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The Saturday Letter · Vol. 1 · No. 31

Week of the water

July 27 – August 2, 2026 · July fundamentals · Texas · 1 of 1 desk · frozen Saturday issue

Permalink: /newsletter/2026-08-01

This week on your coast

Galveston

7.5

Redfish should be the day — push West and East Bay grass as the wind lets water back in.

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

This edition is Texas only — Texas. Coasts you did not elect stay off this letter. Scores are 1–10. They are not bite guarantees. Read this month’s seasonal fundamentals.

Texas

That Saturday

Texas desk

Galveston

Wind is the tide

7.5OF 10

Today

medium

Redfish should be the day — push West and East Bay grass as the wind lets water back in.

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

Water.
wind quiet
Tide.
incoming
Moon.
Waxing gibbous · mid
Window.
Incoming water — Water is moving, but the clock is against you — heat or dark.
6.6Redfish6.6Speckled trout

— Tide is incoming (modeled — the NOAA gauge did not answer).

— Waxing gibbous moon — mid tide range. Marsh and passes usually want the extra current of a spring.

Open the Galveston brief

Box score · July

In peak this month

  • Tarpon

    Texas

    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.

  • Mangrove / gray snapper

    Texas

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

  • Red snapper

    Texas

    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

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

  • Tripletail

    Texas

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

  • King mackerel

    Texas

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

Noise, not the headline: Jack crevalle.

Regs citedTPWD Outdoor Annual · Sep 1, 2025–Aug 31, 2026 · rolls in 7 days. Texas bag and season roll every September 1. The stamp is the book we cited, not a license.