Boat Stopper en route to the Lower Laguna Madre, a unique hypersaline lagoon that offers excellent sight fishing for redfish and trophy trout at the Southern tip of Texas. Fifty-Five miles long by six miles wide, almost the entire Lower Laguna Madre is less than 3 feet deep and is uniquely clear compared to the rest of the Texas Gulf Coast. Three most suitable ports of entry are South Padre Island, Arroyo City, and Port Mansfield. The rest of the Laguna is bordered by the massive King Ranch, Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, and Padre Island National Seashore. As a fishery, the Lower Laguna Madre has two distinct areas, east and west sides. West side bays are covered in black mangroves, shoal and turtle grass meadows. Running through the middle is the intracoastal waterway. East side flats are hard packed sand flats. Similar to Mosquito Lagoon, we experience a tide delay that is directly related to distance from one of two gulf passes and is also greatly influenced by the wind.
Texas’ Lower Laguna Madre is split between an east and west side. East side flats are composed primarily of sand which make for some fantastic wading for redfish and very large speckled trout. Perfect for wading barefoot, tough on props.
When clouds and wind cooperate, fish can be spotted several fly lines away. When cruising, as pictured above, they appear more like pink bonefish than redfish.
Slicked out afternoon somewhere on the Laguna
Quality west side fish caught by Chuck from California. West side flats are covered in seagrass meadows and flanked by mangrove shorelines.
Jay from Colorado with a nice fish from a west side shoreline
Oversized redfish on an obnoxious popper
Surprise trout that was mixed in with a pod of redfish
Very large speckled trout are a common sight laid up in grassy potholes in super shallow water. Extremely camouflaged on a grassy bottom, these fish are the most challenging species commonly found in the Laguna. Here is Carlton with his personal best trout, second on the fly this day. This fish’s mistake was that she left half of her tail sticking out of the water while laid up along a west side shoreline.
-Capt Ben Paschal
