San Luis Pass, TX

Two days of SE at 138 deg and 6.1 kt has been feeding clean water in slowly, so you get sandy green rather than true Gulf clarity - good enough to throw lures with confidence. The tide is the real reason for this rating: 1.71 ft at 3:08 AM bleeding to -0.07 ft at 5:21 PM is a fourteen-hour uninterrupted fall, and the 7:19-9:19 AM major lands square on sunrise with water already ripping. Wind never tops 9 kt and the brief NW puff around 8 AM is far too light to dirty anything, so lure control is easy. Bait and artificials score within two points of each other, hence the EITHER call.

Start with a Super Spook Jr in bone right at grey light along the sandbar edges - flat water and a moving tide is textbook walking-bait territory. Once the sun is up, drop to a 1/8 oz jighead with a Down South Super Model in Chicken on a Chain and swim it across the drop, letting the current carry it. By 10 AM with 88 degree water, switch to a 1/4 oz head and a MirrOdine XL worked slow along the deeper lip. Natural and translucent all day - the water is clean enough that loud colors will spook them.

Live croaker free-lined on a 3/0 kahle with just a split shot, drifted along the drop-off, is the play once the sun gets high in this 88 degree water. Early, a live shrimp under a popping cork worked over the shell and sand transition on the bay side will draw them up. Keep the cork rig on the shallow side of the guts.

Forty-eight hours of light SE has pushed a green wedge up through the pass, but at only 6 kt it has not reached far back into the bay. Fish the Gulf side and the throat for the cleanest water; the back sloughs will still be off-color.

Reds will be working the guts and the surf-side sand on the first half of that long fall - a gold spoon or a live finger mullet on a fish-finder rig covers both. Flounder are starting to stage for the fall run, so probe the sandy pockets on the down-current side of the bars.

Same SE-built water as Saturday and the same shape of tide - 1.72 ft at 3:57 AM down to -0.06 ft at 6:33 PM is another long, clean fall with no slack in the middle. Wind stays 4-9 kt so lures are entirely workable and the 8:21-10:21 AM major overlaps the strongest part of the drop. What knocks it off perfect is weather: 55 percent thunderstorm coverage from 8 AM through mid-afternoon, and lightning at the pass is not something you ride out. Lure and bait scores sit a couple points apart, so it stays EITHER - fish early, watch the radar, and be off the water when it builds.

Get a MirrOlure She Dog moving over the bars before sunrise while it is still calm - the slower rhythm suits a tide that has been dropping since 4 AM. When the light comes up, go to a Bass Assassin Sea Shad in Opening Night on a 1/8 oz head and drift the windward edge. If cloud cover from the building storms holds, stay shallow longer than you normally would; if it burns off, step up to 1/4 oz and work the second drop. Keep colors on the natural side until the rain stains things.

Live shrimp under a rattling popping cork is the right call with storms on the way - the noise carries in rain-stained water. Free-lined croaker on a 3/0 kahle along the deeper edge takes over by mid-morning as the water heats past 88. Set up where you can reach the truck fast.

Another 24 hours of SE at under 5 kt has held the green water in place without adding much to it. Expect a defined color line where the Gulf push meets the bay outflow, with the bay side noticeably dirtier after any rain runs off.

Redfish push into the guts on the middle of the fall and will eat a live mullet on a fish-finder rig sitting in the wash. Flounder hold on the sand lips where the current sweeps around the bars - a slow-dragged bait or a shrimp on a light jighead gets them.

The SE feed backs off and the morning goes SW then W at 4-5 kt, which is the wrong direction for this system - though at that speed it is a nuisance, not a blowout, and clarity only slips a little. The tide is still strong, 1.68 ft at 4:36 AM falling all day to 0.01 ft at 7:40 PM, so you have moving water whenever you show up. The knock is the solunar: the major does not start until 9:21 AM, well after the low-light hour, and there is nothing overlapping sunrise. Lures work fine in this wind, bait scores just behind, so EITHER stands.

Fish the first hour with a Super Spook Jr in chrome and black, then transition into the major with a Lil John on a 1/4 oz jighead in plum and chartreuse - the slightly dingier water wants a little more contrast. Work the down-current side of the bars and let the jig tick bottom on the swing. If the W wind puts a ripple on the surface, a Down South Super Model in Texas Roach swum just under the chop keeps the profile visible.

A live croaker free-lined on a 3/0 kahle down the edge of the drop is the highest-percentage bait once the sun is up and the water pushes 88. Piggy perch under a popping cork work well on the bay side where the water is off-color and the fish need the noise to find it.

Two days of SE built the green, but the overnight swing to W and SW starts dragging bay water back toward the pass. Cleanest water will be right in the throat and on the Gulf side; anything up toward the back will be a shade off.

Reds patrol the sand guts on the long fall - live mullet on a fish-finder rig anchored in the current is the simplest way to intercept one. Flounder start showing on the sandy edges in early September; a slow drag along the bar lips picks them off.

SE fills back in at 4-9 kt and the water cleans up a full grade - this is the direction that builds green here, and by Tuesday it has had enough hours to matter. Ignore the mid-morning tide, it barely moves between the 9:45 AM low at 1.39 and the 12:15 PM high at 1.44; the money is the 12:15 PM to 8:41 PM fall down to 0.12 ft, an eight-hour drain with the 5:39-6:39 PM minor and sunset stacked on the back of it. Wind stays under 10 kt so lures are fully controllable, and with lure and bait a few points apart it is an EITHER day - just do it in the evening, not at noon.

Evening is the trip. Start on a 1/4 oz jighead with a Down South Super Model in morning glory worked down the drop while the fall is at its hardest, then move up shallow as the light drops and put a Super Spook Jr in bone over the bar tops for the last hour to sunset at 7:34. A MirrOdine XL twitched along the edge covers the in-between water. Water is 88 degrees, so do not waste your morning - the fish will be deep and uninterested until that afternoon fall gets going.

Free-lined live croaker on a 3/0 kahle along the deep edge is hard to beat in water this warm, and the falling tide will keep it swimming naturally. As the sun drops, switch to live shrimp under a popping cork over the shallow bar tops where the trout move up to feed.

A renewed SE push after a soft W spell has the Gulf water moving back in and the color line pushing further into the pass. Gulf side and throat will be genuinely green; the shallow bay flats hold a light stain that fades as the tide falls out.

Redfish stack in the guts as that eight-hour fall drains the flats - live mullet on a fish-finder rig or a gold spoon along the drain edges. Flounder will be sitting right where the current dumps off the sand, so work a bait slow through those cuts. Stay well clear of the channel side.

This is the cleanest water of the week - the SE flow at 4-9 kt has had days to work and the clarity score is the highest on the board, which is exactly when a lure beats bait by a wide margin. Tide is a step softer than earlier in the week but the 1:50 PM high at 1.44 ft draining to 0.29 ft at 9:36 PM is a real seven-and-a-half-hour fall with the 6:14-7:14 PM minor and sunset sitting on it. Morning is a write-off: 60 percent thunderstorm coverage until early afternoon and almost no tide movement between the 9:55 AM low at 1.25 and that afternoon high. Fish the evening, throw plastic.

Clean water means natural and subtle. Run a Lil John in Texas Roach on a 1/8 oz head on a long cast and swim it slow across the drop - do not overwork it, the fish can see the bait from a long way off in this water. Step to 1/4 oz if the SE breeze puts any bow in the line. Last light, a Super Spook Jr in bone over the bar tops on the falling water is the best shot at a heavy fish all week. Skip chartreuse entirely today.

If you bring bait, a live shrimp under a popping cork worked over the sand and shell edges as the tide drains is plenty. Free-lined croaker still produces on the deeper lip, but in water this clean the artificials are doing the better work today.

Sustained SE has finally pushed clean Gulf water the whole way through - the color line is gone and even the bay side should be a workable green. This is as good as the water gets on the light-wind pattern we are in.

Reds will be visible in the clear water on the shallow sand - a live mullet on a light fish-finder rig or a spoon pitched ahead of a cruiser. Flounder are on the down-current sand pockets; the clean water makes sight-fishing the lips realistic in the last hour of light.

New moon and clean green water off a steady S to SE flow at 4-9 kt, so clarity and wind are both in your favor and the lures stay easy to control. The problem is the tide has gone flat: the morning drop from 1.35 ft at 5:11 AM to 1.08 ft at 10:15 AM is barely a quarter foot, and the useful movement is the 3:17 PM high draining to 0.51 ft at 10:30 PM. That leaves one good window instead of a full day of options. Clean water plus a soft tide is when a well-worked plastic outfishes a bait sitting still, so it is a LURE EDGE day.

Wait for the afternoon fall to get moving. A Bass Assassin Sea Shad on a 1/8 oz jighead swum slowly across the drop is the workhorse - keep it light so it stays in the strike zone longer in the weak current. As the sun gets to the trees, put a MirrOlure She Dog over the bar tops and walk it lazy; new moon evenings and calm clean water are made for that. Natural colors, nothing loud.

Live shrimp under a popping cork drifted across the sand and shell edges on the afternoon drain is the easy version of the same pattern. Free-lined croaker on a 3/0 kahle down the deeper lip covers the mid-afternoon heat before the tide turns useful.

Days of unbroken S and SE at single-digit speeds have held the green water in the pass with no wind event to undo it. Only the back sloughs carry any color, and even that is faint.

New moon and a draining tide pulls redfish into the guts hard at dusk - live mullet on a fish-finder rig parked in the flow. Flounder are on the sand lips where the current bends around the bars; drag slow and give them time to turn the bait.

Water quality is still good - SE and S at single digits all week has kept a salty green in the pass and the SW at 3-12 kt is not enough to undo it - but the tide is the weakest of the seven days by a clear margin. From 1.28 ft at 5:09 AM to 0.88 ft at 10:42 AM is almost nothing, and even the afternoon rise to 1.46 ft at 4:37 PM is a slow build. You get one workable stretch, the evening fall off that 4:37 PM high, and outside it the water sits dead. Lures and bait are close enough to call it EITHER; pick whichever you fish better and go late.

Weak current means weight down, not up - a 3/8 oz jighead lets you hold the deeper edge and feel bottom when the water is barely moving, paired with a Down South Super Model in Chicken on a Chain. Work it slow with long pauses. When the light drops toward the 7:30 sunset and the tide finally starts pulling off that 4:37 PM high, move shallow with a Super Spook Jr in bone. With 90 degree air and lukewarm water, do not bother before mid-afternoon.

This is the day live croaker earns its keep - free-line one on a 3/0 kahle along the deep edge and let it swim, because scent does the work a lure cannot in slack water. Live shrimp under a popping cork over the shallow sand takes over in the last hour of light.

The overnight SW shift stirs the bay side a shade but the sustained SE base is strong enough that the pass itself holds salty green. Look for the cleanest water tight to the Gulf side and the throat.

Redfish will be the more reliable target on a weak tide - live mullet on a fish-finder rig in any gut still carrying current. Flounder hold in the sand pockets behind the bars; a shrimp fished slow on a light jighead is the best bet for one.