# Lower Laguna 3/25



## Top_Dog (Aug 1, 2007)

Sorry for the late report, but anyways...

I had read, stalked, creeped on, and drooled over Capt. Sparrow's articles and reports regarding the lower laguna madre and fantasized about the east side sand flats enough. I needed to go see what this was about. It really did sound like a mystical area that doesn't get much fishing pressure. Ankle deep, gin clear, water with redfish crawling is a fly fisher's wet dream. And well, I didn't want to wait until July when low winds are reliable enough to go. It just so happened that last Saturday, 3/25, a window presented itself. A short, day-long window. I didn't have anything better going on, so I loaded the boat in ATX and headed south for Harlingen. I remember the wind was blowing it's ***** off on the drive down that Friday, but the weather kept suggesting that it was going to lay over night. I trusted it. Pulled into Harlingen and found a clean/cheap motel and settled in for the evening. But it's still Harlingen and my paranoia convinced me to bring the push pole and stake out stik in the room with me. I hardly slept as I couldn't stop thinking about redfish and possibly even gator trout snaking around on the sand.

Wake up. Coffee. Headed out for Adolph Thomae park on the river east of Arroyo City. It's Saturday morning and I'm sitting in line with everyone else that checked the weather out the previous night. Evidently, the only other nearest boat ramps are Port Mansfield or Port Isabel. Still, I got on the water before sun up. I sent out GPS coordinates to my parents in case something went wrong and headed east. The little 10hp Merc was running like a champ and the Gheenoe was turning heads, boy.

5 miles from the ramp and I had reached the mouth of the Arroyo, but still, I continued east. The Shallowsports, Majeks, and Pathfinders started dropping like flies as I continued further east to the skinny skinny. Eventually the lower unit slowed me down as it couldn't handle the shallow draft. Pulled it up and broke out the push pole and continued east.

Finally in ankle deep water, I stopped and observed while I still had low light conditions. It's crazy out there. Sand flats for milesssss. And I couldn't see any other boats either.

Slammed some crackers and water, loaded the fly rod and backpack, and started the barefoot wade. Redfish #1 came to hand after I spotted her, back out of the water, crawling around digging up crabs. You definitely cannot put the fly right in front of these fish. You have to get the general direction they're heading and place the fly out in front and twitch it as they approach. It was true hunting. Love it.

Only caught one other red this trip. It was definitely a learning experience in this water. I don't think it's even possible to do it from the bow. The fish sense the boat and just start drifting away before you even have a chance to launch a fly 60-80'. Wading is the way to go. I blew a few more shots where I would cast and leave the fly in one spot, hoping the fish would head that direction and I would get impatient and pick up cast again trying to get closer...and the fish would blow up and bolt off. I'm sure if I were to leave it and let the fish find it, I would've been more successful.

5 hours is a long drive for a one day trip. I'll probably wait until this summer when longer low wind, weather windows will present themselves; but I could see myself playing on these flats for a few days in a row. I also think the same style of fishing is available in Yarborough flats. Getting there is another story with Y-pass effed up.


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## boomer21 (Dec 28, 2015)

Nice report! Cool to see a Gheenoe in those waters. The LLM is a special place with a fly rod, glad you had a great trip!


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## GCELLC (Feb 23, 2017)

Good report. And you experienced just a small fraction of the LM.


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## CoveredUp (Dec 9, 2007)

Great read. Let me know if you need a fishing buddy, I also live in atx. Stalking reds on foot in the sand is as good as it gets.

SK


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## Permit Rat (May 13, 2014)

*OK......who are y'all using for your weather reports?????*

I remember Saturday, 3/25 and our weather people on local Brownsville TV, said that it would blow 15-25 on Saturday (with higher gusts) ....so I pretty much dismissed doing any fishing. I woke up to south winds at 6 mph and, well....you know, the rest is history and I wasn't part of it, at least on the water. But I still remember how P-O'd I was at our local weather forecast. So where do you guys turn for your weather advisories?

Sorry for the rant....great report Top Dog. Glad _someone_ got something done that Saturday! I may have a question for ya....if so, I'll send a PM.

Oh.....almost forgot....do you have special flies for those conditions? I used to have special flies for certain species (permit and tarpon) in the Keys, when they were found outside their usual element but still in feeding mode. Thinking here of probably a crab pattern with no lead in it, since it doesn't have to sink but a few inches, and made out of a material that dries itself during false casting, so that the fly lands softer on the water. I was thinking polar fiber as being one such material, but have never tried to make something "crabby" out of the stuff. Anyway, something like that might be effective in those ultra shallow conditions.


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## salty_waders (Feb 13, 2006)

Well done! I've spent many days stalking fish on the sand and they get spooky for sure. Keep an eye out for the schools of ladyfish too, they're a riot on a fly rod in shallow water.


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## Fishsurfer (Dec 14, 2014)

I reported your photos as fish ****. Great read very enjoyable, good pics. Keep it up.


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## c-los (Aug 17, 2014)

are these sand flats on the island side like past the convention center going north? like your gheenoe


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## southpaw (Feb 25, 2009)

Great report Top Dog. Awesome you were able to do it in the Gheenoe. There are very few boats that can run (and more importantly get back up) on those sand flats so it's usually wide open out there. That water is beautiful though and I've spent many hot summer days doing exactly what you did. Wading barefoot sight casting reds around the grass in crystal clear waters barely up to your shins. It's really a thing of beauty that you don't expect in TX. There's some magnum skippies in that area too. I hooked one as long as my leg there once that grey hounded about 50 yards before breaking me off. 

You may want to downsize that seaducer you were throwing. A fly that big in that shallow and clear of water could be why they were spooking at it. As much as I hate throwing spoon flies, that's one spot that I'll dust one off and throw. They're absolutely killer there. You can cast way out in front of them and start stripping and they'll track it down from way off. Throw the smallest one you can find so it doesn't cause too much of a disturbance when you cast. A sparse tan, white or pink no.6 squimp with small beadchain eyes can also be pretty money in that spot. I'll put a small weedguard on it since I'm usually fishing around grass and the floating grass can be bad in that area.


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## kodman1 (Sep 16, 2005)

I sure miss those sand flats East of the Arroyo Colorado. Drift fished and sight cast many a days out there.


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## Bruce J (Jun 27, 2004)

c-los said:


> are these sand flats on the island side like past the convention center going north? like your gheenoe


Yes, they're on the island side like the convention center, but a few/several miles farther north.


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## Top_Dog (Aug 1, 2007)

Permit Rat said:


> *OK......who are y'all using for your weather reports?????*
> 
> Oh.....almost forgot....do you have special flies for those conditions? I used to have special flies for certain species (permit and tarpon) in the Keys, when they were found outside their usual element but still in feeding mode. Thinking here of probably a crab pattern with no lead in it, since it doesn't have to sink but a few inches, and made out of a material that dries itself during false casting, so that the fly lands softer on the water. I was thinking polar fiber as being one such material, but have never tried to make something "crabby" out of the stuff. Anyway, something like that might be effective in those ultra shallow conditions.


I use Weather Underground for specific wind speeds and the actual weather up to 24 hours in advance. However, I use NOAA to get a general idea of the current weather pattern moving across the area. (Ex: High pressure system moving in or out...usually tells me when I can expect a switch in wind directions or lull in the pattern)

As far as flies go, I just make sure to downsize quite a bit in this clear water and pick neutral colors. In this case, I was throwing #4 Seaducers in tan. I think anything small would've worked. Trout are a different story and I didn't have an opportunity to put a fly in front of a sow on this trip.


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## Top_Dog (Aug 1, 2007)

Thanks for the replies guys. It's almost Tarpon time here in Texas


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## Blast-n-cast (May 7, 2010)

Looks like a great time. Thanks for the report and pics


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## Permit Rat (May 13, 2014)

Top Dog....sorry for the late reply, but I am in Thailand now and today is the first day I have been able to download the 2Cool forum. (internet here sux)

But thanks for the reply. I'll check out weather underground when I get back.

BTW....I'm in a "resort" in Khon Kaen and there's a pool here, about 35 X 18 ft. and in it are 5 arapaima, the smallest of which is about 150 lbs. and the two largest ones will easily top 200. If any of you watched that (sorta stupid) _River Monsters_ show on Discovery Channel, Jeremy Wade fished for them in So. America, with conventional and fly tackle. I was not impressed....their body and tail structure shows them to be short lived in terms of a fight, no matter their size. But they are reported to be excellent table fare, so I would go for one in the wild, just to say I did it. That is all.


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