The pattern continues here in the Middle Coast with calmer mornings and breezy afternoons which are the norm this time of year. Aside from the late season cool fronts from the North and the low pressure blowups from the South that we get occasionally during July, the fishing will be consistent during this most Summer like of all months. It’s time to bang out a limit of Speckled Trout and box a Redfish or two right along with the boom of the fireworks.

My favorite type of fishing this month is wading with artificial lures in the early light on these Summer mornings. I have found what’s no secret to those who enter the water this time of year, that the fish are the most active for these couple of hours than they are for the rest of the sunlit day. Years of personal experience along with discussions of what worked from my fellow guides and fishing buddies reveal a few types of lure presentations that work the best. There are three specific lures or lure types I carry and in no particular order they are the Super Spook Junior, the Corky Devil (and Original Corky), and a variety of soft plastic lures from the Texas Tackle Factory (1/16 and 1/4 oz jig heads) both with and without paddle tails. When it comes to color I try dark early then light or shiny later in the wade. I suggest that you try this for sure but also change it up and experiment your own lure types and colors and for that matter presentations. How many ways are there to work a top water lure? About as many as you can think of and the same goes for the other lure types too. Slow, fast, twitching, stop and start, two jerks up, three jerks up, swimming straight and fast then slow…I mean try it all and see what works for you. Also be sure to work the entire water column because while these spots and dots may be deep the later the morning wears on they may also be close to the surface at the beginning of the wade.

The reality for me during my days on the water guiding folks from all walks of life is that I will be mostly in the boat versus wade fishing and I will be helping them catch their fish with live bait versus artificial lures. That’s just what I get and have gotten over the eight plus years running upwards of 300 days on the water. I do enjoy my time wading artificials but I like making a living putting customers on fish. I help those with experience while improving their skills and also those that are new to the sport develop skills that work and will benefit them on future trips.

I have found out through my years running these trips that there are many types of angling and that what works for one may not work for another. Further I believe fishing these waters on the Texas coast is a very personal experience and should be enjoyed without influences from any other person or group of people so if you are a pure artificial lure chunker or a bait guy or heck an avid fly fisherman then good for you and enjoy it to the fullest. There is so much room out there even though at times the bays seem to busy to enjoy. Find another spot away from other boats and do something new because you just might kick the old ‘go to’ spots and discover what some of us find almost daily, that there is a world of untouched water waiting for you but you have to trust your skills and knowledge to separate yourself from the pack then revel in your success knowing you pushed it that day just a little and it worked!

Capt Stephen Boriskie
Bay Flats Lodge, Seadrift, Texas, 888-677-4868

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
1.888.677.4868

Every year from July third until right around the middle of August, we hit the ‘Dog Days of Summer’ which comes with the rising of the star Sirius in the night skies. Although the Greek and Roman astrologists at the time would equate this time period with disasters such as drought, severe storms, and even mad dogs, the reality is that this time of year brings one thing for certain and that is a massive rise in temperature.

However, like almost any problem faced by Humanity, over the centuries we have come up with many ways to beat the heat, from swimming holes to modern air conditioning units that can make it feel like you are spending your Summer in the arctic rather than Texas if you set it to the correct desired temperature.

Air conditioning did not exist until Willis Carrier perfected his ‘cooling machine’ until 1902 however, so how did people give them selves relief from the hottest days in the Northern hemisphere? Fans.

The first fans, which were not fold-able and powered by Human muscle rather than electricity existed over three thousand years ago, where they can be spotted in Egyptian, Roman, Etruscan, and Greek records and artwork.

Later the Chinese and Japanese would be the popularly ascribed source for the first ‘folding’ fans as well as the explosion in popularity in use in the Western world as traders brought them back to various home ports in Europe, mostly for use as status symbols by the royalty of Europe who had connections to the settlements on the coasts of both China and Japan to get their hands on the imported items.

This would lead to an explosion of hand fan usage from the seventeenth century through to the nineteenth, right before the growth of electric power would change the world forever, although to this day hand fans are still manufactured and sold, some for curio items or souvenirs, others to mark special events such as the weddings of member of the British Royal family.

Electricity would of course come synonymous with what our modern brain thinks of when we hear the word fan, and for good reason as they have now been in existence for one-hundred-thirty-seven years and running, with the first steps being taken with Chinese inventor Ting Huan around 180 A.D.

It was not until the nineteenth century however that electricity would become involved and really got things in motion with an electric model of the fan when Schuyler Wheeler would take the work of Nicola Tesla and Thomas Edison and invented the first electrical desk top fan, which had no protective cages and only two blades. Later a victim of the infamous Chicago fire of 1871, went to work for the Singer Sewing Machine company in New York and after attaching a sewing machine motor to a fan blade and mounted it on the factory ceiling, inventing the ceiling fan, which he later patented.

Of course, as mentioned above soon Carrier would come along and be inspired to create the air conditioning units used across the world today, but as I sit here during these ‘Dog Days,’ nothing but a fan to keep me cool, I cannot help but be a fan of the fan, and thankful of all the hard work throughout history that went into making them.