LOWER LAGUNA MADRE

Reported by CAPT. BRIAN BARRERA

Email Brian Barrera at CaptBrianBFishing@gmail.com

Visit Online: InshoreFishingSouthPadre.com

Big Snook and Bigger Redfish

LISTEN: (2 Min, 52 Sec)

MAY AND JUNE are good, really good, for more than one reason. Finally getting into some consistent warmer weather. 

With this change and higher water temperatures we can count on the fish showing up to their local summer hunting grounds looking to eat, especially in low light conditions such as early morning and late evenings. Moving around before sunrise is key to getting big snook to chew during these months, unless you prefer to go under the moon and night fish, which tends to create some great opportunities if you’re willing to throw off your sleep schedule. I fish the coolest parts of the day, whether it be the break of dawn or the golden hours of the evening sunsets. It seems the big fish tend to be fooled most around those hours. It’s usually calmer around these times so moving in silence is suggested, rather than plowing into your spot and casting. Try to power off a hundred yards back, drop your trolling motor and sneak in while tying on your lure of choice for the situation (usually a topwater, slow sinking jerkbait, or a lighter swimbait) while trying to get larger than average snook to bite. 

One of my favorite things about May is our initial bull red run. We usually get 2 throughout the year, one being in or around the time of the first consistent warmth and the other is parallel in timing to the mullet run that usually comes around September or October. These fish are usually in the 35-45” range and can be fooled with a D.O.A. baitbuster in the root beer color, a soft plastic or live and dead baits. A fresh live finger mullet almost never gets turned down by these big brutes. They’re not all too big like the ones we get mid-summer and fall so slot sized fish will also be brought to hand during these times.

May through June I do a lot of snook fishing, early in the mornings targeting dock pilings and shallow submerged structure with top waters and light jigs hoping to entice a big one to eat. If that doesn’t, work we tend to spread the net and get some live bait for them to chew on.

This time of year, we also get tarpon that tend to get slightly bigger than previous months (50-80lbs) as they are “migratory fish” rather than the local juveniles that stay year round, all depending on water temps and conditions. The fish won’t start to show up until we get a 70° consistent water temp.

The best way to target these redfish, snook, and tarpon are early mornings, late evenings, and the first and last 30 minutes of the tides using live and artificial lures.

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