Early in the morning, the Aransas Bay side of St. Joe’s can offer superb trout fishing, as schools of specks move shallow to feed on mullet and shrimp. An angler wading waist-deep, casting into deeper water and then working back into the shallows can fill a stringer on most summer days.

Off the south tip of St. Joseph’s, Mud Island is another excellent spot for both trout and reds. Schools of trout will range along the bay side. On the backside of Mud Island, potholes can be excellent places to search for both trout and reds.

The bottom can be boggy, so you have to pick and choose your wading spots. And do shuffle those feet: Once I followed a friend into a boggy flat there, only to discover we were surrounded by hundreds of stingrays! We managed to shuffled our way out, scattering the poisonous pancakes in every direction and not getting struck. But I swore my 14-year-old to silence, so his mom would never know what I’d taken him into!

You don’t have to wade to catch big trout. In June and July, schools of big spawning trout will stack up on the Aransas Bay side of Traylor Island. Savvy anglers anchor just off the outside beach dropoff and pitch live croakers into the shallows, where schools of sow trout are cruising.

Inside Traylor, Estes Flats may be one of the most heavily fished stretches of flats on the entire Gulf Coast. But its grass-and-pothole bottom sometimes will hold great numbers of trout, redfish and flounder.

Because most of the bottom is very boggy, wading is out of the question, but it makes for ideal drift-fishing. Catch the right breeze and cast ahead of your drifting boat, dropping a bait into each sandy spot. Plastic baits, gold weedless spoons and broken-back topwater plugs can be deadly.

It’s peaceful and beautiful, watching the constantly changing water show pass beneath your feet. Often you’ll see redfish, flounder, rays, crabs and a host of other fish fining calmly as you drift past.

Or if you want to take it easy, anchor up where you’re in range of a number of potholes and cast out live mullet, croakers or piggy perch. And hold on. While this may seem like lazy fishing, when a school of reds moves through and fills three or four lines at once, it can be a real rodeo!

DEALING WITH COMPANY
A word about fishing pressure, and the associated competition: Get used to it. In the past 25 years, the rebounding Texas bay fisheries for speckled trout and redfish have returned to their rightful standing as the best on earth. And that’s corresponded with an equal explosion in tunnel hull flats boats that will run on a wet washcloth and require no more expertise than the ability to write a paycheck.

If you want to avoid rubbing elbows with too many of your fellow anglers, plan your trip for midweek instead of weekends. And instead of hitting the most-traveled spots, look for out-of-the-way pockets of water away from boat traffic. A school of reds or a pod of sow trout will seek out such spots, and if you slip in and wade quietly until you find the fish, you can score in spots that most anglers overlook.