Texas City Dike, TX

Two days of SSE at 7.3 kt has pushed clean water into the pass and today's forecast wind never gets past 4 kt, so lure control is perfect. The tide is the best of the week: 1.5 ft high at 8:30 AM draining to 0.01 ft at 8:33 PM, one long uninterrupted fall with no slack in the middle of it. The major from 7:18 to 9:18 AM lands on sunrise and the tide turn together. Baseline calls it EITHER and that is right - the water is clean enough for plastics but 85.8 F means bait keeps producing after the sun gets up.

Slick calm and low light, so start on top but go small - bone Super Spook Jr or a chrome/black She Dog walked slow over the bar on the last of the incoming. Once the sun is up and the fall gets going, drop to a 1/8 oz jighead and a Down South Super Model in Chicken on a Chain or a Bass Assassin Sea Shad in Opening Night, working the sandy green edge where the current dumps off the bar. Natural and translucent - the water is clean enough that you do not need a loud colour.

Live shrimp under a popping cork drifted along the outside of the sandbar on the falling water, hooked through the horn on a 1/0 kahle. Once it warms past mid-morning, switch to a free-lined live croaker on 3/0 with just enough weight to bump bottom and set it on the up-current side of the drop. Fish from the sand - do not wade out toward the channel on this fall.

Sustained SE flow at 5 to 8 kt has fed Gulf water in without churning the bottom, so the throat and the beachfront guts run sandy green. Back in the bay behind the sandbar it is still a shade off with the light N drift early.

Redfish will be working the beachfront guts on the drop with a gold spoon or a 1/4 oz jig on bottom. Flounder are starting to stage on the drains behind the bar - a mud minnow or finger mullet on a light Carolina rig dragged slow will find them.

Same green water carried over from the SE fetch, and the light NW breath early is 5 kt - that does not blow this system out, it just puts a little chop line on the bay side. Tide is another full-day fall, 1.48 ft at 9:43 AM down to flat 0.0 ft at 9:36 PM, so current runs hard through the afternoon. Major 8:20 to 10:20 AM stacks on the high tide turn. EITHER stands - lures are entirely workable in 4 kt, but with 53 percent storm coverage and hot water, bait is the easier day.

Topwater window is short with the later high - a bone Spook Jr right at grey light, then get under them. Lil John in plum/chartreuse or a Sea Shad in Texas Roach on a 1/8 oz head, cast up-current and let it swing down the face of the bar. As the fall strengthens after 11 go to 1/4 oz to keep contact. Watch the radar and get off the water when it builds.

Live shrimp under a rattling cork on the bay-side shell as the water starts pulling out, then a live croaker free-lined on 3/0 on the deep edge once the sun is high. Finger mullet free-lined in the wash works too if the shrimp get picked apart by hardheads.

The 24-hour mean is still SE 128 degrees at 5.8 kt, so the Gulf side holds its colour. That 5 kt NW puff mid-morning only touches the back side, where the outgoing pulls stained bay water into the throat as the fall builds.

Reds will slide onto the outside bar with the falling water - a Sea Shad in morning glory on 1/4 oz or a chunk of mullet on the bottom. Flounder on the drains as the tide empties, slow-dragged plastic or a live mud minnow.

Third day of southerly flow, wind still 4 kt out of the SW then SE, and the water in the throat is the cleanest it has been. The catch is timing - the high does not top until 12:11 PM, so dawn is the slow tail of a 14-hour rise and the real current does not stack up until afternoon, running to a 0.05 ft low at 10:27 PM. That is still a strong fall, just late. EITHER, and at 92 F the deep-water croaker bite will beat plastics between noon and 4.

Fish the evening on the fall. MirrOdine XL in bone or chrome twitched over the deeper edge of the bar, then a Down South Super Model in Texas Roach or morning glory on 1/4 oz worked slow along the drop. Salty green water means natural and translucent, not loud. Save the bone Spook Jr for the last half hour of light when they come up shallow to feed.

This is a croaker afternoon - 85.8 F water, fish sulking deep. Free-line a lively croaker on a 3/0 kahle with a small split shot on the deep side of the drop and let the outgoing carry it. Live shrimp under a cork on the shallow bar picks up again the last hour before sunset at 7:34 PM.

Forty-eight hours of SSE at 7.3 kt has salted the pass up and the incoming carries clean water well past the bar. Back in the coves and up the bayou side it is a shade dirtier where nothing has flushed.

Reds move up on the flats behind the bar during that long slow rise in the morning - a weedless spoon or a cut mullet chunk. Flounder pin down on the drain mouths as the evening fall pulls out.

Nothing wrong with the water - four days of S and SE at 4 to 9 kt has this pass as clean as it gets in September, and lures are dead easy to fish in that. The problem is the clock: high 1:34 PM at 1.4 ft, low 11:11 PM at 0.15 ft, so all the moving water lands in 92 F afternoon heat and the dawn window is a dying slow rise. Fishable and worth going, but you are fishing one evening shift, not a day. EITHER holds, with the edge to bait until the sun drops.

Clear water and 9 kt of SE means light and natural. Down South Super Model in morning glory or Texas Roach on a 1/8 to 1/4 oz head, drifted along the windward edge of the bar with the outgoing. Long casts, light fluorocarbon leader - they will look at it in this water. Bone Spook Jr the last thirty minutes to sunset at 7:33 PM if you see bait flicking.

Live croaker is the play until the sun is off the water - free-lined on 3/0, weighted just enough to hold in the outgoing, dropped on the deep edge of the drop-off. After 6 PM switch to live shrimp under a popping cork worked over the bar. Piggy perch will hold up better than shrimp in the current.

The 48-hour SSE mean of 7.3 kt keeps pumping Gulf water through, and by now the throat and the surf side are honest green. The bay side behind the sandbar is a step down but nothing that stops a plastic.

Redfish are the better bet at midday - cracked crab or cut mullet on a fish-finder rig in the guts off the beach. Flounder on the drains the last two hours of light, slow drag a 1/4 oz jig or a live mud minnow.

Water and wind are still right - S to SE at 4 to 9 kt, clean green, no lure problem at all. The tide is the weak link: 1.32 ft high at 2:50 PM and the low not until 11:51 PM at 0.31 ft, so you get one late shove of current in the hottest part of the day and a short window at the end of it. Go in the evening or do not bother going. EITHER on the technique, though live bait covers the dead midday stretch better than a jig will.

Fish the tail of the fall into dark. Lil John or Bass Assassin Sea Shad in morning glory on 1/4 oz, worked along the deeper edge where the bar drops off, slow with long pauses. Go to 3/8 oz if the current stacks up. In water this clean use a MirrOdine XL in chrome/black over the sand and let it hang - a suspending bait beats a rattle here.

Live croaker on a 3/0 kahle, free-lined and bumped along the bottom of the drop, is the mid-afternoon answer in 91 F water. Come sunset at 7:32 PM, live shrimp under a popping cork along the bar edge will get the topwater-style bite without the topwater refusal.

Five days of steady southerly flow off a 148 degree, 7.3 kt 48-hour mean has kept clean Gulf water in the pass. Only the back lakes and the far bay shoreline still carry a stain, and the weak tide is not pulling much of it out.

Reds will be cruising the surf guts early before the heat - gold spoon or cut mullet on bottom. Flounder are thin with this weak a tide but the drain mouths on the late fall are still the spot.

The water is fine and the wind is nothing - that is not the issue. The tide is: 1.0 ft high at 8:04 AM, a so-called low of 0.96 ft at 10:59 AM, then 1.22 ft at 4:23 PM. That is four hundredths of a foot of movement across the middle of the day, effectively slack all day at a pass that only fishes when water is ripping. Add 92 F and there is no reason to burn a tank. Technique is academic at this point - neither a lure nor a croaker fixes dead water.

If you go anyway, it is a first-light-only deal. Bone Super Spook Jr walked over the shallow bar before sunrise at 7:02 AM, then a Lil John in morning glory on a 1/8 oz head fished painfully slow on the small high at 8:04. Downsize everything, long casts, and expect one or two fish rather than a box.

Scent is the only thing that will drag a bite out of dead water - live shrimp under a popping cork, popped hard and often on the shallow bar at first light, or a free-lined finger mullet in the wash. Do not waste good croaker on this day.

Steady S and SE at 4 to 9 kt off a 7.3 kt SSE 48-hour mean has the pass clean top to bottom. Trouble is with no tide the water never sets up a colour change or a rip to fish, bay side or Gulf side.

Redfish are the salvage play - they will still eat with no current. Cut mullet or crab on a fish-finder rig in the beachfront guts. Flounder need moving water on the drains and there is none.

Light W and WSW at 3 to 4 kt in the morning is too weak to hurt anything, and the SE fills back in to 11 kt by afternoon, so the water holds. Tide is split and modest - 0.96 ft high at 7:23 AM, 0.8 ft low at 11:57 AM, then a long slow build to 1.15 ft at 6:19 PM - but the piece that matters is that water is still rising into first light with the minor at 7:00 to 8:00 AM on it. Wind at 11 kt is prime soft-plastic drifting, so EITHER is right with lures perfectly workable.

Water moving at grey light is worth more than a big tide later. Bone Super Spook Jr or a She Dog in chrome/black over the bar from first light through the 7:23 AM high, then switch to a Bass Assassin Sea Shad in Opening Night or Down South in Chicken on a Chain on a 1/8 oz head as it starts back out. Afternoon SE chop makes a 1/4 oz drift along the windward edge the better bet.

Live shrimp under a popping cork on the bar edge through that dawn high is the highest-percentage rig of the day. Free-lined finger mullet in the wash on the beachfront side after the sun is up. If it stays slow into the afternoon rise, go to a live croaker on the deep edge.

The western breath early is only 3 to 4 kt, nowhere near enough to blow this bay out, so the beachfront and throat stay sandy green. Expect a slight milky edge on the west bank shoreline until the SE fills back in around midday.

Reds should be on the beachfront guts with the morning water - spoon, or mullet chunk on bottom. Flounder pick up on the afternoon rise around the drain mouths, dragged jig or live mud minnow.