Texas Gulf Fishing Report: Warming Trends, Trout & Reds Biting on Live Bait and Soft Plastics

This is Artificial Lure with your Texas Gulf fishing report. Along the upper coast from Galveston down to Freeport, we’re sitting on a warming trend with light onshore flow, morning temps in the 50s and 60s and afternoons pushing into the 70s, according to the National Weather Service Houston/Galveston. That mild south breeze has the bays slicking off early, with a nice ripple by mid‑day. Tides are on a gentle rise‑and‑fall pattern. NOAA’s Galveston tide station shows modest highs around a foot to a foot and a half, so we’re not dealing with crazy current swings, just enough to move bait along the drains. Around Christmas Bay and Freeport, Tides4Fishing and Tide‑Forecast show classic winter two‑tide days: a pre‑dawn high, a mid‑morning low, then an afternoon push. Plan around that falling water mid‑morning and the first couple hours of the afternoon incoming. Sunrise is right around 7:05 a.m. and sunset about 5:25 p.m. along the upper coast, per FishingReminder’s Texas City tables. That gives you a tight low‑light window, and the fish have been feeding hardest first light and the last hour before dark. Lone Star Outdoor News reports bay temps in the low 60s to around 70 depending on how far south you go. Trinity Bay is running about 70, with speckled trout *good* on soft plastics, twitch baits, and live shrimp. East and West Galveston Bays are in the low 60s, with reds *good to fair* on soft plastics, shrimp imitations, finger mullet, and live shrimp, and trout *fair* on soft plastics and live shrimp. Galveston main bay has bull reds on mullet and cut bait, plus sheepshead, black drum, and slot reds on live shrimp. Texas City is giving up fair numbers of trout and reds on live shrimp and finger mullet. Down in Freeport, water around 69 has specks *good* on soft plastics, live mullet, and live shrimp, with reds, sheepshead, black drum, and mangrove snapper fair on mullet and shrimp. Bait of choice right now: **live shrimp** under a popping cork or freelined around shell and structure. Finger mullet and cut mullet are putting bulls on the jetties and deeper channels. If you’re throwing artificials, pack **soft plastics** on 1/8–1/4 oz jigheads in natural or glow, **shrimp imitations**, **gold spoons**, and **topwaters** for that first light bite. Twitch baits like MirrOdines and slow‑sinking plugs are doing work over reefs once the sun gets up. Recent catches across the Texas Gulf have been heavy on speckled trout with plenty of solid keeper fish and a mix of 18–25 inchers, good redfish numbers from slots to 30‑plus inches at the jetties and surf, plus a scatter of flounder in the bays and along channel edges as the last of the migration trickles through, as reflected in regional reports from Lone Star Outdoor News and charter logs summarized by Captain Experiences. Couple of local hot spots for you: - **West Galveston Bay shell humps and drains** on that falling morning tide for trout and slot reds; work soft plastics and live shrimp under This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.