Surf fishing to pick up soon

The beach front is holding up well under moderate southeast winds, and once the velocities drop, look for fishing to be red hot.

As early as today, we could see calm surf with fish feeding close to the beach.

Friday through the weekend, light southwesterly winds in the 5 to 10 mph range are in the forecast.

If the speed is closer to 5 mph, the adverse wind should not do much harm.

There always seems to be a pattern that at first sign of a dropping wind, the surf turns on and some of the best catches occur during the early part of the window of calm conditions.

So, if you are new to surf fishing, what fish can you expect to be out there?

You should encounter just about every species that enters the shallower waters.

Speckled trout, Spanish mackerel and sharks should be at the top of the list of fish ready to attack your baits.

An occasional king mackerel or ling might be cruising the shallow waters, so be prepared for fish of any size to be lurking.

John Sabo sent a note asking if we had made any observations about trout runs at the jetties this year.

Sabo has been fishing both jetties for 35 years and has not experienced a genuine trout run this summer.

Thinking back on my experiences at the jetties this season, I have not experienced a big run of trout.

The only productive trips were to the beach front between Bolivar and Crystal Beach.

The times I fished the jetties, the water was not in good shape and tidal movement was poor.

Don’t give up just yet as August, in my opinion, is the best month of the year for jetty trout.

Tuesday, Dallas anglers Christy and Steve Davis along with Ryan Dale and Haley Wine fished with Capt. Ralph Frazier over in East Bay.

Using live croaker for bait, they landed seven specks to 6 pounds.

The party boat Capt. John made a 30-mile trip offshore Tuesday, and before being run in by squalls, hauled in 393 spadefish, three lane snapper and a triggerfish.

The Capt. John is scheduling overnight tuna safaris Aug. 8-9 and Aug. 15-16.

Earlier this week, we gave the overnight trips planned for the New Buccaneer.

Anglers entered in the CCA-Texas Star Fishing Tournament should note there are no entries for third- through fifth-places for speckled trout in the Middle and Upper Gulf Coast divisions.

Also, there continues to be a number of tagged reds roaming around the coastal waters.

For full details of the leader board, check the CCA-Texas website.