Redfish are carrying the Rockport bite into the first weekend of September, and the setup is about as friendly as a Coastal Bend September gets — Rockport is biting.

Bay water is still hot at 89.2°F at the Rockport gauge, and that shapes everything else. Winds stay south to southeast at 5 to 11 mph all three days, keeping Aransas, Copano and Redfish Bays light and workable, with no marine advisories for the Coastal Bend. Tides run a shallow range, a high near 0.7 feet and a low near 0.2 feet.

Your best shot is Thursday evening, roughly 5:50 to 7:45 PM, when the moon rides underfoot and the tide dumps out ahead of a 6:44 PM low — a major solunar period stacked on hard moving water. Friday afternoon, 2:00 to 3:30 PM around moonset, is the backup.

Redfish are good on the flats from Estes Flats to St. Charles Bay and the Copano Bay shorelines on live and dead shrimp and cut bait. Speckled trout are fair, pulled out to deep shell in Aransas and Copano Bays and biting best on tide changes. Flounder are fair, staging on channel edges and drains near Aransas Pass and Redfish Bay ahead of the fall run. Black drum are also good on the flats, and sheephead stay steady around piers and jetty rock.

Planning a Rockport fishing trip? Big State Living manages waterfront and near-water short-term rentals in Rockport, TX — browse availability at BigStateLiving.com.