Educate me about the salt and storms

[RDK]

Going to be at the coast next week. What will the tropical storm coming in this weekend do to the surf fishing next week?

[El General]

Going to be at the coast next week. What will the tropical storm coming in this weekend do to the surf fishing next week?

Probably, it will not be good.

[Ginja Ninja]

If you're going down there, fish.

[glen]

Storms can have strange results on the surf. I have followed this over the last 10 years. Nothing first hand just what I read. Storms can kill the fishing or relocated fish. Catches of offshore species in the surf seem to happen. I think it depends on the location of the storm and when the offshore flow moves. I guess it is like fishing anytime- be in the right place at the right time and magical things happen. I know I have fished right before a storm and caught more redfish than my arms could pull on.

[Native Texan]

If you can get on the beach the fishing can be good, especially for redfish. Expect higher than normal tides and strong current.

[bowhntrmatt]

Be careful of currents.

[AtTheWall]

Tides will be higher, so the waterline to the dunes may be up higher than normal. Two days after landfall......all should be literally back to normal. Seas are not projected to super rough, to points, surf blows up into the dunes and cuts out large chunks of sand with this storm. Fish feed like nuts before the storm, bullsharks will swim out of the back bays, surf run fish will hold off the beach a bit till the storm makes landfall. Swells will start dropping 12 - 24 hours after landfall. Two days after landfall, surf will be back to normal with a slightly higher, high tide mark. It takes about 3 days to a week for all the pushed in water to return to normal tide conditions. Not sure what the moon phase is, but if it's bordering full moon, tides will remain high upwards of 2 weeks after landfall. The high tide has no real impact on surf fishing opportunities, it does have an impact on back bay fishing opportunities with some species (drum family) feeding up in the grass and areas normally not covered with waters. Shrimp and crabs will move up into the grass - till the tides return to normal.

I tore the fish up 1 week after Harvey blew into Port Aransas. Fished the Upper Laguna Madre, redfish and speckled trout and hooked/lost two small juvenile tarpon.

I also tore up redfish 1 week after Hurricane Katrina tore up New Orleans in the surf on PINS. Katrina was a late summer storm, the beginning of the bullred migration. The beach was full of debris, driving was iffy due to the debris (tires), but the fishing was excellent.

One of the 6 or 7 I caught and released at night after the Katrina event. I propped my little handheld camera up on a massive tank, tank probably came from Louisiana (oilfield junk).

[RifleBowPistol]

It's really hard to say. I grew up on the coast. We stayed through multiple hurricanes. I know we were out in the bays and even the gulf a day or two before some storms hit. I was on the beach multiple times before a tropical storm or hurricane hit, we did not live far from Port A.

But there were times a day before the storm hit, the water would be dead calm and the fishing was crazy, even up to the day the storm hit. But then there were other times the surf got very rough, gray skies and stronger than normal winds. We did not try fishing on those days, but I have fished during some common rain storms, where the winds were blowing a bit stronger than normal and the waves were a lot larger than normal and it was raining. During some of those times, we caught a lot of fish. Other times we did not catch any. Don't know if we were in the wrong place at the wrong time, when we did not catch any or if there was something else going on, that we did not know about.

If you fish a given area a lot throughout the year, year after year. You will likely have a much better chance of catching fish, when a storm comes in, because you know more of what to expect, in the lines of where the fish typically are at various times of the day, at various times of the year and then what they often do, when a typical storm moves in. If you are not familiar with a given area, meaning fish that area lot, throughout the year, you likely won't do that well, as a storm is coming.

What the storms do for the fishing after they have passed, I have no idea. We never fished after a storm had passed through. Usually everything was flooded, we did not have any power and so we had other concerns for a few days to a week or two at the worst.

The thing we would always fall back on, when we were not catching fish and wanted to say they were not biting. Is they have to eat to survive, so they are somewhere, finding something to eat. After a big storm, in the bays, things are probably pretty churned up and is disarray, everything is probably scattered or pushed into certain areas. I know normal storms can push fish to one side of the bays, back side of a bay or a cut or a pocket and pack them in there thick. The gulf is something completely different. I would think those fish would at least for a while, head back out to deeper water, unless, there are strong underwater currents, that push them up to the beaches.

[AtTheWall]

Tropical Storm Hanna appears to tracking directly into the Coastal Bend - Padre Island. Surf is gonna run up to roughly 9ft, 40 mph winds (gusts probably to 60) Saturday. Come Monday, surf is 2-3ft and pretty much back to normal wave height & wind wise. Tides will be up and water clarity, may or may not be an issue? Should be OK. It's cool to roam the sand after storms like this....never know what gets washed up and or uncovered along the dune line.

[RDK]

Thanks for all the input guys. Hopefully will have some pics to post this next week.

[hopedale]

If it dumps a ton of rain, the salinity levels are going to drop. That will push the specks and other fish that dislike low salinity levels further out.

Reds and black drum seem to tolarate those conditions ok

I'd expect the water is going to be dirty, so you're going to want dark color baits.

The main thing to remember is you won't be at work, and the beer just taste better on the coast.

[Acameron52]

Fish on!!

[RDK]

If it dumps a ton of rain, the salinity levels are going to drop. That will push the specks and other fish that dislike low salinity levels further out.

Reds and black drum seem to tolarate those conditions ok

I'd expect the water is going to be dirty, so you're going to want dark color baits.

The main thing to remember is you won't be at work, and the beer just taste better on the coast.

Like it!!!!!!

[Capt Glenn]

Storms don't do anything but help the fishing. The storm surge provides a really good flushing of the bay and it's surrounding marshes with clean gulf water. You may experience a temporary tough period as the storm passes and it takes a couple days for the wind to lay and the water to get fishable again. But it doesn't last long. Most of the time the runoff has minimal impact.

In the surf all you really need is for the wind to lay and the surf to calm back down. The fish will be in there and ready to feed before it even gets real fishable. As soon as it looks good they will be there and eating heavily.

You just have to go and see what it looks like. Don't write it off as a loss just yet. If the surf isn't good go fish the bay side.