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.
June. Heat is the clock. Trout leave the flat at midday. Reds work drains at dawn. Corpus beach tarpon is a different boat.
Type
Offshore
Trolling, the edge, and deep jigging. This is not the grass brief. Weedlines, humps, and named banks — Islamorada Hump, Flower Garden, Gordo, El Bajo, the Cancún sailfish current. Fly-and-teaser when the wind allows it. A heavy jig when it does not. Switch the method filter to Offshore or the engine will hide these marks on purpose. Roosterfish is Baja. Do not invent him on a Galveston morning.
No coast-wide harvest closure on the board. Still verify before you keep a fish.
Mahi-mahi
Coryphaena hippurus
Peak JuneTexas
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Thermal window
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70–88°F · best 74–84°F
Dolphin. Keys and Bahamas summer bluewater — weedlines, FADs, the edge. Texas: offshore, not the bay. Absent from a Galveston grass headline.
Fly. 10–12 wt. Baitfish or a chugger on a weedline. This is a boat-in-blue-water game, not a skiff on the flat.
Spin. Ballyhoo or a heavy spoon on color changes, sargassum, and the humps. If you can see the bank, you are inshore of them.
Texas. Florida: typically 10/person, 60/vessel, 20 in fork. Texas: 3/day in federal waters under HMS/coastal rules — verify NOAA HMS and TPWD. Mexico: verify CONAPESCA. Bahamas: check current bag.
SE Florida and the Keys are the winter sail coast. Bahamas bluewater. Texas: possible way offshore, not Matagorda. Do not headline a flat with a billfish.
Fly. 12 wt. A shot on a teaser, then the fly. Not a wade. Not a poling skiff.
Spin. Kite, live bait, or a dredge off the reef edge. Islamorada and Stuart in winter. Texas sail are a rare offshore event, not the jetty.
Texas. Florida: catch-and-release for Atlantic sail except a rare harvest tag. Federal HMS permit in federal waters. Texas/Bahamas: treat as C&R.
Blackfin on Keys/Bahamas humps and wrecks. Yellowfin farther out. Texas: Flower Garden / canyon water. Not a Baffin or Biscayne headline.
Fly. 12 wt on a blackfin blitz if they come up. Yellowfin is a stand-up outfit, not an 8-weight.
Spin. Humps, wrecks, and the edge. Live bait or a heavy jig. Texas tuna live in 50–100 fathoms, not West Bay.
Texas. Federal HMS rules. Yellowfin typically 27 in curved fork. Blackfin often more liberal — verify NOAA HMS and FWC/TPWD the morning you leave the inlet.
Eastern Pacific. East Cape and the mouth of the Cortez. Absent from Texas, Louisiana, the Keys, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and the Seychelles. Same rule as the rooster: this ocean only.
Fly. Teaser and fly. East Cape and Magdalena when the water is right. Pacific only.
Spin. Troll. Baja. Not the Gulf of Mexico. Not Texas.
Eastern Pacific — Baja East Cape and La Paz, Costa Rica, Panama. Absent from Texas, Louisiana, the Keys, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and the Seychelles. Lives on this atlas only on the Mexico Pacific desks.
Fly. 10–12 wt. A big baitfish in the surf. Baja and Central America Pacific, not the Gulf.
Spin. Live mullet in the wash. Same ocean as the rooster comb — the Pacific.