Summer Patterns Hit the Lower Rio Grande: Dawn and Dusk Bite Your Best Bet

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Lower Rio Grande fishing report, from the mouth near Boca Chica down along the South Bay and ship channel. We’re sliding into summer patterns now. Down here we’re looking at a warm, muggy morning on the Texas side with light southeast wind early, building to a steady coastal breeze by midday. Temps are running from the low 70s at first light into the upper 80s later, with that sticky Gulf humidity hanging on. Skies are partly cloudy, with a chance of a brief sea‑breeze shower in the afternoon. Sunrise is right around a hair after 6:30 a.m., with sunset pushing past 8:20 p.m., so you’ve got a long stretch of low‑light to play with early and late. The night stayed warm, so the bite’s starting at gray light and slowing once the sun gets high over that shallow grass. Tides are on a typical Gulf Coast push–nothing crazy, but enough movement to matter. Overnight we had a low, the water’s been creeping in through the morning, topping off late morning to early afternoon, then easing back out before dark. The best window is that incoming tide right after sun‑up and again when it starts to dump in the evening. Focus your casts on drains, cuts, and the edges of the ICW where that current pinches down. Inshore, redfish and speckled trout are the headline. Local chatter from the Brownsville ship channel and South Bay area has slot reds showing up in decent numbers on the flats, especially where potholes break up the grass. Trout have been mixed in–lots of schoolie fish with a few better keepers when you find slightly deeper, cooler water off the edge of the flat or along the channel drops. There’ve also been scattered black drum and sheepshead around the pilings and rock, good targets if you’re soaking bait. Best producers lately have been **soft‑plastic paddle tails** in natural colors–new penny, root beer, and opening night–rigged on light jigheads and worked with a slow, steady swim over grass and along drop‑offs. Topwaters early have been getting crushed on calm mornings: Super Spook Jr.-style walkers in bone or chrome/black. Once the sun gets up, switch to **shrimp imitations** under popping corks for trout and mixed bag along current seams. If you’re fishing bait, **live shrimp** is still king around here, either under a cork on the flats or free‑lined near channel structure. Cut mullet or fresh cut skipjack on the bottom is putting reds in the box on the edges of the ICW and in deeper guts off the main river. For drum and sheepshead, shrimp tipped on small hooks around pilings and rock edges is hard to beat. Two hot spots to circle: 1. The **Brownsville Ship Channel bends** near the jetties: good moving water, plenty of structure, and a mix of reds, trout, and drum. Fish the edges of the drop with soft plastics and live shrimp as the tide starts to run. 2. The **South Bay grass flats** and potholes: drift quietly, fan‑cast paddle tails and topwaters across the shallow grass at first light, then slide off to slightly deeper water once the sun’s high. Look for bait flicking and off‑colored streaks of water–that’s where the fish are cruising. Overall fish activity is best at dawn and late afternoon with that tide moving. Midday is tougher; slow down, go deeper, and be patient. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next report. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn