Freeport Jetties, TX

Two days of S and SSE behind us has the pass carrying decent color, and the light W breeze Monday morning is only 4 kt - that does not blow this system out, it just lays it flat. The tide is the whole story: one uninterrupted fall from 1.99 ft at 3:08 AM to -0.18 ft at 7:07 PM, 2.17 ft of water leaving through the throat with no slack in the middle of it. Lures are completely workable at that wind speed and bait fishes the same current just as well, so EITHER stands - throw plastic early, hand it to croaker once the water heats up.

Start with a bone Super Spook Jr along the shallow bar edges while it is still gray out - flat water and 4 kt is walk-the-dog weather, so keep it slow with long pauses. Once the sun clears, go to a 1/8 oz jighead with a Down South Super Model in Chicken on a Chain or a Bass Assassin Sea Shad in Texas Roach and swim it right along the drop where the falling water dumps off the bar. If they pull deeper by mid-morning, a MirrOdine XL twitched on that same edge picks off the better fish.

Live croaker is the play in 88 degree water - hook one through the back on a 3/0 kahle with a small split shot and free-line it down the drop on the falling water. Live shrimp under a popping cork will take fish in the bay-side guts early. Fish all of it from the sand; do not wade out toward the channel on a fall this hard, that current will take you and it will not give you back.

The 48 hour SSE mean has been feeding Gulf water in, but at 5 kt it is a slow feed, so look for sandy green through the throat and down the beachfront. The bay side of the pass runs a shade dirtier, and that light W breeze at daybreak will hold it that way.

Reds will work the bar edges with the falling water, best on the back half of it through the afternoon. Flounder are starting to stage for the fall move - fish the drain mouths slow and right on the bottom.

Wind slides SW and light overnight then swings back SE at 9 kt by afternoon, and SE is the direction that builds green water in this pass. Ignore the morning: 1.87 ft at 3:45 AM down to only 1.48 ft at 9:30 AM is barely any movement at all. The day turns on the afternoon fall off the 11:59 AM high at 1.55 ft down to -0.06 ft at 8:09 PM, and that stretch is worth driving for. At 9 kt both methods work clean, so EITHER holds - just plan the evening, not the dawn.

Wait for the afternoon fall and drift a 1/4 oz jighead with a Lil John in Texas Roach or a Down South Super Model in plum/chartreuse along the windward edge of the bar - SE at 9 kt gives you a working drift without killing your feel. As the sun drops toward 7:34, put a MirrOlure She Dog over the shallow sand and work it loud. If slicks pop on the outgoing, cast well past them and bring it back through.

Live croaker free-lined on a 3/0 kahle down the drop-off is the mid-day answer at this water temperature - let it swim and hold on. Late in the afternoon, live shrimp under a popping cork drifted with the outgoing along the bay-side edge gets crushed. Watch that 28 percent storm chance and get off the water when it builds.

The steady S and SSE mean over the last two days keeps clean water working in, and the SE fill by afternoon adds to it. Gulf side and the throat carry the best color; the back coves and the bay shoreline stay tinted.

Reds will stack where the outgoing dumps over the bar late in the day. Flounder on the drain mouths through the last two hours of the fall.

SE wind all day on top of a 48 hour SSE mean is exactly the setup that puts salty green water in the pass - this is the cleanest water of the week. Morning tide is soft, 1.72 ft at 4:07 AM to 1.34 ft at 9:28 AM, but the fall off the 1:25 PM high at 1.59 ft down to 0.13 ft at 9:02 PM is a long steady pull with the minor from 6:15 to 7:15 PM sitting right in it. Wind never breaks 9 kt so lures are fully workable and bait is just as good on that current, so EITHER. The catch is a 51 percent storm chance through the middle of the day.

Clean water means natural and translucent - a 1/8 to 1/4 oz jighead with a Lil John in Texas Roach or a Bass Assassin Sea Shad in morning glory, swum slow along the deep edge as the tide pulls. Do not overwork it; in water this clear a steady straight swim beats a lot of hopping. At last light throw a bone She Dog over the shallow sand, and keep a MirrOdine XL tied on for the guts along the bar.

With the water at 87.8, a live croaker free-lined on the bottom right along the drop is hard to beat once the sun is high. After the sun drops, live shrimp under a rattling cork on the bay-side edge. Half the day carries a 51 percent storm chance - when it lights up, get off the sand and off the water.

Three days of S to SE at the buoy, capped by a full day of SE, is what green water is made of here. Expect the throat and the Gulf side to be the best water you will see all week, with the bay side a step behind and slightly stained.

Reds will hunt the sandbar edges on the afternoon fall and along the beachfront guts. Flounder are on the drains; a slow drag right on the bottom near a drain mouth on the last of the outgoing is your best shot.

Wind backs SW at 4 to 9 kt, which is the wrong direction for this pass - but at that speed it does not blow anything out, it just stalls the color the SE was building. Tide is a notch weaker than the front of the week: 1.55 ft at 4:21 AM, a soft 1.13 ft low at 9:36 AM, then only a 1.23 ft fall off the 2:48 PM high that does not really get moving until late. Lures stay workable in that breeze so EITHER stands, but this is a good evening rather than a great day, which is why I have it a notch under Monday through Wednesday.

New moon and a slower current says slow down your bait too - a 1/4 oz jighead with a Down South Super Model in Opening Night or plum/chartreuse, worked on the deep edge with long pauses as the afternoon water starts to pull. Once the sun gets low, a bone Super Spook Jr over the shallow sand will pull a big one out of the dark water. MirrOdine XL is the answer if they sit down in the guts.

Water is still near 88, so live croaker free-lined on a 3/0 kahle along the drop out-fishes everything else through the heat of the day. Come evening, live shrimp under a popping cork drifted with the outgoing along the bay-side edge. Finger mullet on a light fish-finder rig on the bottom if you want a shot at something bigger.

Wednesday's SE built decent water and the light SW Thursday is too weak to undo it, so the cut and the beachfront hold sandy green. Back toward the bay shoreline expect a softer, more stained color that will not clean up while the wind sits SW.

Reds work the outgoing over the bar late in the day and the beachfront guts at sunset. Flounder keep staging on the drains - slow, low and patient, they are getting thicker every week now.

SW at 9 to 13 kt all day is the direction working against you here, and at 13 kt it puts a chop and a light stain on the bay side. The tide is the weakest of the seven days - 1.42 ft at 4:32 AM to only 0.89 ft at 9:54 AM, then under a foot of fall off the 4:06 PM high at 1.65 ft. Baseline has lure and bait dead even at 79 and 78, and with 88 degree water, a SW breeze and soft current I lean bait - scent and a cork beat a plastic you cannot feel. Fishable, just not a day to build a week around.

Stained water and a 13 kt breeze means dark and loud - a 3/8 oz jighead to hold bottom in the current, with a Down South Super Model in Chicken on a Chain or a Sea Shad in plum/chartreuse dragged along the deep edge. Keep the rod tip low and downwind to cut the line sag. If the wind lays off at dark, a chrome/black She Dog over the shallow sand is your best swing at a good fish.

This is a bait day. Live shrimp under a popping cork, drifted along the windward bay-side edge - the chop and the cork noise work together and the scent carries where a lure disappears. Free-line a live croaker down the drop for the better trout, and put a live mullet on a fish-finder rig on the bottom while you wait.

The good SSE history is still holding the Gulf side together, but a full day of SW at up to 13 kt stirs sand along the bars and pushes stain out of the back. Expect streaky water - clean lanes next to dirty ones - with the bay side clearly the worse of the two.

Reds do not care about the stain - they will be on the bar edges and in the guts, and a cracked crab or mullet chunk on the bottom is money. Flounder on the drain mouths on the evening fall.

Straight S at 9 to 13 kt is the right direction with some actual push behind it, so the water color improves - clarity is the strong point of the day. The tide is not: 1.32 ft at 4:42 AM to a 0.68 ft low at 10:20 AM is a weak fall, and the real movement is the 1.01 ft rise into the 5:17 PM high. That incoming carries clean Gulf water into the throat and the major from 1:29 to 3:29 PM sits right on top of it. At 13 kt lures still work on a controlled drift and bait is easy, so EITHER - just fish the afternoon.

Drift the windward edge with a 3/8 oz jighead so you keep contact in 13 kt - Down South Super Model in Chicken on a Chain or a Lil John in Texas Roach where the incoming water is cleanest. Fish it into the current so the bait comes to them the way real bait does. If it lays down toward sunset at 7:30, a bone Super Spook Jr over the shallow sand is worth twenty minutes.

Live shrimp under a popping cork is made for this - the wind gives you a natural drift and the cork does the calling. Work it along the edge where the incoming water pushes through. For a bigger class of trout, free-line a live croaker down the drop, and keep a piggy perch on a cork as a backup when shrimp get picked apart.

A solid S push on top of the week's SSE history keeps clean water moving in, and the incoming tide all afternoon does the rest through the throat. The back lakes and the far bay shoreline stay stained - do not waste the day back there.

Incoming water and reds go together - work the bar edges and the beachfront guts through the afternoon push. Flounder will sit on the down-current side of any structure the incoming sweeps past.

Best color of the back half - a week of S and SSE plus S at 7 to 13 kt Sunday keeps clean water in the pass, and it is sunny with no real storm threat. But there is no strong falling tide in daylight: 1.27 ft at 4:51 AM down to 0.51 ft at 10:52 AM is a soft morning drift, and the day belongs to the 1.2 ft rise into the 6:24 PM high. The major from 2:14 to 4:14 PM lands square on the hardest of that incoming. Wind and clarity both support lures, and bait works the same water, so EITHER - just do not expect a dawn bite.

Fish the incoming with a 1/4 oz jighead and a Lil John in Texas Roach or a Sea Shad in morning glory - clean water, so keep colors natural and translucent and swim it steady on the edge where the green water pushes in. A MirrOdine XL twitched across the bar picks up the better fish holding in the cooler incoming. Save a bone Super Spook Jr for the last half hour before sunset at 7:28.

Live croaker free-lined on a 3/0 kahle where the incoming water sweeps the drop is the strongest play in 88 degree water. Live shrimp under a popping cork along the same edge for numbers. Fish from the sand only - a hard incoming through this pass moves more water than it looks like from the beach.

Sustained S wind and a long afternoon incoming pull clean Gulf water straight through the throat, so that is where the color is. The bay side behind you stays stained and warm, and with the water near 88 degrees the fish will follow the cooler incoming water in.

Reds ride the incoming right up onto the bars all afternoon - that is your best redfish window of the week. Flounder will be tucked behind the sandbar points where the current breaks.