Locations

38 inshore fisheries across 7 regions, ordered like a trip along the coast — the Mexico border to Maryland, plus our California outposts. Every zone page carries live tide and water-temperature readings from its NOAA station, the species that hold there season by season, a seasonal playbook, and the towns and launches you would run from.

Pick a water below, or open the coastal map to see all38 zones on a nautical chart. Saved waters feed theMy Waters Console, which reads one water at a time.

Texas — Rio Grande to the Sabine

• Lower Laguna Madre (TX) — A hypersaline, gin-clear grass lagoon where sight-fishing is the default, not the treat. Trophy trout prowl knee-deep sand, redfish tail in herds, and the snook fishery around South Padre is Texas’ best-kept non-secret. Towns and launches: South Padre Island, Port Isabel, Port Mansfield, Laguna Vista, Arroyo City.
• Corpus Christi & Baffin Bay (TX) — Corpus Christi Bay, the Upper Laguna Madre and legendary Baffin Bay form Texas’ trophy-trout triangle. Serpulid rock formations found nowhere else on the coast, seagrass to the horizon, and a genuine shot at a 30-inch speck. Towns and launches: Corpus Christi, Flour Bluff, North Padre Island, Riviera, Loyola Beach.
• Rockport & Port Aransas (TX) — Rockport and Port Aransas sit on a web of clear, grassy bays — Aransas, Copano, Redfish, St. Charles — with a working pass to the Gulf. Classic Texas skinny-water fishing with a fishing-village soul, and whooping cranes over the flats in winter. Towns and launches: Rockport, Fulton, Port Aransas, Aransas Pass, Ingleside.
• Matagorda Bays (TX) — East and West Matagorda Bays are big, moody and unbothered — mid-coast Texas water where oyster reefs, guts and a surf that goes green in summer keep the drift-and-wade crowd honest. Port O’Connor and Palacios are the jumping-off points. Towns and launches: Port O’Connor, Palacios, Matagorda, Port Lavaca, Seadrift.
• Galveston Bay (TX) — Texas’ biggest estuary and one of America’s great trout-and-redfish factories: shell reefs, wells, marsh lakes, jetties and a wade-fishing culture all its own. Towns and launches: Galveston, Texas City, San Leon, Kemah, Bolivar Peninsula.
• Sabine Lake (TX) — Straddling the Texas–Louisiana line, Sabine Lake is a river-fed estuary with Calcasieu-grade trout genetics and a fraction of the pressure. Marsh drains on the east side, reefs to the south, and a ship channel full of fish. Towns and launches: Port Arthur, Sabine Pass, Bridge City, Orange, Pleasure Island.

Louisiana–Mississippi–Alabama — Big Lake to Mobile Bay

• Calcasieu Lake (LA) — “Big Lake” is a pilgrimage fishery: a compact, salty Louisiana estuary that grows speckled trout with shoulders. Reefs, weirs and beach-like shorelines make it fish twice its size. Towns and launches: Lake Charles, Sulphur, Hackberry, Cameron, Grand Lake.
• The Louisiana Marsh (Venice to Grand Isle) (LA) — The Mississippi River delta marsh — Venice, Delacroix, Hopedale, Lafitte, Grand Isle — is the densest redfish habitat on Earth. Ponds, bayous and broken grass in every direction, trout on the outside edges, tarpon off the river mouth. Towns and launches: Venice, Delacroix, Hopedale, Shell Beach, Lafitte, Grand Isle.
• Mississippi Sound (MS) — The Mississippi Sound is a barrier-island buffet: marsh rivers and bayous inside, grass-ringed islands — Cat, Ship, Horn — a short run out. Trout and reds split the year, and nobody’s ever far from a pier, a bridge or a jetty. Towns and launches: Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Gulfport, Biloxi, Ocean Springs, Pascagoula.
• Mobile Bay & the Alabama Coast (AL) — Mobile Bay funnels a huge river delta into the Gulf between Dauphin Island and Fort Morgan, with Gulf Shores and Orange Beach hanging off its eastern shoulder. Gas rigs in the bay, grass in the delta, and the world-famous summer “jubilees” on the Eastern Shore. Towns and launches: Dauphin Island, Fairhope, Daphne, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, Fort Morgan.

Florida Gulf — Pensacola to the Everglades

• Pensacola Bay (FL) — Pensacola Bay is deep, green and grand — a natural harbor with grass flats up the lagoons, monster bridge structure and a pass that funnels everything from bull reds to tarpon. Santa Rosa Sound runs east like a fish highway. Towns and launches: Pensacola, Gulf Breeze, Pensacola Beach, Milton, Navarre.
• Destin & the Emerald Coast (FL) — East Pass pours Choctawhatchee Bay into the clearest green water on the northern Gulf. Destin calls itself the world’s luckiest fishing village — inshore, that means pompano beaches, a serious spring cobia tradition and bay grass full of trout. Towns and launches: Destin, Fort Walton Beach, Okaloosa Island, Niceville, Santa Rosa Beach.
• Panama City & St. Andrew Bay (FL) — Deep, clear St. Andrew Bay meets sugar-sand beaches at one of the Gulf’s most reliable passes. Grass flats, jetty rock, piers and a spring cobia run all inside a 20-minute boat ride. Towns and launches: Panama City, Panama City Beach, Lynn Haven, St. Andrews, Mexico Beach.
• Port St. Joe & Cape San Blas (FL) — St. Joseph Bay is a rare thing: a clear, enclosed, grass-bottom bay with no river input. Sight-fishing for reds, a trout factory, bay scallops in summer — and the cape’s surf out the back door. Towns and launches: Port St. Joe, Cape San Blas, Simmons Bayou, Indian Pass.
• Apalachicola Bay (FL) — River-fed, oyster-studded and famously fertile — “Apalach” is old-Florida inshore fishing: marsh drains, bars, and more redfish water than you can cover in a lifetime. Towns and launches: Apalachicola, Eastpoint, St. George Island, Carrabelle.
• The Big Bend (Steinhatchee to Homosassa) (FL) — Florida’s Big Bend is the wildest stretch of Gulf coast left — a hundred miles of seagrass, limestone and spring-fed rivers with barely a condo on it. Steinhatchee, Crystal River and Homosassa anchor a trout-and-redfish paradise hiding in plain sight. Towns and launches: Steinhatchee, Suwannee, Cedar Key, Yankeetown, Crystal River, Homosassa.
• Tampa Bay (FL) — Tampa Bay is Florida’s biggest open-water estuary and maybe its most complete inshore fishery: snook in the mangroves, trout on the grass, redfish schools on the flats and a tarpon parade past the Skyway every summer. Towns and launches: St. Petersburg, Tampa, Tierra Verde, Apollo Beach, Ruskin, Palmetto.
• Charlotte Harbor & Boca Grande (FL) — Charlotte Harbor is a vast, mangrove-rimmed bowl fed by the Peace and Myakka rivers, emptying through Boca Grande Pass — the tarpon capital of the world. Inside: snook bars, redfish flats and trout grass that goes on for miles. Towns and launches: Boca Grande, Placida, Englewood, Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte, Bokeelia.
• Ten Thousand Islands & the Everglades (FL) — South of Marco Island the road runs out and the mangroves take over — thousands of islands, rivers and oyster mouths draining the Everglades into the Gulf. It’s the last frontier of Florida inshore fishing: snook, redfish, tarpon and total solitude. Towns and launches: Marco Island, Goodland, Everglades City, Chokoloskee, Port of the Islands.

Florida Atlantic — The Keys to the First Coast

• The Florida Keys (FL) — A 120-mile arc of islands between the Atlantic and Florida Bay, the Keys are the light-tackle and fly capital of the planet. Tarpon pour up the oceanside in spring, bonefish and permit haunt the flats, and winter brings the whole food chain to the backcountry. Towns and launches: Key Largo, Islamorada, Marathon, Big Pine Key, Key West.
• Biscayne Bay & Miami (FL) — A clear, grassy bay squeezed between Miami’s skyline and the reef — bonefish and permit flats in sight of downtown, tarpon in the cuts all winter, and dock-light snook up the residential canals. Urban saltwater fishing without equal. Towns and launches: Miami, Miami Beach, Key Biscayne, Coconut Grove, Cutler Bay, Homestead.
• Indian River Lagoon & Mosquito Lagoon (FL) — The Indian River Lagoon system — Mosquito Lagoon, the Banana River, the Indian River proper — runs 150 miles down Florida’s east coast and grows the biggest speckled trout in America. No real tide in the northern basins: it’s all sight-fishing, wind and water clarity. Towns and launches: Titusville, Cocoa Beach, Melbourne, Sebastian, Vero Beach, Stuart.
• Jacksonville & the First Coast (FL) — Where the St. Johns River meets the Atlantic, spartina marsh runs unbroken from Amelia Island to St. Augustine. Classic Southeast creek fishing — flood-tide reds, docks stacked with sheepshead, and a jetty system that fishes all year. Towns and launches: Jacksonville, Mayport, Amelia Island, Ponte Vedra Beach, St. Augustine.

Southeast Atlantic — Georgia to the Outer Banks

• The Georgia Coast (Savannah to St. Simons) (GA) — Georgia’s hundred miles of coast hide behind barrier islands — Tybee, Ossabaw, Sapelo, St. Simons — laced with the biggest tides in the Southeast. Eight-foot swings make it a timing game, and the reward is untouched marsh full of reds and trout. Towns and launches: Savannah, Tybee Island, Richmond Hill, Darien, Brunswick, St. Simons Island.
• The SC Lowcountry (Charleston to Hilton Head) (SC) — Spartina marsh, pluff mud and shrimp boats: the Lowcountry from Charleston through Beaufort to Hilton Head is flood-tide redfish country, with a bonus cobia run up the Broad River every May. Fishing here is a tide chart with a city attached. Towns and launches: Charleston, Mount Pleasant, Folly Beach, Edisto Island, Beaufort, Hilton Head Island.
• The Grand Strand (Murrells Inlet & Georgetown) (SC) — South of Myrtle Beach’s neon, Murrells Inlet and Winyah Bay at Georgetown do the actual fishing: tight tidal creeks, jetty rock and one of the East Coast’s great river-delta estuaries. Reds and trout inside, pompano and Spanish on the beach. Towns and launches: Murrells Inlet, Pawleys Island, Georgetown, North Myrtle Beach, Little River.
• Cape Fear (Wilmington & Southport) (NC) — The Cape Fear River pours past Wilmington into a maze of spartina creeks, ICW docks and inlet bars between Wrightsville Beach and Bald Head Island. North Carolina’s southern corner — reds year-round, a proper fall trout run, flounder culture deep in the bones. Towns and launches: Wilmington, Wrightsville Beach, Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, Southport, Oak Island.
• Pamlico Sound & Outer Banks (NC) — America’s largest lagoon: shallow, wind-tided and wild. Home of the world-record red drum and genuine gator trout, backed by the Outer Banks surf and inlets. Towns and launches: Hatteras, Ocracoke, Manteo, Oriental, Engelhard, Swanquarter.

Mid-Atlantic — The Chesapeake

• Chesapeake Bay (Annapolis & Lower Bay) (MD) — The nation’s largest estuary and the northern edge of Tides & Tails’ coverage. Rockfish (striped bass) headline, but reds, specks, Spanish and sheepshead push farther up the bay every warm year. Towns and launches: Annapolis, Kent Island, Deale, Solomons, Crisfield, Cambridge.

California — San Diego to Monterey

• San Diego & Mission Bay (CA) — SoCal’s protected bays are a light-tackle playground: eelgrass flats, channel edges and docks holding spotted bay bass, halibut and cruising corbina — West Coast inshore at its best. Towns and launches: San Diego, Point Loma, Coronado, Mission Beach, Chula Vista.
• Oceanside & Carlsbad (CA) — North San Diego County's working harbor and its kelp coast. Agua Hedionda Lagoon feeds bait to the beach, the kelp forests off Carlsbad hold calico bass and white seabass, and summer corbina tail in the surf line within sight of the pier. Towns and launches: Oceanside Harbor, Carlsbad, South Oceanside.
• Newport & Dana Point (CA) — Orange County's blue-water doorstep. The shelf drops away fast off Newport and Dana Point, so bluefin, yellowtail and dorado run closer to the harbor mouth here than almost anywhere on the coast — with calico bass and bay fishing waiting when the offshore lies down. Towns and launches: Newport Beach, Dana Point, Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach.
• LA & Long Beach Harbors (CA) — The biggest harbor complex on the West Coast is also one of its best-kept bass fisheries. Miles of breakwater — 'The Wall' — hold trophy calicos in lake-calm water, spotted bay bass own the inner harbor structure, and yellowtail and bonito crash the outside in fall. Towns and launches: San Pedro, Long Beach, Huntington Harbour, Wilmington.
• Santa Monica Bay (CA) — LA's home water: a broad, sandy crescent from Malibu to the Palos Verdes kelp. The flats make it a premier halibut drift fishery, the summer 'Short Bank' barracuda bite is a local institution, and white seabass haunt the kelp edges for those who put in the time. Towns and launches: Marina del Rey, Redondo Beach, Malibu, Santa Monica, Hermosa Beach.
• Santa Barbara & Ventura (CA) — The gateway to the Northern Channel Islands — Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel — where the cold California Current meets SoCal. IGFA-record halibut water, serious rockfish and lingcod grounds, and white seabass on the island squid. Towns and launches: Santa Barbara Harbor, Ventura Harbor, Channel Islands Harbor (Oxnard).
• Monterey Bay (CA) — Cold, rich and dramatic: kelp lines, surf breaks and a summer striped bass run that surprises Gulf transplants. The northern anchor of our California coverage. Towns and launches: Monterey, Moss Landing, Marina, Capitola, Santa Cruz.
• Brite Lake (CA) — High-desert mountain water at 4,000 feet. Brite Lake is a managed fishery with a surprisingly robust bass population and seasonal trout stockings — a small Tehachapi reservoir that fishes far bigger than its acreage. Towns and launches: Tehachapi, Golden Hills.
• Lake Isabella (CA) — The Kern River's massive reservoir. Known for heavy wind and heavyweight crappie, Isabella is the southern Sierra's big water — miles of coves, flooded timber and river channel holding bass, panfish, catfish and stocked trout. Towns and launches: Lake Isabella, Kernville, Wofford Heights, Bodfish.

How the zone pages work

Each fishery is tied to a real NOAA CO-OPS tide station, so tides, water temperature, wind and the bite outlook are pulled live when you open the page rather than published as a static forecast. Species names link through to the species guides, and every zone links out to the official NOAA electronic navigational chart centered on its own waters.