As July arrives, we should expect coastal water temperatures to rise to nearly eighty-five degrees during daylight hours, which should result in an increase in trout action this month. As a historical trend, we generally begin seeing an upswing in trout catches as the water gets warmer, and we often see redfish action slack-off a bit once the summertime heat sets in. This also marks a time in the year when you’ll wish to be out on the water extremely early in the morning each day. Not only will this allow you to take advantage of the very active period when night is turning to day, but it will also mean that you’ll be fishing during one of the coolest times of the day.

During these summertime conditions, naturally, you won’t be wearing chest waders. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean you should be wading in short pants, either. With water temperatures climbing, and in the event there’s little precipitation this month, high salinity levels in warm bay waters will tend to attract the seasonal jellyfish that can make for a very uncomfortable day of wade-fishing if you are wearing shorts. Do yourself a favor by wearing long pants when possible, especially when wade-fishing in July – you’ll thank yourself in the end!

This month you should expect water clarity along leeward shorelines to be nice enough to refer to it as “trout green”, and you can expect these areas to be holding some good trout. As wind conditions allow, other areas you can look to for success this month are the shell pads out in the middle of San Antonio Bay, or some of the subterranean shell areas like The First Chain of Islands, the east and west sides of Steamboat Island, Panther Reef, and The Second Chain of Islands that are located down closer to Mesquite Bay
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In clean, clear water and clear sky conditions, look for bright colors to work well when throwing artificial baits this month. If water and cloud conditions become less favorable, use baits in much darker colors. Your practice should be to begin each morning tossing top water baits until the sun rises high enough in the sky to begin warming the water. Once this daily warming process begins, start throwing some of the more common plastic baits as you start following the baitfish out to deeper water to enjoy the coolness of the deep. Good luck to you this month, and keep grindin’!

Capt. Chris Martin
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