Fly Fish the Texas Tropics:
The Lower Laguna Madre
by  Scott Sparrow




     Weary from a week of guiding, Kathy and I sipped our coffee on the patio overlooking the Arroyo Colorado. You would think that going fishing would be the last thing that would occur to us on a Sunday afternoon in April, but a mild front had passed through that morning, and the winds were already subsiding. I suggested that it would be a good time to go fishing, and expected Kathy to look at me like I was crazy, but I was wrong. Thirty minutes later, we were aboard the Curlew with our dog Lily, heading east toward the mouth of the Arroyo, and then north onto the shallow flats of the Lower Laguna Madre.
    As we turned into a grassy lagoon along the west side of the LLM, the sun was low on the horizon, and the water stretched before us like pewter. At first, there was nothing much to see but a few jumping mullet, but then as we reached the midsection of the lagoon, several large schools and countless pods of redfish surged ahead of the intruding vessel. We shut down in about 15 inches of water, and -- after promising Lilly that it would soon be her turn -- set off wading toward the most amazing display of tailing redfish that we’d seen in some time. Fluttering laughing gulls followed the tailing pods with some difficulty, as the absence of wind made hovering impossible. Casting VIP poppers to mimic the behavior of fleeing shrimp, we were soon drawing explosive strikes from redfish competing for the prize. As I hooked up on a 28-inch red, I looked around and saw Kathy crouching low to the water, casting her fly into a bouquet of tails.

The Fishery
    Sixty miles long and about five miles wide, the LLM is the largest continuous shallow water flat in North America. Sheltered from the open Gulf by Padre Island, the longest barrier island in the world, the LLM is virtually landlocked, with only two manmade passes to the Gulf, and a channel connecting it with its sister bay -- the Upper Laguna Madre -- to the north. Located only just above the Tropic of Cancer, the LLM is the only true subtropical fishery in the continental U.S. outside of Florida. Often compared to  south Florida, and even the Carribean, the LLM is known principally for the clarity of its unpressured shallow waters, and its classic, sight casting opportunities.
    
The cast of characters
    Redfish. Redfish are the undisputed favorite among visiting fly fishers. Known for tailing in pods, or as singles -- and cruising with their backs exposed along shallow banks -- redfish provide highly visual action in a foot or so of water. Aggressive, hardy, and hard fighting, redfish have all of the qualities that fly fishers dream of.
    Properly speaking, the LLM is a nursery for juvenile reds, who remain in the estuary until reaching sexual maturity at the age of three to six years. In the autumn, the young adults join herds of “bull” reds near the passes , and spawn for the first time. The tides bring the eggs back into the estuary where they hatch, but the adults remain in the open Gulf for the rest of their lives.
    Known for their opportunistic, aggressive style, LLM redfish will take just about any  well-presented fly of any reasonable description.  The problem is not the fly, as a rule, but getting the fish to see or hear the fly. Redfish tend to feed head down, and so they often fail to perceive the fly unless it’s within a foot or so from their heads.
    Kathy and I like to use VIP poppers over tailing redfish, because the sound will often draw their attention more effectively that a subsurface fly.  But on a windy day, the redfish will not readily hear the popper, so a subsurface fly is usually necessary. Getting your subsurface fly close enough for the redfish to see it can take considerable stealth and patience. For instance, I recently guided a man from California, who spotted a tailing red from the boat, and opted to stalk the fish on foot. It took him over 20 minutes of stealthy wading, and a couple dozens casts, before the 26-inch fish saw the fly.  But when he finally did, he took it instantly.
     ”Speckled” trout. Spotted seatrout provide the easiest, and the most difficult fly fishing on the LLM. “Schoolie” trout up to 20 inches long can be easily caught on along the edge of the Intracoastal Waterway from dawn until midmorning on small poppers and subsurface flies, alike.
    Larger trout, however, behave like an entirely different species. Breaking away from the schools, they spend much of their lives in the shallowest waters in solitude. Wary and difficult to spot on a grassy bottom, big trout are usually seen when it’s too late -- heading in the other direction. Most anglers that I’ve spoken to agree that trophy trout have an uncanny ability to sense your approach, but will acclimate to your presence as along as you don’t make a commotion.
    While speckled trout range from Maine to the Yucatan, the LLM holds the largest population of big trout than any other bay system. Indeed, five out of seven of the current IGFA tippet class world records  were caught on the LLM, including the largest trout ever taken on a fly rod -- a 15 lb. 6 oz. fish caught by Bud Rowland of Port Isabel in 2002.      
    Other species. Ladyfish provide great sport during the spring, summer and early fall. Disparaged by the locals, who regard the lowly “skipjack” as a nuisance, visiting fly fishers are nonetheless amazed by the blistering runs and almost constant aerial displays of this sleek cousin of the tarpon.
    While ladyfish are common along the Gulf Coast, the LLM is perhaps the only venue where a fly fisher can regularly sight cast to world-record ladyfish in a foot of crystal clear water. Four IGFA tippet-class records were caught sight casting on the LLM during 2003 alone. Visible for up to fifty yards on the “white sand” of the LLM, ladyfish provide constant action on any given sunny summer day for anglers who love a great fight.
    Sheepshead, black drum and flounder also provide seasonal alternatives to redfish and trout. Sheepshead can be observed tailing alongside redfish, and often fool anglers who haven’t learned to distinguish the gray, concave tails of the sheepshead from the blue-tinged, darker tails of the redfish. Considered nearly impossible to catch by many fly fishers, sheepshead will often follow a perfectly present fly, and will occasionally take it, especially during the fall and winter.  
    Black drum in the three-to-six pound range become plentiful during the late summer and early fall, but are much harder to entice than their cousin the redfish. Giant drum in the 15-30 lb range can be found along the edges of channels in the fall. Feeding as they do principally by smell, they will rarely see a fly, much less take it. The current state fly rod record of 19 1/2 pounds was caught by a client in the fall of 2002, by sight casting to the huge fish in a foot of water along a channel’s edge.
    Flounder are quite willing to take a fly on the LLM; but since they congregate along channel edges, sight casting fly fishers rarely encounter them on the flats. But by using sink-tip lines, and blind casting weighted flies along the edge of the ICW, fly fishers can often catch a dozen or more flounder.
    Tarpon can be found in the surf along Padre Island, in the Arroyo Colorado, and along the jetties at the Mansfield East Cut and the Brazos Santiago Pass, but they are rarely seen on the flats of the LLM. Port Isabel fly shop owner Larry Haines jumped 82 tarpon from the jetties in 2003, and has landed fish in the 150+ pound range. Fly fishers who fish from the jetties tend to do best on a fast moving tide, during the months of April through November; but they find it exceedingly difficult to land the largest fish among the barnacle-encrusted granite boulders.  
    Three species of snook inhabit the Brownsville Ship Channel, the Arroyo Colorado, and the South Bay of the LLM, but -- like the tarpon -- do not as a rule venture into the greater lagoon. Overlooked by most fly fishers intent on sight casting the LLM’s shallow waters, snook are nonetheless available to anglers willing to blind cast in deeper waters around structure, or along the mangrove-lined shores of the South Bay of the LLM.

A Typical Day on the Lower Laguna Madre
    Early morning tailing action. If the wind is less than 10 mph, most fly fishers head for foot-deep water in search of tailing redfish. During the spring and fall when the tides are high, tailing redfish can be found in remote westside lagoons where redfish “pod” up and tail en masse as they flush the shrimp from the seagrass. Meanwhile, laughing gulls will hover just above the pods in order to pick off shrimp as they hop across the surface.  Using the wind currents to stay aloft over the fish, the laughing  gulls provide a convenient marker for fly fishers in search of redfish on a windy morning.
    As summer progresses and the tides fall, the sight casting action shifts to the east side of the ICW.  There, over areas of broken seagrass, tailing fish provide visible targets on a mirror-like surface until the wind rises by late morning.  This is a die-for scenario,  but it’s not easy fishing. While the sheer noise of feeding fish and squawking birds may drown out the angler’s approach during the springtime podding action, there is little to mask the angler’s approach when stalking a single redfish on a calm summer morning. Indeed, fly fishers eventually learn that waiting for the fish to come to them can be the key to success in this highly challenging scenario.
    By midmorning, fly fishers depend on their polarized sunglasses to sight cast to redfish beneath the surface. Cruising redfish appear pink against the dark seagrasses, and are fairly easy to spot on a cloudless day. Although fly fishers often worry about windy conditions, a moderate wind actually helps by breaking the surface tension of the water, permitting the angler to see the fish through the wave face.
    The Big Trout Option. Early morning tailing reds are hard to pass up, but for those anglers who are entranced by big trout, the spoil islands and grassy flats adjacent to the Intracoastal Waterway provide sight casting to trophy  trout for the first two or three hours of the day. It is not uncommon to observe trophy trout milling about in less than a foot of grassy water with their backs and tails exposed. Big trout are considered more difficult than permit to catch, but fly fishers who have dedicated themselves to the pursuit of this elusive predator insist that big trout are not so much finicky as intolerant of imperfect presentations.
 
    The Lure of the White Sand. Regardless of the season, a cloudless sky will lure most fly fishers to the sparsely vegetated eastern edge of the LLM by late morning. Known locally as “the white sand,” this flat resembles a Caribbean bonefish flat, and varies in depth from less than a foot to about 18 inches. There, on a sunny day, fly fishers who wade downwind can spot fish moving upwind against the wind-driven current. Feeding on small worms and crabs that live in the sand, redfish will travel head down, making it somewhat easier to approach them in the crystal clear water. Solitary or small groups of trout also cruise this area, and -- like redfish -- can often be seen traveling with packs of ladyfish.
    Redfish, trout and ladyfish tend to follow sting rays on the white sand, and a single sting ray may host as many as a dozen fish. Typically, the trailing fish are “cocked and ready” for whatever the ray might flush from the bottom. Consequently, dropping a fly in the ray’s vicinity will often provoke an immediate strike.
    As the sunlight fails, fly fishers may go full circle and return to the west side of the LLM in search of redfish resuming their podding action in the late afternoon.   Even when the southeast wind has turned the water choppy and turbid, the redfish will often tail until nightfall, calling the laughing gulls once again to flight.

    I’ve heard many people say that there’s something magical about the Lower Laguna Madre. Perhaps it’s the vast, unpressured flats that give anglers a sense of adventure that often seems lacking in today’s world. Or maybe it’s the soothing clarity of the shallow water, and the lush seagrass meadows that go on for as far as the eye can see. But you don’t have to believe in magic to be impressed with a fishery that provides classic sight casting opportunities to big fish in shallow, clear water within a day of travel for any fly fisher living in the continental U.S.

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