Rockport Fishing Report – January 12th, 2018

We are approaching the halfway point for the month of January and it’s time for another Rockport fishing report. So far, the weather has still been the biggest story all along the Gulf Coast. Winter apparently feels the need to smack us around a bit more than normal this year. So this isn’t exactly the rosiest of Rockport fishing reports. But it’s not all bad either.

We have still been trying to fight through a number of days with record low temperatures here on the Coastal Bend of Texas. We survived a very wet December, and even the first snow we had seen in years. But this brutal cold is starting to take a toll on things. We have pretty much nothing but North winds since early December. Aside from all the cold air this brings, it has really done a number on the water levels. It is way skinny out there. Throw in on top of that a few days with low temps in the upper 20’s and that can make for some “tough” fishing.

The good news… There are very few reports of fish being killed due to this cold weather. So that is a good thing. But we expected our fish to run and seek deeper water, waiting out the colder days. They are smart and plenty resilient. So we shouldn’t expect any long term affects of these colder weeks. The sun is back out again, and we have had a few pretty nice days this week. Our warmest days touched the low 70’s, with plenty of sun. So this has done wonders to begin warming the water up.

The bad news… The fish apparently didn’t get the memo that things are warming up and it’s ok to get back to their usual program. We were out with guests a few days this week and found fairly tough fishing each day. Even with reasonably warm temperatures and blue skies, the fish were far from abundant. We did see fish each day. But it was far from the numbers we are accustomed to seeing. Even following any normal cold front. So it made things pretty slow out there.

One day, the ONLY fish we saw all day, were schooled up and moving slowly across a very shallow flat. Not one single cruiser all day, nor pair. Just a few schools of fish and that was it. The very next day, we had just the opposite. We saw very few fish all day. The fish we did find were solo. They were feeding, but very very lethargically. Most were in extremely shallow water and even allowed us to get quite close before taking our shot(s). Most were fairly disinterested in our flies. We tried a few different things, which all triggered a reaction from fish. But you needed to pretty much put it in their mouth, to get them to pick it up. They were just sluggish, even a good 4-5 days after the cold spell.

We just recently had another little front pass through. Or maybe it was just more of a “wind event”? Either way, it blew like hell yesterday and this morning. Top gusts were in the low 50 mph range up and down the coast, from the North again. So that certainly won’t allow us to get any more water in the bays. But, the daytime temperatures remain pretty warm. The winds have tapered this afternoon and will remain manageable throughout the weekend. We should see plenty of sunshine and high temps in the 60’s. So we are hopeful this will continue to warm the water and entice more fish to return to the flats.

We will have boats out all weekend and will continue to report back with what we are seeing out there. All these downs days are taking the toll on us! Stir crazy would be a nice way to put it for sure. We are sick of being beached and sick of this crappy cold weather! So let’s hope things can remain on the sunnier side of things and warm South Texas back up.

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