Anglers should avoid wadefishing along the steep channel on the Follets Island side of San Luis Pass for a number of reasons."I have fished it for years and never caught anything," says Galveston fly-fishing guide Chris Phillips. "It is real treacherous, real dangerous."
Cold Pass, a channel that links West Bay with Christmas Bay, is located just across the San Luis Pass bridge on Follets Island and can be accessed from a park and boat launch. Houston flyfishers Ken Brumbaugh and Bill Stoneberg use sea kayaks to prospect along the channel edges and bayous of Cold Pass for trout and flounder. Joe DeForke recommends casting around the cuts for trout and working the points for flounder. This channel can be accessed by skiff or kayak. Boat traffic is light despite the availability of trout, flounder, Spanish mackerel, and sand trout.
The features around the Cold Pass Marina on Follets Island include a long boat cut and a road leading to the entrance of Churchill Bayou and Cold Pass. Bottoms here vary from hard sand to boggy mud. The cut is deep enough to fish in both summer and winter and is a good choice for wadefishing on a south or southeast wind. The tide is not a big factor as long as it is moving. Drive to the end of the road and wade out on the flat to the edge of the channel.
There is a big mud flat next to a parking-lot access point to Cold Pass, near the San Luis County Park (the Old KOA Campground), and flyfishers can walk around the mud flat on the edge of a marsh and find hard sand bottoms. Galveston angler Layton Hobbs recommends locating the drop-off, then backing up about 90 feet and casting back toward the edge. "Many people stand right on the drop-off and miss the fish that are cruising and chasing baitfish along the shallow edge," he says. For trout action, let Clousers, bendbacks, and other weighted flies drop down 10 or 12 feet around the shell reefs along the drop-off. "The fish work up and down that drop-off, and you can find action there if you stick with it," Hobbs says. He doesn't recommend fishing this area unless there are signs of baitfish activity.
To access this area for wadefishing or boating, turn right at the San Luis County Park after crossing the Vacek Bridge onto Follets Island.
Titlum Tatlum Bayou is about a 10-minute paddle by kayak from the launch ramps at San Luis County Park, at the east end of Follets Island. Bill Stoneberg has had success throwing Clouser and mud minnow fly patterns in the fall along this narrow bayou. "We caught the tide right and basically just sat on the kayaks and drifted the whole bayou, catching reds and flounder all day long," Stoneberg says.
Located along the extreme western shoreline separating West Bay from Bastrop Bay, Mud Island offers good wadefishing opportunities. There is better water movement here than on middle bay reefs because of the proximity of San Luis Pass.
from Away.com
