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Galveston Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

The workingman's saltwater capital: jetties, piers, surf and bay within an hour of four million Texans.

4/5
Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
Next tide
Low 9:10 PM
Air / High
81 / 82 F
Wind
NE 3 mph

Sources: NOAA tides 8771450, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

4/5Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.

Galveston offers the kind of conditions this water was made for. Today brings clear skies, wind NE around 3 mph, falling pressure near 1020 hPa and a high of 82. Tides: high 2:55 AM and 3:32 PM, low 9:11 AM and 9:10 PM: the moving water either side of each change is when this place feeds. Water sits around 78 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:56 AM-11:56 AM and 10:23 PM-12:23 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Redfish (red drum)Excellent

Spring and early summer put redfish on grass flats, shorelines and oyster bars; on the Gulf, fish below spawning age stay inside the bays (TPWD). Sight-cast to tailing and cruising fish or drift live shrimp under a popping cork.

Speckled troutExcellent

Spring brings seatrout back over shallow seagrass, and the spawning season (April to September in Louisiana and South Carolina) keeps them feeding. Popping corks with live shrimp, free-shrimping on the drift and casting to working birds are the main tools.

Tomorrow: Similar at 80 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Texas requires a fishing licence from age 17, from $30.00 for residents, and salt water needs its own licence here. What a Texas licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing redfish (red drum) here? Check the size and bag limits with TPWD before you keep anything. The season dates for Texas, read off the agency, are on the Texas seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings.

Tides

NOAA station 8771450 (Galveston Pier 21). Fish the moving water either side of each change.

Fri
HIGH2:55 AM1.6 ft
LOW9:11 AM1.0 ft
HIGH3:32 PM1.6 ft
LOW9:10 PM1.1 ft
Sat
HIGH2:57 AM1.6 ft
LOW9:29 AM0.7 ft
HIGH4:37 PM1.8 ft
LOW9:59 PM1.3 ft

Galveston tide chart: the week and the month β†’

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp81 F
High / Low82 / 63 F
WindNE 3-4 mph
Pressure1019.9 hPa, falling
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset07:25 / 18:40
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~78 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Galveston this week

Today is the pick of the week on Galveston, at 4 out of 5.

Best day this week: today, Oct 23 β€” good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Good

Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.

Solunar majors
9:56 AM-11:56 AM and 10:23 PM-12:23 AM
Minor period
4:18 AM-5:18 AM
Sun
07:25 to 18:40
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Clear, 8 mph
Rain chance
0%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Galveston: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Redfish (red drum) illustration

Redfish (red drum)

Best: late-summer and fall bull run; inshore all year

Red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), called redfish across the South, is a bronze inshore drum with a black spot near the tail, fished on grass flats, oyster bars, marsh creeks and beaches from the Chesapeake around Florida to Texas. Spring and early summer put redfish on grass flats, shorelines and oyster bars; on the Gulf, fish below spawning age stay inside the bays (TPWD). Sight-cast to tailing and cruising fish or drift live shrimp under a popping cork.

Speckled trout illustration

Speckled trout

Shallow bays spring and summer; deeper water in winter

Speckled trout is the anglers' name for the spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus), a spotted member of the drum family that lives in shallow bays and estuaries from the Chesapeake to Texas. Spring brings seatrout back over shallow seagrass, and the spawning season (April to September in Louisiana and South Carolina) keeps them feeding. Popping corks with live shrimp, free-shrimping on the drift and casting to working birds are the main tools.

When to come: the Galveston calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Redfish (red drum)
Speckled trout
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 78 F (estimated, not a reading).

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~78 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Galveston today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Redfish (red drum) led the card at excellent. High of 80 F, wind to 8 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

5/5 Excellent. Go now. Everything lines up: pressure, wind and light are in your favor. Redfish (red drum) led the card at excellent. High of 79 F, wind to 10 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Redfish (red drum) led the card at excellent. High of 78 F, wind to 14 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Texas requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Texas saltwater endorsement required. Speckled trout: 15-20 inch slot rules apply on the upper coast, 3 per day: confirm current TPWD regs. Redfish: 20-28 inch slot, 3 per day.

Access

The 61st Street and Galveston piers, both jetties (North and South), San Luis Pass, and public bay access at Texas City Dike and Seawolf Park.

About this water

Galveston Bay complex, upper Texas coast. The largest estuary in Texas: 600 square miles of bays behind a 27-mile barrier island.

Fishing Galveston: the full guide

A complex, not a beach

Galveston is really five fisheries sharing a name: the bay complex (trout and redfish over shell and grass), the jetties (the granite highways where everything migrates past), the surf (speck runs on calm green summer mornings), the piers, and the ship channel with its winter refuge depths. Whatever the wind allows, something is fishable.

Playing the wind

Southeast light wind: run the surf or the bay shorelines with topwater at dawn. Hard south blow: hide on the protected west shorelines or the channel. North wind after a front: the back lakes and bayous load with redfish. The tide rules everything: moving water at the jetties and passes is the metronome of the whole system.

The complex, decoded

Galveston's fishery is a complex of complexes: East Bay's shell for wade-fishing trout purists, West Bay's grass coves for redfish skiffs, the jetties' granite for bull reds and sharks, and the surf's green-water summer mornings when trout push against the beach. The rule of thumb: find moving tide and bait concentration and the species sorts itself. Winter deep-holes in the bayous complete the year.

Common questions

When is the surf trout run in Galveston?

May through August on calm mornings when the water goes "trout green": wade the first gut at dawn with topwaters or soft plastics. Flat, green and early: the three conditions that matter.

Is fishing good at Galveston right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.

Nearby waters

Texas City Dike8 miLake Houston50 miSabine Pass63 miSabine Lake70 miMatagorda82 miNeches River85 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Tide predictions
NOAA CO-OPS 8771450 β€” Galveston Pier 21
Harmonic predictions, datum MLLW, local time. 12 high and low events returned for today and the next two days. A prediction, not a measured water level: wind and surge move the real thing.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 29.3010, -94.7980 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.