Houston Chron: Fishing Report
July 18, 2006, 11:05PM

By SHANNON TOMPKINS
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Richland-Chambers

White bass are schooling on the surface most mornings from around dawn until about 8 a.m. and hitting shad-imitation lures thrown into the feeding fish, said Larry Winters of Midway Landing. When the surface action slows, look to submerged humps in 17 to 25 feet of water. Whites are concentrating around those humps and will hit vertically jigged slab spoons, Winters said. White has been the best spoon color.

Crappie fishing has been good, with most fish suspended 10 to 15 feet down around timber and brush in 13 to 25 feet of water. Live minnows have taken most of the crappie.

Catfishing has been fair around standing timber, with night crawlers, shad or commercial catfish bait drawing interest of 1- to 2-pound channel cats.

Livingston

White bass fishing has been in open-water areas on the lake's southern end. A few fish have been surfacing early in the morning. But most anglers are using electronic graphs to locate suspended schools of fish, then dropping heavy spoons to the concentrations. Best areas have been around Walker's Lake, the submerged Highway 190 roadbed and along the edge of the submerged Trinity River channel.

East Galveston Bay

Much of the bay remains murky or otherwise off color because of freshwater runoff. But a few areas were clearing Tuesday, and anglers found a few cooperative speckled trout holding over mid-bay reefs.

Rollover Pass has produced a trickle croaker and lots of undersize redfish, said Chris Gilbert of North End Bait and Tackle. Surf on the Gulf side of Rollover has been good for those targeting sharks, Gilbert said. Cut bait fished on heavy tackle have accounted for sharks measuring as much as 7 feet, she said. On outgoing tides, good numbers of speckled trout have showed on the Gulf side of the pass. But the majority of those specks have been under the 15-inch minimum length requirement.

Lower Galveston Bay

Scattered thunderstorms made for rough conditions mid-morning and into early afternoon. Some of the best recent catches of speckled trout have been taken by fishing live bait (croaker, shrimp) over spoil banks, reefs or well shell pads.

SHANNON TOMPKINS

Weather

Upper Texas coast

Winds will be south-southwest at 5-12 mph today into tonight, becoming southwest at 5-12 into Thursday morning and south-southwest at 5-12 mph Thursday afternoon. Seas will be 1-3 feet both days. Skies will be partly to mostly cloudy with isolated showers and thunderstorms both days.

Tuesday's Galveston beach water temperature was 87 degrees.

Today's tides

Galveston

High: 3:08 a.m.; low 6:58 p.m.

Freeport

High 1:51 a.m.; low 5:50 p.m.

Thursday's tides

Galveston

High 4:14 a.m.; low 7:46 p.m.

Freeport

High: 2:57 a.m.; low 6:38 p.m.