# West bay solo wade produced a limit+



## ReelaxFishin (Mar 15, 2018)

Found em good today. Totals were 10 specks kept, 2 reds kept, 1 flounder kept, and 17 trout, 3 reds released. Of the released trout, one was 26" and one was 25". Most fish were caught on a chartreuse spook knockoff made by bomber and 1/8oz jigheada with down south lures in new moon I think it's called. Blue back white belly. Left em biting. Last night was also very good. Guess I'll go tomorrow too.


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## ReelaxFishin (Mar 15, 2018)

*Pics*

Couple pics


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## flynut (Jun 30, 2009)

nice catch brother!


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

Awesome catch 

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## kurtkov (May 10, 2017)

Way to go. Looks like West bay is picking up. 

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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Excellent!


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## BretE (Jan 24, 2008)

Outstanding!!! Glad to see that, ima be fishin everyday next week......finally


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## DCAVA (Aug 5, 2013)

Boom!!

Good job!!!


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## fish4food (Feb 11, 2011)

Man I miss that 10 trout limit. Dang solid stringer!


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## Hayniedude24 (Jun 15, 2016)

Solid for sho. Well done.


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## DDFRIEDR (Apr 15, 2014)

Dang nice stringer. I need to get out there!


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## BUDDY59 (Jun 4, 2015)

PM send


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## atcNick (Apr 7, 2005)

Nice!


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## beerdruid (Jun 12, 2015)

Nice!


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## Bird (May 10, 2005)

Solid haul. The fish in West bay are very scattered right now for the most part. You must have found their hang out.


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## That Robbie Guy (Aug 11, 2009)

Hell yeah - that's a **** good stringer!


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## WillieT (Aug 25, 2010)

Wow! Great catch. A trip like that is something you will remember a long time.


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## Rack Ranch (May 25, 2004)

Heck yea!! Spring bite is on!!


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## ReelaxFishin (Mar 15, 2018)

*Thanks*

Thanks all! It was a great day. Got em there the evening before (Friday) but when I went back yesterday (Sunday) fish either moved on or something just wasn't right. Saw one guy in the distance string one small trout and all I had to show for my effort was 4 short trout and 2 rat reds. Still didn't get skunked! Guess I'll go back to my side of San Luis for a while, but I'll be back on the Galveston side soon!

I'm still new to fishing the bay and most of my fishing is done offshore where I run charters. All of my trout fishing has been done in the surf May-July the last couple years and I just started fishing the bay side in mid February. I'm obsessed and I spend every waking moment thinking about where I'll find em next, watching youtube videos, reading posts/articles, and scouring google earth for fishy-looking spots I can access w/o a boat. It's some of the most challenging but relaxing fishing I've ever done anywhere and the bad days make the good ones even better.

Wish I had started sooner, but growing up, my Dad (who was my fishing coach for a couple decades) always dismissed bay fishing as "catching offshore bait." Still can't get him to tag along with me- in fact, not a single of my fishing friends will wake up at 5am and go slogging through the mud for 6 hours with me. Oh well!

With any luck, this will be the first of many full stringers in 2018. Tight lines to y'all!


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## SunRay (May 21, 2004)

*Exceptional catch*

Saturday 3/24 was an extremely rough day on West Bay.... not many people caught fish... so if you had that kind of day... you were in a minority.... great day for you!

The west/south end of West Bay will be picking up starting in mid-April through the end of May -- that's typically Prime Time for that area.


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## Muddy Water Bohemian (Mar 1, 2013)

ReelaxFishin said:


> Thanks all! It was a great day. Got em there the evening before (Friday) but when I went back yesterday (Sunday) fish either moved on or something just wasn't right.


Inshore the tide has a much greater influence on when and where fish bite. Looking at the chart it seems you had an falling tide Friday evening. If you fished Sunday morning you would have had an rising tide. Write those details down on each trip and you will be filling the box with regularity judging on your fishing catching skills.


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## peelin' drag (Oct 21, 2005)

Oh yeah! Way to get it done!


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## mccain (Oct 20, 2006)

SunRay said:


> Saturday 3/24 was an extremely rough day on West Bay....


so was Sunday....wind machine started crankin around 10 and the fish musta partied all nite saturday. they never got outta bed and ate (for me anyways) :headknock


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## Sea Pro 210cc (May 19, 2015)

great job!


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## glojim (Aug 9, 2004)

ReelaxFishin said:


> Thanks all! It was a great day. Got em there the evening before (Friday) but when I went back yesterday (Sunday) fish either moved on or something just wasn't right. Saw one guy in the distance string one small trout and all I had to show for my effort was 4 short trout and 2 rat reds. Still didn't get skunked! Guess I'll go back to my side of San Luis for a while, but I'll be back on the Galveston side soon!
> 
> I'm still new to fishing the bay and most of my fishing is done offshore where I run charters. All of my trout fishing has been done in the surf May-July the last couple years and I just started fishing the bay side in mid February. I'm obsessed and I spend every waking moment thinking about where I'll find em next, watching youtube videos, reading posts/articles, and scouring google earth for fishy-looking spots I can access w/o a boat. It's some of the most challenging but relaxing fishing I've ever done anywhere and the bad days make the good ones even better.
> 
> ...


it excites me to hear that you're catching em w/ out a boat. In your opinion, do you think it's more successful on a incoming or outgoing tide? what conditions do you look for?


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## ReelaxFishin (Mar 15, 2018)

glojim said:


> it excites me to hear that you're catching em w/ out a boat. In your opinion, do you think it's more successful on a incoming or outgoing tide? what conditions do you look for?


Ok, so a few people have sent me messages asking things like this. Let me start by saying, I have no idea what I'm doing but soon I might. Take my advice with a big grain of salt. Still, basic principles of all types of fishing apply in the bay as well.

Any water movement will provide predatory fish an opportunity to ambush bait being carried by, or struggling against, the current. In my experience, rising and falling both cause fish to feed but the locations will be different. For either, ridges, holes, and shell reefs will create turbulence in the water column which makes bait easier to ambush. Some times the fish will stage ahead of the structure wether it is natural or man made like a bridge or dock. However, most of my fish come from the down current side where fish can get out of the current, save their energy, and let food come. Fish don't have the luxury of a grocery store so they have to be very efficient in their feeding habits. If it takes more calories to catch food than they get from said foot, they will not be feeding.

Oh falling tides, I focus on channels coming out of marshes like many of the west bay bayous or choke point channels like the guts on the back side of SLP. You can see them on google maps. They are the dark green squiggles. Go to where they narrow as this narrowing causes water to move faster. Fish will often be on the down current side where it widens again or in that deep channel itself.

On rising tides, it is often as simple as fishing the other end of said channel or where that marsh drain or outlet to a salt lake flows IN.

In either case I have greatest success fishing diagonally down and across the current. I work plastics slowly and allow the resistance of the water flow on my bait to keep it off the bottom instead of a faster retrieve. You want your bait to drift on the current like a baitfish would. Check out some YouTube videos on streamer swinging for steelhead. Same thing. Fish are fish wherever you find them and some of their behaviors are nearly universal- at least among predators like specks and their unrelated, but similarly named, rainbow trout.

In channels I also catch fish by slowly wading up current and casting ahead of me while working the bait back with the current. Again, the idea is to make that bait seem tired of injured and thus, an easy target for predation. That said, don't be afraid to fish straight down current too. Just be mindful that pulling a bait through the current is like fishing your lure with your retrieve speed plus the speed of the current flowing against it. Therefore, it will be higher in the water column that in the other presentations I mentioned above. Slow down and let the water bring that lure's action to life.

In summation, fish as much as possible. As someone mentioned, keep a log of what conditions you encountered and what fish they produced. Try different locations and techniques often during your wade. I like to move as much as I can in search of fish. I rarely stand still while I fish and I never give a spot more than about 15-20minutes if it isn't producing and another spot is nearby. Sure, I may leave fish behind, but if I want 10 specks, 3 reds, and a flounder or two, the bit has to be RED HOT to get that many on the stringer.

Again, fish all the time in all conditions. Don't be afraid of wind or muddy water. Here's a fish from last night in 20knot winds.


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## That Robbie Guy (Aug 11, 2009)

Shoot. I'm definitely down.



ReelaxFishin said:


> In fact, not a single of my fishing friends will wake up at 5am and go slogging through the mud for 6 hours with me. Oh well!


I'll have to keep this in mind and shoot you a pm. 
I work every other month. We can wade one day. Take my boat out the next.


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## rtoler (Apr 9, 2006)

Nice catch but you did not tell us your exact spot. LOL, just kidding. Wish I was posting that catch...


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## glojim (Aug 9, 2004)

ReelaxFishin said:


> Ok, so a few people have sent me messages asking things like this. Let me start by saying, I have no idea what I'm doing but soon I might. Take my advice with a big grain of salt.


Thanks ReelaxFishin! Perhaps one day i'll run into u in 5 am out there someday soon bcuz I'm an early bird like u lol


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## Rack Ranch (May 25, 2004)

Great trip!!


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