Hope everyone is doing well.

I was starting this thread to get some advice on how to predict "good" fishing days.

My plan was to fish Matagorda Bay this Thursday for flounder, but after reading some of the weather reports my optimism is not so high. Based on my limited experience, rain and choppy water usually end up equaling hard head catfish (which is something that I do not want).

How do you guys determine a day to go fishing? What weather, wind or moon cycles do you look for when making your decision?

First thing I do is figure out when I can fish. Then .....
I start out with looking at this site. Tide and fish tables
Tide activity usually helps with the moon and the chart takes care of any other aspects of moon and sun phases.
Then I check the weather, if there is a front coming in or leaving, winds that might effect the amount of tide, amount of weed in the surf, etc.
Then I just go anyways and either catch or don't. Because any day on the water is better than any other day. I would rather go and catch hard heads than not go and hear about how I missed a great redfish bite.

All I normally look at is the tide. My granddad told me fish don't get wet lol so rain is only an issue for us. I have caught many big reds in pouring rain at rollover and sabine growing up.

Any day you can fish is a good day! I have no base i just go when i can... Early morning before the sun comes up!

Fish eat 51 weeks a year. That's all they've got to do, tide, wind, water clarity all add up to tell you where they are going to be munching today, right now. We tend to go to old "spots" and when we don't catch them there they aren't *biting* when the truth is, there wasn't anything there to bite. The day you start fishing the fish instead of the bay is the day you start catching more.

There are 52 weeks in a year. I wonder what they do on that one week that they are not eating ...

Just kidding Pat

i dont have much experience , but i go fishing in pier as much as i can and for me doesn't matter rain , cold, or sun , i just , try to adapt, the worst weather days in the pier has been best days of fishing for me ...!! and i dont check the tide chart , i just wait the bite , always came , pd i stay from 8.00 pm to 6-7 am

Vacation?

Some of my most memorable trips were completely unplanned. I've been beached for months with job and family issues and haven't even renewed my license for the first time in 15 years.

Get out whenever you can and drink a beer for me.

That week they don't eat is while I am down there.

LOL

While they can be caught after a passage of a cold front...it's typically a weaker bite. I haven't seen an effect with rain as far as the actual event... rain events that are larger can cause shifts in salinity and that is one thing to pay attention to as Pat mentioned to fish somewhere else in the system.

So in short what to look for to figure planning on a daily basis is

Season (Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer)
Weather (cold front, barometer, wind direction and speed, cloud cover)
Tide
Water temperature

But for flounder this time of year, as long as the water is moving you'll have a good chance.

Fish only bite twice a day; just before we get there and just after we leave!!!