Coastal anglers might anticipate the month of May as being a time of dry skies, humid temperatures, and fluctuating tides. Lower amounts of precipitation this month will probably mean that salinity levels in area bays will also maintain somewhat constant levels which should positively influence all marine life along our coast, especially the trout, the red fish, and the flounder.

This month will also mean that we’ve reached a substantial subsidence in northerly winds that have affected us so strongly over the course of the past several months. We have probably already experienced our last significant front, and we should now be able to look forward to prominent winds out of the southeast which should bring with them greener water and the continuance of a good, steady trout bite above hard sand and grass.

Days will become longer as daylight hours continue to increase each day, and air and water temperatures will continue to climb. This month, anglers should look to begin fishing just as early as possible each day, with their goal each morning being to have already reached their first destination, and to have climbed over the side of the boat to begin their initial wading session of the day during the first hour prior to sunrise. This, hopefully, will help to put you in the same spot with any of the fish that may have ventured out of the depths during the darkness of night to feed in the shallows and to take advantage of the shallows’ cooler early morning temperatures.

Anglers can look for the effectiveness of their top water baits to only increase as we progress through the month of May and into summertime, but another favorite bait this month will be some of the more popular suspending and slow-sinking baits like the Corky and the FatBoy. The thrill of fooling a large trout or redfish with one of these baits ranks right up there with surface walkers for many artificial enthusiasts, so anglers should look forward to the month of May as a chance to knock the rust off their plugs and get ready for all the excitement that the Texas coast has to offer as we head into the the summer months.