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Port Mansfield Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

Port Mansfield: a Willacy County Navigation District harbor on the Lower Laguna Madre with two public ramps and a channel nine miles to the Gulf.

4/5
Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
Next tide
Low 8:43 PM
Air / High
79 / 80 F
Wind
E 8 mph

Sources: NOAA tides 8778485, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

4/5Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.

Port Mansfield sits in the sweet spot of the season: active fish and workable weather. Today brings cloud cover, wind E around 8 mph, steady pressure near 1017 hPa and a high of 80. Tides: high 1:11 AM and 2:36 PM, low 8:06 AM and 8:43 PM: the moving water either side of each change is when this place feeds. Water sits around 78 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 10:07 AM-12:07 PM and 10:34 PM-12:34 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Redfish (red drum)Excellent

Spring and early summer put redfish on grass flats, shorelines and oyster bars; on the Gulf, fish below spawning age stay inside the bays (TPWD). Sight-cast to tailing and cruising fish or drift live shrimp under a popping cork.

Speckled troutExcellent

Spring brings seatrout back over shallow seagrass, and the spawning season (April to September in Louisiana and South Carolina) keeps them feeding. Popping corks with live shrimp, free-shrimping on the drift and casting to working birds are the main tools.

Tomorrow: Similar at 82 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Texas requires a fishing licence from age 17, from $30.00 for residents, and salt water needs its own licence here. What a Texas licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing redfish (red drum) here? Check the size and bag limits with TPWD before you keep anything. The season dates for Texas, read off the agency, are on the Texas seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings.

Tides

NOAA station 8778485 (Port Mansfield Channel Entrance). Fish the moving water either side of each change.

Fri
HIGH1:11 AM1.6 ft
LOW8:06 AM1.0 ft
HIGH2:36 PM1.7 ft
LOW8:43 PM1.3 ft
Sat
HIGH1:10 AM1.6 ft
LOW8:16 AM0.7 ft
HIGH3:39 PM1.9 ft
LOW9:50 PM1.4 ft

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp79 F
High / Low80 / 70 F
WindE 8-10 mph
Pressure1017.4 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain75% cloud, 2%
Sunrise / Sunset07:33 / 18:54
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~78 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Port Mansfield this week

The best day on Port Mansfield this week looks like Monday Oct 26, at 5 out of 5, against 4 today.

Best day this week: Monday, Oct 26 β€” excellent at 5/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Good

Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.

Solunar majors
10:07 AM-12:07 PM and 10:34 PM-12:34 AM
Minor period
4:29 AM-5:29 AM
Sun
07:33 to 18:54
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Overcast, 13 mph
Rain chance
2%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Port Mansfield: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Redfish (red drum) illustration

Redfish (red drum)

Best: late-summer and fall bull run; inshore all year

Red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), called redfish across the South, is a bronze inshore drum with a black spot near the tail, fished on grass flats, oyster bars, marsh creeks and beaches from the Chesapeake around Florida to Texas. Spring and early summer put redfish on grass flats, shorelines and oyster bars; on the Gulf, fish below spawning age stay inside the bays (TPWD). Sight-cast to tailing and cruising fish or drift live shrimp under a popping cork.

Speckled trout illustration

Speckled trout

Shallow bays spring and summer; deeper water in winter

Speckled trout is the anglers' name for the spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus), a spotted member of the drum family that lives in shallow bays and estuaries from the Chesapeake to Texas. Spring brings seatrout back over shallow seagrass, and the spawning season (April to September in Louisiana and South Carolina) keeps them feeding. Popping corks with live shrimp, free-shrimping on the drift and casting to working birds are the main tools.

When to come: the Port Mansfield calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Redfish (red drum)
Speckled trout
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 78 F (estimated, not a reading).

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~78 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Port Mansfield today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Redfish (red drum) led the card at excellent. High of 79 F, wind to 12 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Redfish (red drum) led the card at excellent. High of 82 F, wind to 16 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Redfish (red drum) led the card at excellent. High of 82 F, wind to 15 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Texas requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

A Texas license with the saltwater endorsement is required to land fish. TPWD limits from Sept. 1, 2026 to Aug. 31, 2027: spotted seatrout 3 a day (15-20 in.), red drum 3 a day (20-28 in.), snook 1 a day (24-28 in.); tags allow one oversized trout and one oversized red drum per license year.

Access

Two public boat ramps run by the Willacy County Navigation District; boat stalls for lease; local boat rentals.

About this water

Harbor village on the Lower Laguna Madre, Willacy County, Texas, about nine miles by boat from the Gulf. NOAA's Port Mansfield Channel Entrance tide station is at the Gulf end of the pass, not at the harbor.

Fishing Port Mansfield: the full guide

The harbor and the channel

The Willacy County Navigation District runs the harbor at Port Mansfield, leases boat stalls and keeps two public boat ramps that give trailered boats access to the Laguna Madre and the Gulf of Mexico. The district says the Gulf is about nine miles away by boat through the Port Mansfield pass, and that well-marked channels lead across a bay system averaging about three feet deep.

Fish of the bay

The district names speckled trout, redfish and flounder as the bay fish anglers usually find. TPWD coastal biologists say spotted seatrout populations in the lower Laguna Madre are large compared with other Texas bays and that red drum there are at record highs; they also list snook, gray snapper, Florida pompano and barracuda at the lower bay's two passes to the Gulf.

Shallow water, protected grass

With a bay averaging about three feet, much of the fishing is over seagrass, and TPWD says it is illegal to uproot seagrass in Texas; propellers scar the meadows, so plan routes along the marked channels.

Common questions

How do you get from Port Mansfield to the Gulf?

Through the Port Mansfield pass: the navigation district puts the Gulf about nine miles away by boat.

Can you catch snook near Port Mansfield?

TPWD lists snook among the species at the two bay-Gulf passes of the lower Laguna Madre. The limit is 1 a day between 24 and 28 inches.

How deep is the bay?

The Willacy County Navigation District says the bay system averages about three feet deep, with well-marked channels.

Is fishing good at Port Mansfield right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.

Nearby waters

South Padre Island35 miBaffin Bay51 miCorpus Christi72 miPort Aransas92 miRockport104 miFalcon Lake112 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Tide predictions
NOAA CO-OPS 8778485 β€” Port Mansfield Channel Entrance
Harmonic predictions, datum MLLW, local time. 11 high and low events returned for today and the next two days. A prediction, not a measured water level: wind and surge move the real thing.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 26.5500, -97.4300 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
Pages checked
The facts in the written guide were checked against these pages, from the agencies and operators that manage the water, on October 8, 2026. Anything we could not verify was taken out.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written text was drafted with AI assistance from the official pages listed above, and its facts were checked against those pages by automated verification on October 8, 2026; anything that could not be verified was taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.