The Lower Laguna Madre is running its high-summer split shift: trout and reds on the grass at dawn, then tarpon, snook, and jetty fish once the boat traffic pushes everything off the flats. The tarpon showing at the jetties are the real headline — some of them are big.
What’s Hitting
This week, tarpon from 40 pounds to triple-digit class are rolling around the Brazos Santiago jetties and the channel edges on the early tides. Speckled trout are steady over the grass in 2 to 4 feet — solid keepers with a few big ones — and redfish are working the edge of the Intracoastal spoils and the sand pockets. Snook, the Texas kind, are holding in the Brownsville Ship Channel and around the jetty rocks, and the surf has whiting, pompano-size palometa, and sharks after dark.
Where to Find Them
Tarpon: the end of the jetties on the incoming at first light, and rolling fish along the channel. Trout: the grass flats west of the island, drifting with the breeze. Snook: dock lights in the channel at night and the jetty rocks on moving water.
Tides & Conditions
The building full moon strengthens the tidal exchange through Brazos Santiago Pass — that’s the trigger for the jetty tarpon and snook. Mornings have been light-wind with the standard afternoon southeast breeze filling in; flats water is hot and gin-clear.
Tackle & Tactics
Jetty tarpon: 60- to 80-pound leader, a swimbait or soft plastic eel swum through the rollers, or a live mullet drifted on the tide. Trout: soft plastics on 1/8-ounce heads over the grass, topwaters at gray light. Snook: white paddletails worked along the shadow lines at night, 40-pound leader against the rocks.
Local Intel This Week
Jim’s Pier and the Adolph Thomae Jr. County Park ramps cover the bay; the Isla Blanca Park jetty gives shore anglers a legitimate shot at the tarpon and snook. Fish are concentrating around the pass and jetties on the tides, and on the grass at dawn. Texas snook rules are strict and specific — check current TPWD regulations and seasons before keeping any fish.
This Week’s Tip
Jetty tarpon here follow a rhythm — watch the rollers for a few minutes and time your cast so the bait swims into the pod as they cycle back up. Random casting puts fish down; a timed presentation gets an eat by the third cycle.