It's been a year in the making. I was hoping to get to south LA last year, but got tied up with the baby at home.

We are making a family trip to Galveston Bay in a few weeks.

I have been doing some fly tying for the salt for a while now, I think I got all my bases covered.

Game plan -

7 Weight Switch Rod with Shooting Head for the Channels, Cuts, Jetties with Clousers, and other various baitfish flies I tied. I think this will be pretty straight forward fishing....chunk and strip.

9 Weight - For stalking the flats with floating line. What I am reading is doing this type of fishing has a very narrow window. The tide has to be moving in or out. Look for points in the grass lines, sandy crabby spots, and tailing fish in the scattered grass.....thicker grass means boggy bottom. Is that correct?

Being in Galveston I know the redfish don't get huge, so will I still be looking for tailing fish? Or
should I fish what looks good?

There are some oyster beds close by that look good one Google Maps.

I'd like to catch some redfish, trout, croaker, flounder (although it sounds harder or luck), maybe some mullet, or anything that swims.

Any other thoughts or game plans I should look into? Flies that I might not have? I'd appreciate any advice from ya'll!! If nothing else, I will be on vacation, not working, and going through the fly motions!

(Flies I have ready, Bendbacks, Clousers, Various Shrimp patterns, Various Crabs, Spoons, Baitfish, even bread crumb flies for mullet on the Tenkara)

78 views and nothing? 24 hours later....

Come on guys.....I know there are some salt lovers on here. Help a brother out! I'm not looking for spots, I got my spots picked out....atleast I hope they are spots.

Just needing to know if my game plans are correct? Or if you do things differently.

I'm doing this by myself, don't have any buds who fish salt enough(none of them fly fish), and pretty much just read about it. I don't even get the fancy fishing shows on tv too show me. Just looking to get my leader straightened out.

I can't afford a guide. My 5 day trip is costing me $100 for a family of 3. I just had a new roof and my wife's gallbladder surgery to pay for....do you feel sorry for me yet?

Woul love to help but know nothing about the salt lol. In all my travels just don't fish salt.2flyfish4 sees this he will have some good insight.

Depending on how far south you're going Capt Mac will have some inside as well. At least tactic ideas

Just saw this. PM sent.

call Ben at the Orvis Houston store and he'll help you at.

Will do thanks!

I heard that, in Texas we are lucky to have so many options. Thanks tho!!

I don't fish that far North but I'm guessing it's about the same thing. Your game plan sounds pretty good to me. A nine weight should handle just about anything you run into. I usually fish seven and an eight and I don't have any trouble. As far as wading flats go, I always sight cast to fish. You looking for movement of any kind. It might be tailing fish, a big vee wake, a shadow... Don't assume you are going to see a whole fish. Most of the time, what catches my attention is I will see that blue stripe down the back of a Reds tail " flashing" in the water. Sometimes it's just a flash of color as they turn. You just have to keep your eyes open for anything. The first problem you'll encounter is mullet. They are always jumping and boiling in the water. The first day will drive you nuts chasing mullet, thinking its a game fish. You just have to learn to ignore them and what until your sure you have spotted a game fish before you go running across the flat. Stingrays will fool you into thinking you see a Redfish. I can't tell you how many casts I've made and how far I have waded, casting like crazy and wondering why the hell that fish won't hit my fly - only to discover I have been chasing a ray the whole time. Speaking of Rays, if you do wade fish, remember to slide your feet across the bottom, kind of pointing the toe of your shoe down. This will "shove" the ray along. If you are walking and STEP on one - trips over. I just wear high top tennis shoes - I don't go for the stingray boots and all that stuff. I've been wading flats since 1980 and have never hade a problem. If the wind is up go with a shorter, heavier leader - like a six to eight foot, seventeen pound tippet. If you get lucky and the wind is calm you may want to go to something like a ten twelve foot leader with a ten or even eight pound tippet.
If you really just want to catch something, anything, I recommend you tie in a closer minnow and fish a deep channel. Try to find one that you can wade along were the water is from knee to waist deep and has a grassy bottom that drops off into a sand or mud bottom channel. Cast right along the edge of the grass line. If the tide is moving strip against the current. Keep the fly moving pretty quickly for trout and jacks or sunk it to the bottom for Reds and flounder.

Hey see I knew I knew sombody that could help haha. Should be a great trip look forward to the results!!!

Great info!! That cleared up a lot. I have a sneaky feeling I will chase mullet too! LOL! I got a bread crumb fly for them. I hear they fight...pound for pound.

I've never tried for mullet. If you can figure out how to catch them you should never run out of targets. I know the places I fish there are always mullet everywhere - and some of them look like they run three or four pounds.
This probably goes without saying but if you are going to sight cast to fish you must have a good pair of polarized sunglasses.
Also, a big saltwater popper is great way to catch some fish. I like to go out right before sun up and fish a popper right along the grass line of a channel. The trick is to fish it FAST. Strip line and chug the popper about as fast as you can strip it, almost skipping the popper out of the water. If you have a fish boil up under the popper but not hot it, your working it to slow. If a fish boils don't stop and let the popper sit - strip it even faster ( this isn't bass fishing). Be sure to hang on to your rod. My son caught a two pound skip jack a couple of years ago like this and it hit so hard we thought it might be a little tarpon. I think my boy set the hook, not because he was trying to hook the fish but, because he was trying to cover himself for protection
If you find some deeper grass flats with mud or sand " potholes" in them, work the popper over those holes as well. Trout love to hang out in those holes.

Thanks!! Yeah, I wouldn't have worked the Popper correctly.

Great post Capt.

I too, would have fished far to slow.

This may also fall under the heading of "obviously" but watch the birds. Sometimes its not like in freshwater were there are thirty or more gulls dive bombing schooling sandies. I've many occasions where just one gull would be sitting on the water on a shallow flat and would periodically fly up, drop down and scoop the water then sit back down again. if you not watching closley you could miss it. What the bird is doing is sitting on a school of fish. When the school would spook a shrimp out the shrimp would jump out of the water and the gull would pick him off from above. My brother in law and i were down there a few years ago and we saw a gull doing this. he was so far away we could'nt tell if he was on fish or not but we dicided to wade over and check it out. as we got closer we could see the tails of Redfish under the bird. If it was'nt for that one bird we would have missed them.



Wading birds such as Herons and Egrets will do the same thing. They will fallow a game fish working down a shoreline to pick off an easy meal. If your not watching closely, you may think its just a bird "looking" for a meal. If you look closely at the next photo you can just make out a Redfish back and tail just to the left of the bird.



Sometimes you can also spot fish "crashing" a shoreline, chasing after small bait fish such as mullet and mud minnows.



Also, watch stingrays. Reds and Trout will sometimes fallow a ray for the same reasons as the birds. If you see a stingray that's "mudding" on the bottom look carefully around him. I have seen as many as ten trout fallowing along and i have seen some big Reds doing this. Whenever i see stingrays i take it as a good sign that there are game fish close by(they eat the same things). Just keep your eyes pealed.