Episode Details

Name’s Artificial Lure, checkin’ in with your Rio Grande, Texas fishing report.

Down here along the Lower Rio Grande and the Brownsville side, we’re starting the day cool and clear with light southeast wind and a warming trend; the National Weather Service Brownsville office notes spring temps running a bit warmer than normal with generally dry conditions, so expect comfortable mid‑60s climbing into the 70s by afternoon and a light chop on open water.

Sunrise is right around 6:50 a.m. and sunset about 6:30 p.m. for the Valley, and Solunar Forecast for this stretch of South Texas shows the stronger feeding windows lining up late morning into early afternoon, with a minor push around first light and again toward sunset, so you’ll want a line in the water at grey light and then again from late brunch through early afternoon if you can swing it.

Tide-wise, NOAA’s coastal predictions for the lower Texas coast show a classic two‑step: a pre‑dawn low, a solid morning high mid‑dayish, and a falling tide mid to late afternoon, which sets up nice current on the river bends and around the jetties; that incoming morning tide is your best bet for bait getting pushed up and predators sliding tight to structure.

On the freshwater side of the Rio Grande proper and the resacas, folks this week have been picking off good numbers of **largemouth bass**, **channel cats**, and scattered **Rio Grande cichlids**; local chatter around the ramps has bass running in that 1–3 pound class with the odd four‑plus, cats in the 2–6 pound range on cut shad, and panfish and cichlids filling stringers for fish fries.

Best lures for bass right now:
- 1/4–3/8 oz **chartreuse/white spinnerbaits** slow‑rolled along riprap and laydowns.
- **Green pumpkin or watermelon red flake soft plastics** on a Texas rig or light Carolina rig; drag ’em slow through brush and the mouths of little side channels.
- In the clearer resacas, a **natural shad‑pattern crankbait** ticking bottom in 4–8 feet is putting fish in the boat.

For cats, go with:
- **Fresh cut shad or mullet**, golf‑ball‑size chunks on a slip sinker rig in the deeper holes and along outside bends.
- **Stink bait or punch bait** on treble hooks around bridge pilings and any rocky bank where current sweeps by.

If you’re pokin’ around the brackish stretches near Boca Chica and the ship channel, keep a rod ready for **speckled trout**, **redfish**, and **black drum**; the talk on the docks has trout in the 16–20 inch class, slot reds cruising shallow on that rising tide, and drum chewing shrimp around deeper ledges.

Best saltwater offerings:
- **1/8–1/4 oz jigheads** with pearl or glow paddle‑tails for trout along channel edges.
- **Live shrimp** under a popping cork for trout and reds on the flats.
- **Fresh dead shrimp or crab chunks** on the bottom for black drum near deeper pilings and dropoffs.

Couple of local hot spots worth your gas:

- **Below the Brownsville weir**: those deeper river holes and current seams hold cats and bass; fish cut bait on bottom for cats and slow plastics for bass along the eddies.
- **Old resacas off the main river near San Benito and Brownsville**: early and late, work the shaded banks and any overhanging trees for bass and cichlids; once the sun gets up, slide a little deeper and drag worms slow.

If you’re more coastal, the **Brownsville Ship Channel bends** and the **Boca Chica jetties** are both solid right now on that mid‑morning high tide, especially with shrimp and soft plastics worked along the rocks.

That’s the rundown from your buddy Artificial Lure. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a bite report.

This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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