Texas City Dike, TX

Two days of SSW at 3 to 5 kt did not build green water, but with no north or west component in the record it did not ruin it either. The tide is why this rates out: one uninterrupted fall from the 1:34 PM high at 1.4 ft all the way down to 0.15 ft at 11:11 PM, the single strongest move on the whole board. Wind under 5 kt all day means topwater and light jigheads are completely workable, so it is EITHER on method - lures own the last three hours of light, live croaker owns the middle of the day when 91-degree water shoves trout into the deep guts.

Fish the fall. Walk a bone Super Spook Jr over the outside bars starting around 5:30, and switch to chrome/black once the sun is off the water. When they blow up short, follow with a 1/8 oz jighead and a Down South Super Model in Chicken on a Chain worked with the current, not against it. Sandy green calls for natural and translucent - Texas Roach or plum/chartreuse on a Lil John is the backup. Midday there is no artificial worth throwing but a 3/8 oz head bumped slow down the drop.

Live croaker on a 3/0 kahle, free-lined with one small split shot, drifted along the deep edge of the first bar. At 91 degrees croaker will outfish any plastic between 10 AM and 4 PM and it is not close. Live shrimp under a popping cork on the bay-side flats early and late. Stay on the bar, do not wade toward the channel on that evening fall - the current gets serious in a hurry.

Light SSW at 3 to 5 kt for two days has kept the water settled without flushing it, so expect sandy green with a couple feet of visibility on the Gulf side. The bay side behind the bars will run a shade dirtier and warmer.

Reds will be nosing the guts on the last of the fall - a gold spoon or a mullet chunk on a fish-finder rig at the mouth of a drain. Flounder are stacking on the down-current side of the sandbars, so a 1/4 oz jighead crawled slow will pick up a couple.

Wind history is unchanged - light SSW to SE, nothing to dirty the water, so clarity is actually the best of the early week. Tide is a step weaker than Tuesday: high 2:50 PM at 1.32 ft falling to 0.31 ft at 11:51 PM, still a long single fall but with less range in it. The real problem is the sky, with storms likely at 62 to 67 percent from 8 AM through 7 PM. Lures are workable when the water is clean and the wind is nothing, so it stays EITHER - just be ready to lose hours to lightning.

Wait out the cells and fish the back end of the fall with the moonset minor at 6:14 PM. Clean water and dead-calm surface says finesse: a MirrOdine XL in a natural bone or olive pattern twitched over the bar edge, or a Bass Assassin Sea Shad on a 1/8 oz head in morning glory. If the surface is glass at dusk, a She Dog worked slow with long pauses over the second bar will draw the biggest fish of the day. Stay translucent - do not go dark in water this clean.

Live shrimp under a rattling popping cork set 24 to 30 inches, drifted along the bar edges on the outgoing. Croaker on a light Carolina rig for the deeper trout while the water is 90-plus. Get off the water when you hear thunder - this pass is no place to be caught out.

Days of light southerly with no wind event has the pass sitting salty green on the Gulf side. Watch for storm runoff dirtying up the bay-side drains through the afternoon.

Slot reds will work the bay-side shorelines hard right after a rain cell drops the temperature. Flounder bite picks up on the last two hours of the fall along the sand-to-mud transitions.

Clarity is fine and the wind is nothing - light S at 4 kt - but the tide is the weakest of the week by a mile. The 8:04 AM high at 1.0 ft only drops to 0.96 ft by 10:59 AM, which is not a fall, it is the water breathing. The one usable move is the rise into the 4:23 PM high at 1.22 ft and the fall that follows it. Lures are physically workable in calm clean water, so it stays EITHER, but with no current to position fish, bait scent is doing more of the work than a jig will.

Do not waste the middle of the day chasing dead water. Get on the outside bar for the fall off the 4:23 PM high with the moonset minor at 6:46 PM. Bone Spook Jr on top, and a Down South Super Model in Opening Night on a 1/8 oz head as the light goes. With current this weak, slow everything down and let the tail do the work on the drop - a 1/4 oz head fished on a long, lazy lift-and-fall will get bit when a fast retrieve will not.

This is the day live bait earns its money. Free-lined live croaker on a 2/0 to 3/0 kahle, tossed up-current and allowed to swim down the bar edge. If you want a cork, live shrimp under a popping cork on the bay-side guts on the afternoon rise. Do not cross a gut to reach the outside bar - there is not enough tide to read the water and it will fool you.

Still no wind event to stir anything, so the Gulf side holds salty green. With almost no tidal exchange midday the bay side goes slack and stained, and it will stay that way until the afternoon rise.

Reds are the better target on a slack day - work a live mullet on the bottom near the pilings and the deeper drains. Flounder are worth a shot on the afternoon rise where the sand drops into the channel edge.

The forecast shows SW through the morning, but at 4 to 9 kt that is not the blowout direction, that is a breeze - it takes 18-plus out of the SW to turn this system to chocolate milk. Tide gives you four moves, and the one that counts is the 7:23 AM high at 0.96 ft turning over right at sunrise with the moonrise minor from 7:00 to 8:00 AM sitting on top of it. Wind stays under 10 kt so lure control is never in question, keeping it EITHER, though 91-degree water will shut the artificial bite down hard by mid-morning.

First light is the whole day. Start with a bone Super Spook Jr walked over the shallow bar tops while it is still gray, then move to a Bass Assassin Sea Shad or Down South in Chicken on a Chain on a 1/8 oz jighead once the sun clears the horizon. With the SW taking the edge off the clarity, lean slightly louder - a chartreuse tail or plum/chartreuse gets seen. By 9:30 go to 3/8 oz and hunt the deeper guts or go home.

Live croaker free-lined at the drop-off on the top of that 7:23 AM tide, and again on the afternoon rise into the 6:19 PM high. Live shrimp under a popping cork works the bay-side shoreline all morning. Croaker is the clear play once the sun is up and the water hits 90-plus.

Light SW for the morning hours will nudge dirtier bay water toward the pass, but at 4 to 9 kt it only takes the polish off. Expect sandy green outside and a distinctly murkier line on the bay side of the bars.

Reds should be pushing the bar tops on that early high water - a live finger mullet on a light Carolina rig or a weedless gold spoon. Flounder set up on the afternoon rise where the sand tapers into the deeper cuts.

Wind is straight S at 4 to 9 kt, the friendly direction, and there has still been nothing in the record with enough speed to dirty the pass. Tide is moderate: high 6:52 AM at 0.99 ft falling steadily to 0.66 ft at 12:58 PM, which puts moving water under you right at sunrise - that is worth extra. Nine knots is prime soft-plastic drifting along the windward edges, so lures stay in play, EITHER on the call, but the artificial window closes fast when the water sits at 91 degrees.

Be standing on the bar at 6:45 with a topwater tied on - bone Spook Jr or a She Dog worked over the bar tops on the first of the fall. When it gets bright, drift the windward edge with a Down South Super Model on a 1/8 oz head, Texas Roach or morning glory for clean water. Let the S wind push your drift and keep the line tight through the swing; that fall is slow, so the bite is subtle. Bump up to 1/4 oz if you cannot feel bottom.

Live shrimp under a popping cork worked along the bar edge on that morning fall - the S wind drift makes the cork do the work for you. Once the sun is high, switch to live croaker on a 3/0 kahle down the drop-off for the bigger sulky trout. Fish the bar tops, not the channel side.

Straight S at single digits keeps Gulf water leaning in without churning it, so the throat should show salty green with decent visibility. The bay side is a touch off-color but nothing that hurts a lure.

Reds will be on the outside of the bars chasing bait on the falling water - a live mullet under a cork or a chunk on the bottom. Flounder show up on the bottom of the tide near the 12:58 PM low along the sandy edges.

SE finally fills in at 9 to 10 kt in the afternoon and that is the direction that pushes clean Gulf water into the pass - it will not have worked its magic in one day, but it starts. Tide is the best of the weekend: high 6:29 AM at 1.07 ft falling uninterrupted to 0.55 ft at 2:04 PM, seven and a half hours of one-way current starting at daylight. Ten knots is ideal soft-plastic weather along the windward edges, so lures are entirely workable and it stays EITHER, with bait taking the middle of the day on 91-degree water.

This is the morning to grind a long fall. Bone or chrome/black Super Spook Jr over the bar tops from daylight to about 8, then a Down South Super Model or Lil John on a 1/8 oz head in Chicken on a Chain drifted with the SE breeze down the windward edge. The moonrise minor from 9:00 to 10:00 AM lines up with the middle of that fall - stay put and work it. Go 1/4 to 3/8 oz once the current gets moving hard in the throat.

Live shrimp under a popping cork worked down the bar edge with the falling water, and live croaker free-lined on a 3/0 kahle along the drop once the sun is high. Long fall means real current - anchor the drift, keep your feet on the bar and do not follow that water toward the channel.

Two days of light southerly with an SE lean has the Gulf side sitting salty green. The bay side stays a step behind and will not clean up until this SE has run a full day or two.

Reds will hold at the mouths of the drains as the water pulls out of the back marsh - live mullet or a gold spoon. Flounder pile up on the same drain mouths on the last two hours of the fall.

SE at 6 to 10 kt all day, the water-building direction, but it puts more stir in the surf line so clarity is a shade behind the weekend. Tide is the strongest of the back half by a good margin: high 6:27 AM at 1.16 ft draining all the way to 0.46 ft at 3:04 PM, an eight and a half hour one-way fall that starts at sunrise. Ten knots of SE is good drifting wind, not a problem, so lures stay fully workable and it holds at EITHER - just expect the artificial bite to fade as the water warms toward 90 again.

Best falling tide of the week - fish it. Topwater at daylight, bone Spook Jr or a chrome/black She Dog over the bar tops, then swing to a Down South Super Model on a 1/8 to 1/4 oz head as the sun gets up. With sand in the water lean a touch louder: Opening Night or plum/chartreuse over anything translucent. The moonrise minor at 9:59 AM lands in the meat of the fall, so plan to still be on the bar at 10. Go 3/8 oz where the current rips through the throat.

Live croaker on a 3/0 kahle, free-lined and swum down the deep edge of the bar - with eight hours of outgoing pull, one small split shot is usually enough. Live shrimp under a popping cork works the bay-side edges early before the SE stands the chop up. That is a hard, long fall through the throat; fish the bar tops only and get out well before the water starts running you.

Sustained SE at 8 to 10 kt is the direction that eventually builds green water here, but on day one it kicks sand into the surf line, so expect sandy green outside. The bay side behind the bars will actually be the calmer, more readable water early.

Reds will be stacked where the outgoing dumps over the bar - live mullet on a fish-finder rig or a gold spoon in the wash. Flounder should be excellent on the last of that fall along the sandy drop-offs.