"Fishing the Texas Gulf Coast: Hot Action for Anglers in Late Summer"

Artificial Lure reporting live from the Texas Gulf Coast as the August dog days wear on, but the bite is anything but slow for sharp anglers getting out early or working the evening. We’re coming to you on Sunday, August 17, 2025. Sunrise hit at 6:49 am and there’ll be plenty of daylight until sunset at 7:57 pm. Tides in Galveston and Texas City show a high tide at 5:09 am peaking at about 1.65 feet, with a good outgoing flow until a low near -0.4 feet right around 6:54 pm. That falling tide near sunset is prime time for inshore prowlers, so plan your trip to hit that moving water. Weatherwise, expect muggy mornings in the high 70s pushing into the upper 90s before afternoon storms possibly roll through. The heat index can crank up quickly, so bring those ice bags and sun protection. A light southeast breeze will keep things just tolerable, but count on the water temps being up, which means the best fishing is at first light or when the sun dips low. Fish activity is upticking as we ease toward late summer. According to Apex Fishing Guide Service out of Corpus Christi, folks have been scoring steady mixed bags—black drum, slot reds, flounder, and some sheepshead—all within just a few miles of the ramp. Captain Ben said the reds are thick along grass edges and the black drum are schooling up over shell. On the reefs and cuts near Sabine Pass and Freeport, anglers are putting trout and the occasional doormat flounder in the box, especially when focusing on current breaks and deeper potholes. If you’re hungry for big action, king mackerel are being taken just offshore in good numbers. Navarre Newspaper reported kings landed recently and Texas anglers have been pulling hefty Spanish mackerel on spoons and diving plugs near the jetties. Snapper season may be closed, but gray triggerfish is open in Gulf waters for those running out to the rigs. Triggerfish are eager to hit squid or small jigs dropped just off the structure. For baits and lures, here’s the local scoop: early morning topwater plugs—like Super Spooks and Skitterwalks—are waking up the trout in shallow, especially over grass with bait flickering. As the sun climbs, dark soft plastics rigged weedless tight to the bottom have been producing limits of reds. Gold spoons and chartreuse paddle tails are steady favorites. Black drum have a hard time turning down peeled shrimp or crab chunks, especially on that falling afternoon tide. Old-schoolers targeting largemouth in brackish back lakes have even been dusting off gollywompers, a weedless jig-and-pork-skin bait, to get reaction strikes from deep, sulky bass—worth trying if you find yourself in the sticks, according to Outdoor Life. Hot spots this week are the lower Laguna Madre flats—Rattlesnake Bay has redfish tailing over the grass—and the jetties at Bolivar and Packery Channel, where trout and mackerel are holding at daylight. The East Matagorda Bay back lakes are still drawing solid drum and slot reds if you can get shallow and keep This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.