Rockport Fishing Report – November 12th

The weekend is over and it’s time for another Rockport fishing report. We will fill you in on what we are seeing while fly fishing South Texas. We are in the midst of our peak Fall fishing season right now. The fishing has been very good as of late. This Rockport fishing report will let you know what we’ve been doing out there on the Texas flats.

As we write this, the weather outside currently SUCKS! In fact, we’ve been cooped up here since Friday. We’ve been dealing with heavy winds, rain, clouds and temps in the mid 50’s for the past few days. Today we have much more of the same. High winds and even cooler temps headed our way. In fact, our overnight lows the next couple of nights will be somewhere in the upper 30’s they are saying. So we’ll see how that goes around here. We’re not exactly looking forward to it.

The good news is, we’ve had plenty of time to get some chores done. Catching up on pesky computer tasks, editing video clips, etc. has occupied our days. Fly boxes are being replenished in a big way. And a few new patterns are being created as well, in hopes that we get a chance to try them out soon. But the stir crazy thing is starting to set in a bit. We are ready to get back out on the water.

The fishing prior to Friday last week was very very good. Plenty of sunny days with low(ish) winds. The water levels remain very good. Not too high, and not too low. Plenty of water to get into your favorite spots. Our water temps did increase a bit last week with all the warm weather and overnights. But most temps hovered around 81-82 degrees in the heat of the day. And the fish certainly didn’t seem to mind. But it would be nice to keep that number a bit closer to 70 degrees here for a while.

Our best fishing all week was in pretty heavy grass. Tailing fish were easy to find every day. Most, digging in very thick grasses for food. Often, we were seeing tailing fish in grass thick enough that we weren’t really able to get casts to them. But it was a lot of fun trying anyway… just to see if it could be done. Of course there were plenty of fish cruising and crashing banks as well. But the tails were sticking to the thick grass.

The topwater was our best fly all week. Often due to fishing such heavy cover, it was our only option. But most cruising fish were plenty willing to turn on it as well. Color/size didn’t seem to matter much. Something natural, or shrimp, colored were usually first out of the box. Pretty much every tailing fish that we got a cast to would make an attempt on the fly. So that made for some pretty fun fishing.

If we weren’t fishing the grass, we were finding a lot of fish cruising shallow banks. Many with their tails or backs out of the water. Some would crash bait, others simply kept their cadence and moved consistently down the bank. But all were very willing to eat. Darker crab patterns led the charge for these fish. But there were a few other flies thrown as well. All seemed to work just fine.

We did have some friends wade fishing a bit South of Port A last week, reporting that they were finding very snotty fish. They were finding the fish very spooky, selective and just down right annoying.

We had a couple of days fishing the same or similar water down there. We didn’t seem to think the fish were that touchy each day. We were fishing from our skiffs each day though. So perhaps we were further removed from some of the wading spots? Or maybe some of the fish were feeling pressured after being fished over a few consecutive days? Or call it dumb luck???

Either way, we didn’t find the fish any weirder than normal. Certainly you will watch a fish or two turn their nose up at a perfect cast each day. But that easily falls within the confines of “normal”. Beyond that, they all appeared to be reacting just fine out there. We certainly didn’t have to change a fly or anything like that over the course of our days. If one snubs you, move along to the next fish.

So we are stuck here watching the wind blow, hard, for the next couple of days. Finally, it will blow this cold front outta here and bring us some sunny weather again. Wednesday is our first clear day this week. Temps that morning will be in the upper 30’s, with a daytime high hovering around 50 degrees. Not exactly a heat wave! The days to follow do look much better though. Temps will be in the 60’s with plenty of sun. It’s looking like a few of the nights will be pretty chilly still. So there is no need to rush out to the water in mornings. Gentleman’s fishing hours for sure. Enjoy that coffee in the morning, and think about hitting the water between 9 and 10am.

As is usual following a cold front, we will see some sunny and calm days coming up. Also, you can expect those fish to come out of this cold spell and be ready to eat as well. No telling exactly when that will happen, but you will want to be there. Expect the fish to be sluggish in the mornings, and perhaps even all day Wednesday as we shake off the last of this cold weather. But as the water warms into Thursday and the coming weekend, we expect the fish to get hungry and be on the prowl in a big way. Late this week should provide some outstanding fishing around here. You probably don’t want to miss out on that.

So we will continue to hang around and tie flies today and tomorrow. But we will be back out on the water Wednesday, to soak up some sunshine. If you are looking to get out on the water, later this week is the time. And it is looking like it will remain good through the weekend as well.

You can contact us any time if you would like any up to the minute Southwest Texas fly fishing or Rockport fishing type news. We continue to post on  Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. Or perhaps SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube Channel as well. We continually are trying to add more videos and stuff there. We try to keep stuff fresh for those of you that are wishing you were on the flats with us. So be sure to follow us on all our social media stuff. And don’t forget to sign up for our monthly newsletter below.