Christmas Bay, Freeport TX Dec 15, 2018

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TX All Water Fishing
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Christmas Bay, Freeport TX Dec 15, 2018

Post by TX All Water Fishing »

I went Christmas Bay Saturday, 12/15/18, and the water level was extremely low. Lowest I've ever seen it. With all the north winds it blew the water down & out of most of all the marshes. I had to pull my mirage drive in my outback in the middle of the boat cut headed to Churchill Bayou because the water was less than a foot. I was thinking all the fish would be stacked up, they might have been, but they weren't biting. We were fishing with live shrimp, soft plastic, and some mud minnows. Between 2 of us we had about a dozen bites. 2 under size flounders, one on mud minnows & one on gulp pink swimming mullet, a small red & one 14.5 inch flounder on shrimp. Good luck, don't forget to check out my YouTube Texas All Water Fishing so see my weekly catches
jgg696
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Re: Christmas Bay, Freeport TX Dec 15, 2018

Post by jgg696 »

TX All Water Fishing wrote:I went Christmas Bay Saturday, 12/15/18, and the water level was extremely low. Lowest I've ever seen it. With all the north winds it blew the water down & out of most of all the marshes. I had to pull my mirage drive in my outback in the middle of the boat cut headed to Churchill Bayou because the water was less than a foot. I was thinking all the fish would be stacked up, they might have been, but they weren't biting. We were fishing with live shrimp, soft plastic, and some mud minnows. Between 2 of us we had about a dozen bites. 2 under size flounders, one on mud minnows & one on gulp pink swimming mullet, a small red & one 14.5 inch flounder on shrimp. Good luck, don't forget to check out my YouTube Texas All Water Fishing so see my weekly catches
"Lowest I've ever seen it. " Same here! I got a late start at 4:30pm, was going to try drum bay, but water was way too low. Same situation for christmas. Decided on cold pass, caught a few rat reds. Some boater decided to troll his motor right in front of me and all the way back to launch. :roll: (was casting towards bank) Basically wrapped it up after that.
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karstopo
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Re: Christmas Bay, Freeport TX Dec 15, 2018

Post by karstopo »

Christmas Bay is so shallow relative to many other bays. With these water dumps on big cold fronts with a lot of west in the wind, there’s hardly any water in the bay. Shallow bays like Christmas and Drum seem very sensitive to water level changes seemingly shifting where the fish might be. Maybe the bigger, deeper bays are the same, I haven’t spent much time fishing those.

I usually fish Christmas Bay starting either in October or November. I try to take note of water levels, kept a fishing log for years until recently, when I go out. Last year, my son and I went out at Thanksgiving break and got into one of these trout about every cast situations, almost all good fish. I had already scouted the area and had some good trips prior to the Thanksgiving trip. I took note of the conditions and went back out to the same spot this year at about the same date and with similar conditions water level, clarity and weatherwise. Similar results, but the fish ran a little smaller and the bite shut down when the tide started to turn. I went out Monday afternoon and the water was much lower, the water colder and more clear. I didn’t expect the fish to be in the same spot and they weren’t. Not a one.

I moved around some and found a couple just as the sun was setting in a muddy, slightly deeper place not far from the previous good spot. Not a lot of bait action, almost zero, did I see in the clear water. The muddy place had a little more bait sign. I think there were more fish there, but I had some equipment issues and the work related cell phone wouldn’t leave me be.

One fall and winter, I fished one particular area of Christmas Bay pretty regularly. The fish hardly ever stayed in the same exact spot, but they were often not far away. I really don’t know if I’m right or wrong, but I imagine the fish there in the fall, winter, and into the spring tend to stay in the bay for the season, but circle around to different areas and I think at least some of the shifting around is related to water levels. Of course, bait influences where the predators are, no bait, no predators is the rule, right, that’s fishing 101 and common knowledge with anyone that goes fishing.

Anyhow, it’s fun to go out there and work on the puzzle. Every body of water I’ve ever been to fishing has its secrets. Some folks are master decoders, I make no claim for myself on that score, and there’s some that probably understand about every inch of that bay. I’d just like to keep on increasing my knowledge of that water and discovering the secrets it holds.

There’s a stretch of marsh I fish not close to and unrelated to Christmas Bay. I’ve fished this marsh now probably about 200 times now. The heart of it might be 10 acres. I still don’t know everything that makes it tick. I’ve pulled hundreds of slot redfish from it, you would hope since I’ve been there so much, but the point is learning water and reading water is the essence of fishing for me.

I’d say pick a few bodies of water and learn them as best that you can. Take what comes, good or bad on the results, learn from it and enjoy the learning process instead of looking to rack up numbers of fish caught each and every outing. The more you learn, the more likely the results you desire will follow. I think report chasing is counterproductive. Have faith in a body of water you think you might like to fish and stick with it some. I have several places I like to fish and enjoy the variety, but I don’t care to report chase.
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Re: Christmas Bay, Freeport TX Dec 15, 2018

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I went back and looked at my fishing logs that go back to 2010. I fished before then, but didn’t log the trips. November and December then March and April have been the most consistently good months for me in Christmas Bay. January has been mostly a miss, but 2016 was pretty good. Some years, I didn’t make it out there in January. I stopped my fishing log in early January 2018, but I’m going to restart it for 2019. It’s hard to remember what happened years down the road and a log helps me with seasonal patterns, water levels, and what does and doesn’t work at various spots.
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Re: Christmas Bay, Freeport TX Dec 15, 2018

Post by SteveRetrieve »

Do you think the water levels will be better this weekend with all the recent rain? This weather is begging me to get out there
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Re: Christmas Bay, Freeport TX Dec 15, 2018

Post by karstopo »

https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/water ... =6&action=

Not much water there according to gauge at SLP. The actual tide levels currently are tracking close to predicted, but the predicted levels are low. -0.5 MLLW for a predicted low out there tomorrow sometime around midday, that’s real low.

Doesn’t mean you can’t go out there and fish, just go expecting low water.
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Re: Christmas Bay, Freeport TX Dec 15, 2018

Post by Dandydon »

Thanks for all that Christmas Bay information, Karstopo. Back in 1990 my very first kayak trip was launched there at old Sy's place.
I had a tippy narrow Perception Prism purchased from now-gone Canoesports on Bissonet.

But I developed a love for that area because of its rare native seagrass, and the fact that I managed to hit the jackpot & strung up 10 speckled trout from 2-5 lbs caught in a one-hour frenzy. I was casting over the deep hole at the delta of Churchill Bayou & Christmas Bay, standing on the long-gone old pier that once stood there at Mama's Bait Camp.
Since that trip about 15 years ago, I've been lucky to catch half-a-limit on that Bay. Too much boat traffic & fresh water now.


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