Part way through November, and time for a new Rockport fishing report. Our Fall fishing season has been flying by so far. But we still have a good bit of prime time fishing yet to come. So we will fill you in here on what we’ve been seeing out there every day, and what we expect for the week coming up.
Since our last report, things have picked up considerably. Particularly, after each little cold front that has pushed through. While a couple of these fronts have been pretty nasty, they have been short lived. All have only shut us down for a single day, with high winds, rain and cold temps. But as they pass, we have been able to get out directly following each of them. And the fishing has been good!
Last week, following a storm that shut us down on Sunday, we were out on the water Monday morning. The fish were a bit sluggish early, but quickly snapped out of it. By the end of the day, one of our skiffs had nearly 30 fish landed by a single angler. Just completely nuts fishing. And that trend continued throughout the week, with stellar fishing each day.
Fast forward a handful of days, and we have another nasty but brief front blow through last Friday. Again we were forced to shut all our boats down for the day. Saturday morning we were out nice and early, with air temps right around 48 degrees. As expected, it took a little bit for the fish to warm up a bit and get active. But when they did, it was on! Tons of fish landed by mid day, and then the big boys started moving around. By the end of our afternoon, we had boated a couple of fish over the 40″ mark, and had shots at a handful of others.
Our weather had continued to be quite good, until this evening. As this is being written, the temps are hovering somewhere right around 40 degrees and the wind is ripping from the North at 30 mph. This is a far cry from our light winds and 80 degree temps we had on the flats all day today. Eek! But again, this severe cold snap appears to be short lived. As it stands now, we will have a day tomorrow to catch up on some fly tying, sleeping or maybe even a freezing cold round of golf. The weather appears to be holding well enough that we can get back at it on Wednesday this week. Thursday is still up in the air a bit, and then all is back to normal in time for the upcoming weekend.
With these cooler temps, and crazy North winds, you can expect things to be a bit different out there following. Most mornings our water temps have been right around 61 or so degrees, depending on your location. By the time you are pulling the boat late afternoon, 74 or so is not unheard of. But following this push of cold air, you can expect things to be in the upper 50’s Wednesday morning. Not too bad at all, but it will take the fish a little bit to adjust. But as it warms, the party will be on. Just a matter of figuring out if it is going to happen Wednesday, or Friday after the next shot of rain passes through. But you will want to be there!
As for flies and stuff… They haven’t been picky AT ALL lately. If it’s moving and they can see it, it’s getting eaten. But the usual crab or shrimp flies are working for us. Our guest Brian, from Fort Worth, landed 28 reds last Monday on the same dark brown Crabcake Special. So hard to argue with that kind of success I guess? But slider shrimp, toads and even some larger baitfish patterns have all worked. If you’re running with the bulls… think bigger. Dark colors tend to work best. Purples, blacks and stuff like that. The Muffin Top in purple took a couple of fish in the mid 40’s Saturday. So we are keeping that rigged up these days as well.
We’ve had boats running all over the place. But I think most of our guides would tell you that they have been having some of their best fishing from Rockport North, as far up as San Antonio Bay. The fish seem to be far more concentrated in a few areas up that way. Schools, bank crashers and tails are all daily occurrences. And of course a few fish over 40″ swimming around isn’t too shabby either. It is still fishing just fine on the South side as well. But the fish are seemingly a bit more spread out. Not hard to find or anything. But just less schooling and stuff like that. But still fishing very well.
We are down with weather tomorrow, but have our boats back out beginning Wednesday. Weather allowing, they will be out the remainder of the week as well. So if you are looking to get out on the water, you can always contact us any time if you would like to BOOK A TRIP or need any up to the minute Southwest Texas fly fishing or Rockport fishing report type news. We continue to post on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. Or perhaps SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube Channel as well. We continually are trying to add more videos and stuff there. We try to keep stuff fresh for those of you that are wishing you were on the flats with us. So be sure to follow us on all our social media stuff. And don’t forget to sign up for our monthly newsletter below.