Texas Coast Fishing Report: Late Summer Hot Spots for Reds, Trout, and More

Artificial Lure here with your Gulf of Mexico, Texas fishing report for Friday, August 29, 2025. We’re kicking off the day with a sticky, warm early morning—classic late August along the Texas coast. Winds are light, skies are mostly clear, and the barometric pressure is holding steady, making prime conditions for anglers looking to get on the bite. Tides today are on the subtle side—a single pre-dawn high tide around 3:30 AM and a long, slow-outgoing drop to a low just before sunset at 7:51 PM, based on Houston Ship Channel and Galveston tide data. Look for that first light window after sunrise at 6:56 AM to really fire off the action before water movement stalls. The day wraps up with sunset at 7:46 PM, leaving plenty of time for that evening push if you’re looking to squeeze every bite out of the day. Fish activity along the Texas coast continues to be solid despite late summer’s heat. Reports from local guides on the upper and middle coast say redfish are thick in the marsh drains and grasslines, smashing cut mullet and live shrimp under popping corks. Speckled trout are still holding around deeper shell and channel edges, with several nice limits coming on soft plastic paddle tails—Z Man GrubZ and similar ElaZtech-style lures in ‘Opening Night’ and ‘Glow’ colors have been hot. Bonus flounder are starting to show up early this year, especially around Galveston piers and the passes, grabbing Gulp! Swimming Mullets and live mud minnows. Spanish mackerel and bluefish are being caught from both the jetties and the beachfront, especially on chrome spoons, gotcha plugs, and flashy spinnerbaits. If you’re able to make it offshore, kingfish action has picked up with reports of larger fish coming in on ribbonfish rigs and trolled skirted baits. Best bait right now for inshore? Still tough to beat a fresh live shrimp, but cut mullet, menhaden, and finger mullet will get redfish, drum, and occasional trout fired up when the water gets a little murky. For artificials, those new breed soft plastics mentioned before—like the Z Man GrubZ or Z Man TRD CrawZ—are crushing bass in brackish water but also deadly for reds and flounder along the bays. As for hot spots: • East Matagorda Bay is seeing above-average numbers of slot reds on the north shoreline and marsh drains. Wade anglers working topwaters early, then switching to paddle tail plastics, are doing well. • Bolivar Pocket and Seawall piers are holding plenty of Spanish and occasional king mackerel early in the day, with good numbers of sand trout and whiting for folks fishing dead shrimp on the bottom. • Packery Channel continues to produce a mixed bag with trout on live croaker and soft plastics, reds on cut bait, and flounder running the edges on an outgoing tide. According to Captain Rick Murphy’s upper coast report, waters are relatively clear, grass mats are minimal, and surf conditions are moderate—ideal for beach and jetty casting. Just remember, fish are sensitive to tidal movement now, so This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.