July and August are two of the hottest months in Texas. For one sure way to beat the heat, fish the jetties at night under the light of the moon. You might be surprised at the size and number of trout you can catch with a glow/chartreuse 'Trap or a big, black Super Spook worked within a few feet of the big granite rocks

At Sabine Lake during July, wading the south shoreline is an agreeable option. Most anglers on the lake don't prefer to hunt for trout in this manner, but it's certainly a tactic that can lead to some solid fish. The area from Blue Buck Point and on up to Coffee Ground Cove offers several miles of classic wade-fishing potential. Here, Super Spooks and Top Dogs rule early and late. During the day you'll do well with jigs, but you can also fish live shrimp or mud minnows about 6 feet under a slip-cork over mud and shell.

The area around Sabine Lake took a major hit from Hurricane Rita, the town of Sabine being struck terribly hard. But most of the boat ramps were unaffected, and I expect that they'll all be reopened this summer. (Continued)

GALVESTON BAY
"Sprawling" scarcely captures the dimensions of the huge Galveston Bay complex. Covering some 350,000 acres, it's the second-largest bay system in Texas behind the Laguna Madre. And guess what? Because of its location, the venue's virtues as a fishing destination are no secret. In fact, Galveston feels fishing pressure about three times greater than that experienced by other bays along the Texas Gulf Coast. Nevertheless, East and West Galveston bays and Trinity Bay continue to give out speckled trout like a broken Coke machine.

"It's true that we get a lot of fishing pressure," remarked East Bay fishing guide Jim West. "But over the years it's continually been right up at the top of go-to water for trout fishermen in the know."

The worst time to fish East Galveston Bay is on a Saturday or Sunday from about June through August -- the crowds will blow you away. On any given weekend in July you'll see more boats and wade-fishermen strung out along the south shoreline of East Bay than you might have believed existed. And they're all there for one very good reason: superb trout fishing.

"During July I'll wade the south shoreline early with topwater plugs and jigs," said West. "But once the sun gets up, I'll drift the reefs with jigs and live baits. There definitely isn't a shortage of shell reefs on East Bay. And if you know where they are you can stay on trout throughout the summer months."

Some of West's most profitable reefs are on the lower end of East Bay, almost into Trinity Bay. Here, you want to set up to drift over the reefs, or along the edges, while casting jigs.

Another very serviceable option: Anchor, and then fish live baits over the reefs under slip-corks. If you're unfamiliar with the use of slip-corks, learn, because employing them is the most effective way of catching suspended trout during July. In fact, when all else fails, this is the way to catch trout -- period!

First of all, buy a package of bobber-stoppers that slide onto your line. Next, thread the tag end of the line through the slip-cork and through a barrel weight, and tie the tag end to a black barrel swivel; take an 18-inch long section of leader material and tie one end to the swivel and the other to either a No. 4 treble hook or a No. 2 Kahle live-bait hook. You don't want to use an extremely thick wire hook, as that'll kill your live bait and, thus, the swimming action.