When a coast, a type of water, and a fish actually line up. If you elected Texas on the list, this page opens on Texas — Seychelles stays off the board until you ask for it. Filter by region, method or habitat, and species. The year bar is peak versus present. Limits cite TPWD and FWC — verify before you keep one.
Seven working bays, one printed table that is often a suggestion.
This coast runs from a brackish border estuary at Sabine to hypersaline rock at Baffin and the clear classroom of the Lower Laguna. The main event is the red. Trout live a foot deeper in the same bays. Flounder own the fall nights at the passes until the November closure. Winter belongs to drum and sheep on mud and granite. Corpus still sees a tarpon along the beach in mid-summer — Port A was once Tarpon, Texas — but that is a bay-boat job, not the skinny skiff. Do not fish Baffin like Rockport. Do not invent Rollover Pass; it was filled in 2019. Birds are GPS for trout. A hard norther empties the shoreline and stacks fish in the guts. Fly when the morning is honest. The gold spoon is what you came for when it is not.
January. Gut month. Black drum and sheep on mud and granite. Trout slide to holes after a norther. Midday sun is legal. Reds still eat; they just will not tail in a north wind.
Louisiana
Louisiana — river, marsh, and the birdfoot
Wind and the Mississippi move more water than the printed tide.
Venice is the birdfoot — South and Southwest Pass, ponds on the west bank, bulls in the throats, school reds and trout inside, tarpon in the heat on the south passes. Grand Isle is a different desk: one inhabited barrier island, Caminada, Barataria, a state-park surf. Calcasieu is the Texas-border cousin under LDWF rules — same fish, different bag, not Sabine Lake. Reds are 4 a day, 18–27, none over 27. Trout are a slot. Flounder typically close Oct 15–Nov 30. Do not put a Texas tag on a Cameron fish.
January. Same norther, more marsh. Reds in the ponds on the warm afternoon. Trout in the lakes. Venice is a coat and a gut.
Florida
Florida — two coasts, do not mix them
Keys oceanside is bones and permit. Backcountry is reds and snook. Boca is the pass. Jupiter is the inlet.
Biscayne is the north end of the grand-slam stage. Key Largo is the first Key — Card Sound, Garden Cove, Pennekamp as the launch, not a secret flat. Adjacent SPAs are no-take. Islamorada is the mecca — Channel 5, oceanside banks, wrecks for permit that have seen every crab. Flamingo is a different country: reds and snook, not oceanside bones. Marathon and Key West stretch it south. Then the mainland: Boca Grande Pass is the spring tarpon stack, Charlotte Harbor the snook and reds — Gulf rules, not Atlantic. Jupiter is inlet snook and a beach tarpon, clocked to Lake Worth Pier. Snook closures differ by FWC region. FKNMS polygons are Keys-only. Do not headline Jupiter with a bonefish.
January. Cold fronts thin the bones, then hand you a bluebird day. Snook closed on both coasts this month. Boca Pass is a winter red and a closed snook. Jupiter too.
Bahamas
Bahamas — bonefish country
Winter singles. Summer schools. Permit on the west sides when it lays down.
Andros is the capital — west-side white sand, schools by the acre, double-digit singles in the creeks, tarpon in the bights, permit May through October on the west side and outer cays. Abaco is Marls and ocean cays; verify what is actually running after Dorian. Grand Bahama is the thinking wade, a town to sleep in, big singles on foot. Eleuthera and the Exuma edge take more weather and give you more permit. Tides here are a modeled lunar clock, labeled as such — there is no NOAA gauge on these islands. Flats licensing has been tightening; verify before you wade. Jacks will find you. They are not why you booked the week.
January. Single-bone season. Fewer fish, bigger shoulders, longer leaders. Dress for the front. The school of 3-pounders is a summer story.
Mexico
Mexico — two oceans, do not mix them
Yucatan is bones and sail. Baja is rooster and dorado. Neither is Texas.
Ascension Bay / Sian Ka’an is the Caribbean flat — Punta Allen, permit and bones, biosphere rules, a modeled tide. Isla Mujeres is the other Yucatan desk: winter sailfish on the current, summer mahi, a troll-and-kite day. Cross the country and you are in another fishery. East Cape is rooster in the wash and Gordo Banks when the blue water is in. La Paz is Espíritu Santo and El Bajo. CONAPESCA license. No NOAA gauge. Roosterfish does not live in the Gulf of Mexico.
January. Yucatan sail peak off Mujeres. Ascension bones if the front missed you. Baja rooster still eat; dress for the norther that was a Texas story yesterday.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico — urban tarpon, east-island flats
DNER water. Real NOAA gauges. Not a Keys copy and not FWC.
San Juan is Condado Lagoon and the bay — tarpon under the bridges, snook in the edges, a north-coast drop that is an offshore method. Vieques and Culebra are the Spanish Virgins: more sand, bones and permit, Mosquito Bay a reserve. La Parguera is the southwest mangrove desk, clocked to Magueyes 9759110. Blue marlin live in the story of this island; this brief will not invent a billfish on a lagoon. License is DNER. Do not paste a Jupiter snook closure onto Condado.
January. Tarpon in Condado if the winter wind lays down. Snook in the edges. The north drop is a coat and a kite.
Seychelles
Seychelles — GT country
Indian Ocean atolls. Modeled tide. Lodge water on the outer rims.
Alphonse and St François are the photograph — giant trevally on the edge, bones and Indo-Pacific permit on the sand. Farquhar is the southern atoll, same fish, farther. Mahé is the public door: reef, park water, blue water, not the St François flat. There is no NOAA gauge. Tide is a labeled model. SFA license. Roosterfish does not live here. Atlantic jack crevalle does not either. You came for a GT.
January. NW monsoon. Atolls fish. GT on the rim, bones inside. This is why the week was booked in June.
Type
Sight fishing
Sight water wants cleaner, often smaller range and a sun angle you can read. Lower Laguna and Baffin are the Texas classrooms — inches of water, serpulid rock, a tail that looks like a redfish until it is a drum. Keys oceanside is permit and bones on banks that get a boat every hour. Bahamas is the same game with more fish and fewer excuses. Alphonse is the Indian Ocean version — GT on the rim, bones inside. Polarized glasses are not optional. If you cannot see the bottom, you are fishing yesterday's rumor.
SE Florida snook (Jupiter, Keys, Biscayne). Typically closed Dec 15–Jan 31 and June 1–Aug 31. Catch-and-release is still fishing. Do not harvest a snook because a desk scored an 8.
Charlotte Harbor / Boca Grande snook. Typically closed Dec 1–end of Feb and May 1–Sep 30. Gulf region, not Atlantic. Verify FWC.
Redfish
Sciaenops ocellatus
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Thermal window
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52–88°F · best 62–82°F
Texas and Louisiana main event. Tails in flooded grass, wakes on shell, winter schools on mud, bulls in the passes. Keys: backcountry only, not oceanside. Boca Harbor yes. Jupiter is a snook desk.
Fly. 8-weight. Crab or shrimp on bead-chain for tailers. Gold spoon when the wind wrecks the fly. 20 lb near oyster.
Spin. Weedless gold spoon, paddle, or soft plastic. Heavy spoon or big paddle for the fall jetty bulls.
Same bays as the red, a foot deeper. Birds are GPS. Heat drives them off the flat at midday. Cold drives them to guts and mud. Louisiana lives on this fish.
Fly. 7–8 wt. Baitfish and shrimp. Gurgler when they are up. Soft mouth — strip-set, do not trout-set a trout.
Spin. Topwater at dawn. Soft plastic on a light jig the rest of the day. Slow down after a front.
Absent in Texas. Keys: big, few, educated. Bahamas: the capital — winter singles, summer schools of 3–5 lb fish. Puerto Rico: east islands more than San Juan. Seychelles: Alphonse and Farquhar sand, not Mahé town water.
Fly. 8 wt. Gotcha, Crazy Charlie, shrimp. Long fluoro, soft landing. Bahamas will forgive more than Biscayne.
Spin. Possible with a tiny jig. The honest tool here is the fly.
Indo-Pacific. Alphonse, St François, Farquhar — the reason the atoll week exists. Absent from the Atlantic and the Gulf. Do not print a GT on Galveston or Condado.
Fly. 12 wt. A big baitfish on the atoll edge. He will eat a popper. This is not a Texas jack.
Spin. Stickbait or a live bait on the pass. The eat is violent. Do not bring an 8-weight to a GT.