On This Water

The Saturday Letter · Vol. 1 · No. 31

Week of the water

July 27 – August 2, 2026 · July fundamentals · All coasts · 7 of 7 desks · frozen Saturday issue

Permalink: /newsletter/2026-08-01

This week on your coast

July is a bathtub with a tide table. Night and first-light reds on the Texas coast. Keys snook still closed; a shower can switch a Key West flat on once it clears. Andros is a heat-management problem as much as a fish problem. If the score is a 9 at 2 p.m., believe the water temperature, not the number.

Drawn from Galveston, Venice, Islamorada, Andros, Ascension, San Juan, and Alphonse — one desk per theater, not every micro-area. Scores are 1–10. They are not bite guarantees. Read this month’s seasonal fundamentals.

Seven desks

That Saturday

Texas desk

Galveston

Wind is the tide

8.3OF 10

Today

high

Redfish are the hunt — push West and East Bay grass as the wind lets water back in. Heat is the clock — first light or last light.

Bathtub bays. Night and first-light reds. Trout in guts and over deep grass. Beach tarpon if you already know the water.

Water.
9 mph SSW · 0% rain · 92°F water
Tide.
incoming · -0.3 ft vs the table
Moon.
Waxing gibbous · mid
Window.
Incoming water — Moving water in the right part of the day.
5.2Redfish5.2Speckled trout

Tide is incoming from NOAA.

Observed water is close to the astronomical prediction — the table is telling the truth today.

Open the Galveston brief

Louisiana desk

Venice

River is the tide

8.3OF 10

Today

medium

Redfish should be the day — flood the west-bank ponds, then the south passes if the bulls are in.

Birdfoot tarpon if you already know the water. Night and first-light reds. Trout in the lakes.

Water.
2 mph ESE · 7% rain
Tide.
incoming · -0.5 ft vs the table
Moon.
Waxing gibbous · mid
Window.
Incoming water — Moving water in the right part of the day.
6.6Redfish6.6Speckled trout6.6Tarpon

Tide is incoming from NOAA.

On this coast the wind often outruns the printed tide. Observed water is -0.45 ft versus the prediction.

Open the Venice brief

Florida desk

Islamorada

Educated fish, short windows

4.4OF 10

Today

high

Permit are the hunt — oceanside permit and bones, or Channel 5 current — not a Texas marsh sentence. Heat is the clock — first light or last light.

Snook still closed. Boca Pass is a heat-and-current problem. Summer showers can switch a Key West flat on once they clear.

Water.
3 mph ESE · thunderstorms · 92°F water
Tide.
incoming · +0.3 ft vs the table
Moon.
Waxing gibbous · mid
Window.
Incoming water — Moving water in the right part of the day.
7.0Hogfish7.0Yellowtail snapper5.2Tarpon5.2Permit

Tide is incoming from NOAA.

Observed water is close to the astronomical prediction — the table is telling the truth today.

Open the Islamorada brief

Bahamas desk

Andros

Bonefish country

8.1OF 10

Today

medium

Permit should be the day — west-side white sand — schools, then the double-digit singles.

Schoolie bones and resident tarpon. The lodge week is a heat-management problem as much as a fish problem.

Water.
4 mph NE · 0% rain
Tide.
incoming
Moon.
Waxing gibbous · mid
Window.
Incoming water — Moving water in the right part of the day.
6.6Tarpon6.6Permit

Tide is incoming (modeled — no NOAA gauge on this water).

Clear · 0%. Sky is workable.

Open the Andros brief

Mexico desk

Ascension

Two oceans

6.3OF 10

Today

medium

Permit are the hunt — wait for the next inch — this bay empties.

Baja peak offshore. Dorado and tuna. Rooster at first light. Yucatan is a shade problem.

Water.
5 mph N · 35% rain
Tide.
low slack
Moon.
Waxing gibbous · mid
Window.
Outgoing water — Moving water in the right part of the day.
5.5Tarpon5.5Permit

Tide is low slack (modeled — no NOAA gauge on this water).

Mostly clear. Clouds steal the window on bones and permit.

Open the Ascension brief

Puerto Rico desk

San Juan

Urban tarpon, then the drop

8.4OF 10

Today

high

Tarpon should be the day — the same harbor throats as they dump.

Midsummer. Night and first-light tarpon. Mahi if the weed is in. Do not invent a bonefish morning in Condado.

Water.
9 mph E · 10% rain · 86°F water
Tide.
outgoing · +0.5 ft vs the table
Moon.
Waxing gibbous · mid
Window.
Outgoing water — Moving water in the right part of the day.
8.4Mangrove / gray snapper8.2Tarpon6.6Snook

Tide is outgoing from NOAA.

The gauge is +0.49 ft off the predicted table — read the water, not just the printout.

Open the San Juan brief

Seychelles desk

Alphonse

GT country

5.4OF 10

Today

medium

Giant trevally are the hunt — wait for the next inch — this atoll empties. Work the leeward shore — fly gets harder.

SE monsoon. Offshore and reef more than the skinny sand. Tuna if you came for that.

Water.
23 mph SE · 0% rain
Tide.
low slack
Moon.
Waxing gibbous · mid
Window.
Outgoing water — Water is moving, but the clock is against you — heat or dark.
5.5Permit5.5Giant trevally

Tide is low slack (modeled — no NOAA gauge on this water).

Overcast. Clouds steal the window on bones and permit.

Open the Alphonse brief

Box score · July

In peak this month

  • Tarpon

    Texas · Louisiana · Florida · Bahamas · Mexico · Puerto Rico

    Keys migratory peak Apr–May. Boca Grande Pass is the spring stack. Jupiter inlet and beach. Texas beach/passes mid-summer. Venice south passes in the heat. Bahamas: resident fish in bights Apr–Oct.

  • Permit

    Florida · Bahamas · Mexico · Puerto Rico · Seychelles

    None in Texas. Keys mecca — flats, banks, wrecks. Bahamas west sides May–Oct. Puerto Rico: east-island banks, not Condado. Seychelles 'permit' is often the Indo-Pacific fish (Trachinotus blochii) — same job, different ocean.

  • Hogfish

    Florida · Bahamas · Mexico · Puerto Rico

    Keys and Caribbean patch reefs. Not a Texas bay fish. Not a bonefish headline. He lives on the hard bottom, not the grass.

  • Yellowtail snapper

    Florida · Bahamas · Mexico · Puerto Rico

    Islamorada to Key West, then the Bahamas and the Spanish Virgins. Patch reefs and the first drop. Absent from Texas bays.

  • Mangrove / gray snapper

    Texas · Louisiana · Florida · Bahamas · Mexico · Puerto Rico

    The snapper that will live in a Texas jetty and a Keys creek. Schoolies on structure. Bigger fish on the wrecks. Not a yellowtail.

  • Mutton snapper

    Florida · Bahamas · Mexico · Puerto Rico

    Keys wrecks and Caribbean hard bottom. Not a Texas red. Not a yellowtail in a chum slick.

  • Red snapper

    Texas · Louisiana · Florida

    Gulf wrecks and snapper banks. Texas and Louisiana live on this fish in a short federal window. Not a Galveston grass headline. Not a Keys yellowtail.

  • Lane snapper

    Texas · Florida · Mexico · Puerto Rico

    Nearshore Gulf and Caribbean hard bottom. Texas jetties and the first reefs. Not the federal red-snapper story.

  • Black grouper

    Florida · Bahamas · Mexico · Puerto Rico

    Keys, Bahamas, Yucatan, Puerto Rico wrecks. The heavy grouper. Do not print him on Galveston.

  • Tripletail

    Texas · Louisiana · Florida

    Summer Gulf. Traps, weed, and channel markers. Texas and Louisiana live on this fish. Not a wreck grouper.

  • King mackerel

    Texas · Louisiana · Florida · Mexico

    Texas and Florida summer kings. The beach and the first wrecks. Not a trout. Not a wahoo.

  • Striped marlin

    Mexico

    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.

  • Roosterfish

    Mexico

    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.

Noise, not the headline: Jack crevalle, Great barracuda.

Rules

Closed or closing

  • 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.

July by region, type, and species

Regs citedTPWD Outdoor Annual · Sep 1, 2025–Aug 31, 2026 · rolls in 8 days. Texas bag and season roll every September 1. The stamp is the book we cited, not a license.