South Padre in late August is a two-shift operation: get out at daylight, come in by mid-morning, and go back out at dusk. The Laguna Madre is hot and clear, the jetties are holding good fish on the moving tide, and there are tarpon on the beachfront for anglers who can be there when the Gulf lies flat and green.
What’s Hitting
King mackerel and Spanish mackerel are on the bait around the Brazos Santiago jetties and just outside, and they have been the most dependable action for anyone with a boat.
Speckled trout are the everyday flats fish, holding on grass edges and sand potholes in the Lower Laguna Madre early. Redfish are working the shorelines and the back lagoons, with tailing fish on the calm mornings. Snook are around the jetties and the East Cut. Tarpon are on the beachfront and at the jetties when the water goes green. Offshore, there are kings, ling and snapper on the wells and structure.
Where to Find Them
The Brazos Santiago Pass jetties are the center of gravity — kings, snook, tarpon, jacks and sharks all use that water on the moving tide. Fish the green-water side.
On the Lower Laguna Madre, work the grass flats and potholes on the west side and around the Arroyo Colorado mouth for trout and reds. The back lagoons and shorelines hold tailing redfish on calm mornings. The beachfront from the jetties north toward the county park fishes well for tarpon, jacks and Spanish when the surf is clean and green to the beach.
Tides & Conditions
Water temps are in the upper 80s on the flats and the shallow Laguna gets genuinely hot by mid-morning. Hypersaline conditions are normal here in a dry summer and concentrate fish in the deeper guts.
The southeast wind rules this coast. Light morning winds mean clean green water at the jetties and on the beach — that is the day you want. Twenty knots out of the southeast and the whole Gulf side goes brown and unfishable, and you fish the protected west-side flats instead. Tides are small and largely wind-driven.
Tackle & Tactics
For jetty kings, slow-troll a live mullet or piggy perch on a light wire stinger, or cast a heavy spoon into a working bait pod. For tarpon and snook at the same rocks, an 8000-class spinner with 50-pound braid and an 80-pound fluorocarbon shock leader with a big swimbait or live mullet.
Flats trout eat a soft plastic on an eighth- to quarter-ounce jighead worked through potholes, or a topwater walked at first light over grass. Redfish in skinny water want a weedless soft plastic or a gold spoon placed well ahead of the fish. Downsize your leader on the clear Laguna flats — 20-pound fluorocarbon is plenty and gets far more eats than 30.
Local Intel This Week
Ramps and access: the South Padre Island ramp near the convention center, the Port Isabel ramp, the Arroyo City ramps on the Arroyo Colorado, and the Adolph Thomae Jr. County Park ramp. Shore anglers can fish the Brazos Santiago jetties, the Isla Blanca Park shoreline and the free beach access points north of the developed area.
Fish are concentrating at the jetties on moving green water and in the deeper guts of the flats as the shallows heat. Speckled trout limits in Texas were adjusted after the 2021 freeze and remain under review, and tarpon and snook carry their own state rules — check current Texas Parks and Wildlife regulations before keeping fish.
This Week’s Tip
On the Laguna flats, use the wind instead of fighting it. Set up a long drift with the wind at your back and pole or drift silently across the potholes rather than running to each one. The Lower Laguna is shallow enough that a big motor announces you from a quarter mile away, and the fish that spooked off the last flat are the ones you were about to cast to on this one.
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