Rockport, Texas Fishing Report – April 23rd, 2017

It’s the end of the week and time for another Rockport, Texas fishing report. It’s late April already, which seems pretty crazy. May is just around the corner, and probably some warmer weather too. But we will sneak in one last Rockport fishing report at the end of the month here.

But as for the present… We have had a very good week. Actually, much more of the same. Seems like our weather has changed very little in a month. Sunny, 80-82 degrees, manageable winds in the mornings and then hold on to your hat in the afternoons. This week was no different. But the fishing has remained very good this past week, for the most part. We did have one rough morning South of Port A fly fishing one day, between two boats. But an adjustment of location and we finished strong in the afternoon.

Our mornings have been absolutely lights out most days. Tailing fish are the norm. Schools range from 5 to 50 fish. But they aren’t hard to find at all. Some are leaving mud streaks for hundreds of feet. Follow the mud, and there are your reds rooting feverishly. This has been the program each morning from 6:30am, or as soon as you can see, until 10 or 11am. Put ANYTHING in front of them, and you will be rewarded.

We did have quite a bit of water in the system all week though. This made finding some fish a little trickier. They were still tailing and leaving mud streaks, but you wouldn’t see their tails sometimes as they were under water. Other spots, we were shallow enough that they were still easy to find. Also with the higher water, once the schooling tapered off, the fish can be pretty spread out at times. So there were a few lulls in the action here and there. But persistence pays off and you are sure to bump into more fish.

The weekend brought us a brief change in the weather. Saturday evening, as we were pulling our boats, the wind switched and was blowing from the North. This continued all night and into Sunday. This morning, we were greeted with water levels a good foot and a half lower than yesterday, and a howling NW wind at 20+ mph. Also, this was our coldest morning since February, at 51 degrees. We toughed the wind out today and it ended up fishing very well as the water warmed back up in the sun. We saw a couple of solo tails, one cruising school of 20 or more fish and plenty of solo fish. So it seems that the little change of pace didn’t slow the fish down much.

Looking forward to this week, it appears we are back to normal… sort of. Temps back in the low 80’s and pretty stout winds will be the program. So one would expect the water levels to creep back up fairly quickly once that wind comes in Monday night. But there will be nothing but sunny skies for the next little while, which is good.

Our best flies have not changed still. Crab patterns are leading the charge. Although the topwater action to schooling fish has been outstanding as well. Color hasn’t seemed to matter much there either. Just get it in front of them and make some noise. But Chartreuse/White or Black/Red have been the first couple gurglers out of the box most mornings. Reducers are still working well also. Didn’t tie on any shrimp’ish flies this week, as we really didn’t need to change much.

We had someone email and compliment us on our fishing report, but also asked for a little more info on locations and bays we were in. So, here you go… We fished one day up in Port O’Connor this week, two days were spent either North or South of Port Aransas as well. But our best fishing has been between St. Charles Bay and San Antonio Bays. This is where we are finding the most reliable tailing fish and schooling fish. Carlos, Mesquite, St. Charles, etc. If the wind allows, that’s been our best of the best this week.

It’s warm out these days, and there are lots of folks on the water. Fishing tournament season is ramping up as well. So keep yourself informed of those, so you know where to avoid that junk show. But just expect plenty of company at the ramps Friday through Sunday now. We recommend going early and getting ahead of the mess!

We have a bunch of boats out all this week. So stay tuned as we will be posting random happenings here and there. Or you can always follow along with us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and even Snapchat for the very latest news. We try to post something most every day. Or of course you can email any time for additional info or ask about what we did and where we did it that day. We will tell you where we fished and what we saw, as best we can.

Spring fishing continues, but Summer is close. Water temps are higher than normal for April. So if you are interested in getting out on the water before the real heat sets in, contact us soon so you can secure your dates on the calendar.