San Luis Pass, TX

Two days of light SSW at 3 to 5 kt has left the pass sandy green with nothing stirred up. Tide is the reason for the grade: after the 12:15 PM high the water falls 1.32 ft straight through to 8:41 PM at 0.12 ft, the longest uninterrupted fall of the week, and wind never breaks 9 kt so lure control is easy. The brief W and N in the mid-morning hourly is only 4 kt, which is meaningless at that speed. Clean enough to see a plastic and calm enough to feel one, so it grades EITHER - though with water at 89 F, live croaker will beat artificials badly once the sun is high.

Open the fall with a Super Spook Jr in bone or chrome/black on the down-current lip of the bars, walked fast. When that quits, go to a Down South Super Model or Bass Assassin Sea Shad on a 1/4 oz jighead in Chicken on a Chain or Texas Roach and swim it with the current across the drop, never against it. Short strikes mean drop to 1/8 oz and a Lil John in Opening Night. Keep the plastic in moving water on the edge of the sandy green, natural colours while the light is high.

Live croaker on a 3/0 kahle and a 1/2 oz fish-finder rig, pitched to the up-current side of the outer bar and left to tumble down the drop - at 89 F that beats everything else out there. Live shrimp under a popping cork covers the shell on the bay side through the evening. Free-line a finger mullet along the surf-side gut if you want one big fish.

The 48-hour SSW mean of 3.0 kt has neither cleaned the pass nor ruined it. Expect sandy green over the Gulf-side bars and a stain that thickens the further back toward the bay shoreline you work.

Reds will string out along the surf-side bars on that long fall - cut mullet on the bottom or a gold spoon worked fast. Flounder show on the drains as the water drops toward the 8:41 PM low; drag a 1/4 oz jighead slow along the sand at the mouth of each drain.

The water is fine - E to SE at 4 to 9 kt on top of a southerly week keeps it sandy green - and the tide is workable, with a 1.15 ft fall off the 1:50 PM high down to 9:36 PM. What knocks it off the top is 57 percent thunderstorms from 8 AM through 6 PM sitting square on the best moving water. Lures are perfectly workable in this little wind, which is why the call stays EITHER, but a wader out on those bars with lightning overhead has no business being there. Go, watch the radar, and be willing to walk off.

Storm light and a stain favour something they can find. MirrOlure She Dog in chrome/black over the bar tops early in the fall, then a Bass Assassin Sea Shad on 1/4 oz in plum/chartreuse or morning glory, slow-rolled just off the bottom on the down-current edge of the reef. If rain flattens the surface, a MirrOdine XL twitched over 3 to 4 ft of water is the better tool.

Live croaker on a fish-finder rig down the channel-side slope of the outer bar, and live shrimp under a rattling cork worked with the falling water along the bay-side shell. Scent and rattle carry through storm-stained water where a plastic simply disappears. Fish out of a bucket rather than a wade bag - you may need to move quick.

Light southerly followed by easterly at 4 to 9 kt holds clarity about where it was rather than improving it. The Gulf side of the pass stays sandy green while storm runoff will stain the bay side further.

Reds feed hard ahead of a storm line; free-lined mullet or a dark 1/4 oz spinnerbait along the shoreline points. Flounder come alive on the drains late in the fall, after 7 PM.

Straight south wind all day at 4 to 9 kt, exactly the direction that builds green water in this pass, and it follows three days of the same quarter. Clarity is as good as it has been all week to this point. Tide is the weak spot: only 0.27 ft of fall from the 5:11 AM high to the 10:15 AM low, but it is moving at first light with a minor at moonrise from 5:59 to 6:59 AM landing right on the 7:03 AM sunrise, and that overlap is worth more than raw range. Light wind on clean water means lures grade as high as bait, so EITHER, with the croaker edge after about 9 AM.

Clean water and low light is topwater work - Super Spook Jr in bone walked over the shallow bar tops right at 7 AM, and quit on it once the sun gets up. Then a Down South Super Model on a 1/8 oz head in Texas Roach, or a Lil John in Opening Night, fished slow along the second drop. Keep colours natural and translucent; this is the clearest water so far and a loud plastic will push them off. Run a 20 lb fluorocarbon leader.

Live shrimp free-lined or under a cork on the up-current side of the bar at daylight, then live croaker on a 1/4 to 1/2 oz slip-sinker rig on the deeper edge once the heat sets in - 89 F water sends those trout deep and sulky by mid-morning. Piggy perch fish the same way. Put the bait where the current sweeps the drop, not out on the flat.

Three days of S and SSW wind, light but from the right quarter, has the throat running sandy to salty green. The bay side behind the pass is a shade off it and holds a light stain.

Good redfish morning - live mullet under a cork along the surf-side troughs, or a gold spoon on the points. Flounder are thin on a fall this small; save them for the bigger drops later in the week.

Wind swings SW at 9 kt through the dawn hours, the wrong side of the compass for this pass, though at 9 kt it only softens the colour rather than turning it to chocolate. Tide gives a 0.40 ft fall from the 5:09 AM high to the 10:42 AM low - decent, but tapering as the new-moon range shrinks. Plastics still work fine at that speed along the windward edges so EITHER holds, and wind builds to 13 kt after dark. Fish the morning and be off the bars by lunch.

Drift the windward edge with a Bass Assassin Sea Shad or Down South Super Model on a 1/4 oz jighead in Chicken on a Chain or plum/chartreuse, and keep a tight line into the breeze. Give the calm pockets behind the bar one pass with a Super Spook Jr in bone at first light, then go subsurface. If they hold on the 4 ft edge and will not come up, a MirrOdine XL is the answer.

Live croaker on a fish-finder rig against the outer bar is the highest-percentage play in 89 F water. Live shrimp under a popping cork drifted with the SW breeze along the shell makes a good windy drift. Free-line a mullet in the surf gut while the swell stays at 2 ft.

Overnight SW at 9 kt drags bay water toward the pass and dulls the bay-side edge, while the Gulf side of the throat holds sandy green. Look for a visible colour change line on the falling water and fish the clean side of it.

Redfish work the shoreline points on the morning fall - gold spoon or live mullet. A few flounder on the drains near the bottom of the tide around 10:42 AM.

Steady S at 9 to 13 kt keeps clean water pressed in, so the colour is right, but 13 kt through the dawn hours with a SW lean at 6 AM means chop and line sag out on the bars. Tide is a slow 0.56 ft fall to the 11:13 AM low and then a long lazy rise, no punch in it. This is a soft-plastic drift day rather than a topwater day, and lures and bait grade dead even - work the windward edges and stay well off the channel side in that current.

Drift and cast downwind with a Down South Super Model on a 3/8 oz jighead - you need that weight to hold contact in 13 kt - in Chicken on a Chain or Texas Roach. Work the slicks and the streaky water on the windward side of the bar. A MirrOlure She Dog will still draw in low light before 8 AM if the surface lays down between gusts. Keep casts short and stay tight to the lure.

This is a cork day. Live shrimp under a popping cork on an 18 to 24 inch leader, drifted along the windward shell and bar edges - the wind does the work and the pop carries. Live croaker on a 1/2 oz slip rig for the better fish on the deeper drop. Do not set up a wade angling toward the channel in this current.

Four days of S and SSE at moderate speed has the Gulf side genuinely green. The chop off 13 kt will sand up the shallow bay-side flats and knock a foot of visibility off inside the pass.

Redfish are the sane target in wind - live mullet or piggy perch under a cork along the bay shoreline. Flounder poor on a fall this weak.

S turning SE at 9 to 13 kt, the best clarity direction there is, and it has been at it four days running. Tide improves on Saturday: 0.73 ft of uninterrupted fall from the 5:04 AM high to the 11:49 AM low, then a long rise into the evening. Wind is workable for plastics at 9 to 13 kt but too much for consistent topwater, and 33 percent storms hang over the middle of the day. Solid morning trip, not a standout.

Sea Shad or Down South Super Model on a 1/4 oz head in Texas Roach or morning glory, fished across the fall on the second drop - in green water like this keep it natural. Early, before the SE freshens, a Super Spook Jr in bone over the bar tops is worth twenty minutes. Later, a Lil John on 1/8 oz slowed right down over the shallow shell will pick up the fish that will not chase.

Live croaker on a fish-finder rig on the down-current edge of the outer bar, and live shrimp under a popping cork worked with the falling water along the shell. Above 85 F water the croaker out-fishes anything artificial from about 9 AM on. Free-lined mullet along the surf side for reds and the odd heavy trout.

Sustained SE at 9 to 13 kt is exactly what pulls Gulf water through the pass, so the throat and the surf-side bars run salty green. Only the back drains and the far bay shoreline hold real colour.

Reds should be good on that long morning fall - gold spoon, or live mullet under a cork at the shoreline points. Flounder on the drains as the tide bottoms near 11:49 AM.

Best water of the stretch. A full week of unbroken S and SE, finishing SSE at 6 to 13 kt with no north component anywhere in it, has Gulf water in the throat, and the wind is soft through the morning at 6 to 7 kt. Tide runs one clean 0.88 ft fall from the 5:03 AM high all the way to the 12:26 PM low, so the water is moving at first light and never quits, with a minor from 10:00 to 11:00 AM sitting in the middle of it. Clean and calm means lures score with bait, hence EITHER, but 89 F water still tilts mid-morning to croaker.

Topwater first - Super Spook Jr in bone or a MirrOlure She Dog in chrome/black across the bar tops from 6:45 AM, walked steady with the current. Once the sun is up, a Down South Super Model on a 1/8 to 1/4 oz jighead in Texas Roach or Opening Night, cast up-current and swum back over the drop. Translucent colours in water this clean. A MirrOdine XL covers the 4 ft edge through the 10 AM minor.

Free-line a live shrimp on the up-current side of the bar at daylight, no weight, and let the fall carry it over the drop. From mid-morning switch to live croaker on a 1/4 to 1/2 oz fish-finder rig down the deeper slope where the trout sulk in 89 F water. Piggy perch under a cork on the bay-side shell is the backup.

Seven days of S to SE wind is the pattern that turns this pass green, and it shows here - cleanest water of the week in the throat and along the surf-side bars, with the bay side only a shade behind it.

Redfish along the surf-side troughs for the whole fall - live mullet or cut bait on the bottom. Flounder pick up on the drains as the tide bottoms near 12:26 PM.