe, the real big tides we had from late spring to early summer pushed the bait out or maybe there is high salinity levels in West Bay due to the lack of rain. Whatever it is, there has been no consistent pattern. If anybody has any thoughts please share.

[Robalo]

IMO it's this dang strong south wind. Been consistent south wind over 15 mph for over 2 weeks. June 4 I was killing them, June 13 I could barely scratch a couple trout here and there. If this wind dies, we should slay em. The water coming in at the passes has been offcolor, so that aint helped at all. It's kind of like 2 years ago when it was windy almost every weekend and I only made about 3 offshore trips for the year due to high winds-seemed like they were'nt gonna die down and bay fishing was tough as well-only green water along protected shorelines seemed to work or deep reefs. Tides have sucked lately also-last week small tides with little movement. We need a calm wind and bull tide. Gimme 4 tides with 1.8 to -.06'.

[Sneekypete]

Just my opinion, but I think the lack of rain and the high water temps are holding fish deeper.West bay is a shallower bay than the Upper and Lower Galveston bay.Also Trinity and East bay has had a nice amount of runnoff not to long ago.Even when the water temps were cooler is wasn't a limit everyday like last year and years past.I did good early on say around the first of April till the end of May around the pass area.Once the south winds and hotter than normal weather set in the fish got smaller and a lot fewer of them as well.This is something me and Aqua Pimp was discussing last Saturday morning before he launched his boat.We were kinda comparing notes as we have been fishing some of the same areas at different times.It seems our results almost mirrorred each other most day's.I wouldn't be surprised if some good fish could be found in the deeper reefs near Meacoms or Greens area also the reefs off the Intercoastal waterway on the east side of N.Deer to the Causeway.There are a ton of fish off the Ship Channel and the deep reefs in East bay....Same pattern might be in play in West Bay...I'll let you know on Monday.

[Mell Wader]

Sneeky,

I have to agree with you on the deeper water and cooler temps. I am going to try some reefs adjacent to deep water this weekend as well.

[lurefisher]

Yeh Rick i think you got it !But i still think we need to be night wadeing.

[Sneekypete]

I know for a fact that in the Month of June as many years as I've been keeping logs there are always fish on the west side of Sand Island between there and Cambells area.This water is around 8-9 foot and deeper in areas with scattered shell.I wouldn't consider this West Bay proper.More Lower Galveston bay,but it's close to West bay and if I was launching at FatBoys or the Causeway I'd try the reef along the Intercoastal on the backside of Pelican around daylight on an incoming tide.Then I'd move mid-morning and drift behind Sand Island with Bass Assains in the deeper water.This is a pattern my logs show going back 20 years and has work well for me in the past.I used to get daily reports from this area from a guy who had shrimped the Galveston/Texas City area for 50 years....He and his old retired buddies used to smokem' off that area.He call me during the day everyday starting at the end of May through July and give me GPS numbers of where he was catching...He passed away a few years ago and I miss him....By the way he used Croakers and was a strictly catch and release guy....His casting arm just gave out on him and it was hard for him to throw lures all day....I sure miss his wisdom..RIP Mr. Reeves

[Robalo]

Was that "Jimmy" from 50/50?

[Sneekypete]

No Richard Reeves long time resident Bayou Vista.

[FlatoutFishin]

I know for a fact that in the Month of June as many years as I've been keeping logs there are always fish on the west side of Sand Island between there and Cambells area.This water is around 8-9 foot and deeper in areas with scattered shell.I wouldn't consider this West Bay proper.More Lower Galveston bay,but it's close to West bay and if I was launching at FatBoys or the Causeway I'd try the reef along the Intercoastal on the backside of Pelican around daylight on an incoming tide.Then I'd move mid-morning and drift behind Sand Island with Bass Assains in the deeper water.This is a pattern my logs show going back 20 years and has work well for me in the past.I used to get daily reports from this area from a guy who had shrimped the Galveston/Texas City area for 50 years....He and his old retired buddies used to smokem' off that area.He call me during the day everyday starting at the end of May through July and give me GPS numbers of where he was catching...He passed away a few years ago and I miss him....By the way he used Croakers and was a strictly catch and release guy....His casting arm just gave out on him and it was hard for him to throw lures all day....I sure miss his wisdom..RIP Mr. Reeves

Kenny and I were discussing that very area a couple days ago. I like wading there early throwing tops when its right.

[Sneekypete]

Kenny and I were discussing that very area a couple days ago. I like wading there early throwing tops when its right.

Yissir, I have caught some real good trout from that area and took 7th place in a troutmasters tourney from a shell pad when ole mickey was running the tourneys.