Santa did bring a little better weather, and some folks took advantage.

Bay catches have been good, and while not too many offshore boats went out during Christmas, those that did brought in fish, especially kingfish and tuna.

Rene Lopez did well on sheepshead off the north jetty using live shrimp last week. He also reported good catches of black drum in the Island Moorings channel and canals.

Bobby Richter said he's been having great luck with the redfish and trout in the south bay deep holes using soft plastics, slowly.

Richter said as the water warms up, the fish move up to edge of the channels, so fishing should be better there now. He recommended the Ransom Island and Spider hole areas for trout and redfish.

Dan Hurd at Deep Sea Headquarters said offshore trips are catching kingfish, vermillion snapper and Atlantic sharpnose shark. The 36 to 48-hour floater trips brought back yellowfin and blackfin tuna, amberjack and dorado.

Sharon Keehlisen at Woody's Sports Center said anglers in the flats are catching limits of red and black drum on dead shrimp and sea lice. At Packery Channel they are catching whiting and pompano. Pier anglers are bringing in gafftop and sheepshead around the south jetty. Flounder are still running in the ship channel.

MaryAnn Heimann at Offshore Adventures said anglers had been catching black and red drum in Redfish Bay, and "lots of sand trout under the lights at night," using live shrimp.