Dealing with every changing conditions, making appropriate adjustments to experience some great late fall flats fishing.

Story and photography by Danno Wise

The most common phrase you hear repeated when talking about Texas coastal fishing in November is “it all depends on the weather”. This is not without solid rationale, as weather along the Texas coast in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving can range from summer to winter conditions – or anything in between.

November can throw a myriad of weather conditions at inshore anglers – often all within the course of a week.  Flats fishermen can still produce consistent results by understanding how the changing weather impacts fishing patterns and by following a few general guidelines in regards to weather and water. Anglers that can effectively adapt to prevailing conditions can actually experience some of the year’s best flats fishing during the eleventh month of the year.

One thing to keep in mind during November, while the weather may be more varied, the target species list is less so. This month the traditional Big 3 has been temporarily reduced to 2 – at least as far as retaining fish is concerned, as flounder is off-limits during November.

As a worthy alternartive species such as snook and black drum will begin moving to deeper waters as waters continue to cool. So, although there will likely be plenty of flatties and drum caught incidentally, the target species list has effectively been narrowed to speckled trout and redfish.

To simplify things a bit further, during November most of the speckled trout found on the flats will be solid specimens. Often these bigger trout will actually be mixed in with reds. However, whether they are cruising solo, packed in schools with other trout, or mingling with redfish, these specks will be found in essentially the same areas, and hit pretty much the same lures or baits as redfish this time of year.

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