The lower Laguna Madre is in its hot-weather routine — a sharp dawn bite on the flats, then a move to the jetties or nearshore once the sun is high. Water on the flats is running near 90 in the afternoon and the fish have concentrated where there is current and depth. The new moon at the end of the week will push a hard tide through Brazos Santiago Pass, which is when the jetty fishing peaks.
What’s Hitting
Kingfish and tarpon are the standout fisheries at the jetties and just outside the pass. Speckled trout are on the flats and along the spoil banks at first light, moving to the deeper guts as the day heats. Redfish are working the spoils and the shoreline edges, with tailing fish showing on the calmest mornings. Snook are around the jetty rocks and the deeper channel edges, and mangrove snapper are stacked on every piece of jetty granite. Offshore, snapper and ling are on the nearshore structure.
Where to Find Them
The Brazos Santiago jetties are the center of the week’s fishing for kings, tarpon, snook and snapper on the moving tide. The flats along the Intracoastal spoil banks north of the causeway hold trout and reds at dawn. The deeper guts and the Land Cut area produce trout once the sun is up. Nearshore, the structure and wells in 40 to 80 feet are the snapper and ling water.
Tides & Conditions
Flats water is 88 to 91 degrees; nearshore is mid-80s. New-moon tides mean a strong exchange through the pass, which stacks bait against the jetty rocks and turns on the kingfish and tarpon. Mornings have been light with a southeast sea breeze filling in hard by mid-morning, which makes the flats difficult to fish after about ten. Water clarity on the flats is good in the early light.
Tackle & Tactics
Kingfish at the jetties come on slow-trolled or free-lined live mullet and menhaden with a light wire stinger. Tarpon want a large swimbait or a live mullet on 60- to 80-pound fluorocarbon fished in the rip. Trout on the flats are eating soft plastics on a light jighead and topwaters at first light, with live shrimp under a cork as the backup. Redfish take gold spoons and cut bait along the spoils. Jetty snapper need only a live shrimp on 20-pound leader.
Local Intel This Week
The Port Isabel ramp and the South Padre Island convention center launch are the practical public access points, and the jetties themselves are walkable from Isla Blanca Park. Fish are concentrating at the jetties and the deeper guts rather than spread across the open flats. Tarpon are catch-and-release under Texas rules absent a specific tag, and trout, redfish and snapper all carry size and bag limits — check current Texas Parks and Wildlife and federal Gulf regulations before keeping any fish.
This Week’s Tip
Get off the flats by ten. The sea breeze here is reliable and it turns a fishable flat into a mud line in about twenty minutes. Plan the day so that the wind arrives while you are already tied up at the jetty rocks, where it barely matters.
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