After waiting for a damp, heavy fog to lift, we made our run from a marina on Texas's South Padre Island to a shoreline near the Cullen House, a prime spot in the heart of the lower Laguna Madre redfish country. Coyotes called on a nearby spoil island as we started our first drift. In the distance, redfish pushed wakes and tails popped up in the early-morning sunlight.

Capt. Gib Little stood on the poling platform of his flats boat, and my angling partner, Lindsay Sharpe, stood on the bow, ready to put a loop in the air. To our right, across a narrow strip of spoil island in a tidal lake called Two Stumps, a hog of a redfish with its dark back sticking out of the water chased baitfish along the cordgrass shoreline. I tried to ignore the fish and spot a closer target for Lindsay, but the red in the little slough kept making wallowing splashes.

Padre Island, the longest barrier island in the world, creates the prime estuary flats habitat--the place to go for sight-fishing to large redfish. Guides make long runs by tunnel-drive skiffs to reach the flats. Other flats are easily reached and some can be wade-fished without boats or guides.

"Why don't you wade over there and try for that fish?" Gib said from above.

I grabbed my fly rod, fanny pack, and landing net and hopped into the water. After a short wade to shore and a stroll down the spoil island, I was face to face with two redfish zigzagging next to the bank in eight inches of water. To make the perfect cast and stay hidden, I had to crouch and lay out about half the cast on dry sand.

As one fish came by, I dropped my little deer-hair floater in its path and gave the fly a few light pops. The fish took the fly in an explosive boil, then hit the accelerator, but the hook pulled out. All I could see was the long trail of mud and sand left by the fleeing fish.

All alone in the quiet of the little lagoon, I took a deep breath and looked back to see if my companions had seen this calamity. They were well down the shoreline, absorbed in their own hunt.

For sight casting to tails and targets in ankle- to calf-deep water, the Texas coast offers more year-round opportunities over more miles of firm sand and grass bottoms than any other place in the country (along 360 miles of coastline). From the shallow, open grass flats of the lower Laguna Madre near the Mexican border, to the closed bays and tidal lakes near Corpus Christi and Port Aransas, to the bayous and shell bars of Galveston Bay many miles to the north, the shallow water offers great habitat for redfish and the foods they eat. It's the place to go for redfish.

No fish has been more responsible for the growth of saltwater fly fishing in Texas than the red drum, or redfish (Sciaenops ocellatus), the copper-hued flats predator with the signature black ocellus on its tail. Casting a fly to a broad-shouldered redfish cruising or tailing in only inches of water on a clear flat is one of angling's most exquisite thrills. Reds on the Texas flats range in size from 15 to 30 inches long and weigh an average between 5 and 6 pounds. The presence of big sow trout, black drum, ladyfish, and sheepshead adds to the excitement of the hunt. Prime time is June through October, but you can find Texas reds throughout the year.

Laguna Madre/Padre Island
Some of the most exciting sight casting on the Texas coast is from Corpus Christi south along the Laguna Madre, a pristine, river-like estuary, shielded from the Gulf of Mexico by Padre Island--the world's longest barrier island. Much of this vast area is private or part of the Padre Island National Seashore and requires substantial travel by flats boat to reach productive shorelines. Many guides and recreational boaters, especially those who travel south from Corpus Christi, think nothing of making 60- to 70-mile round trips a day to reach the prime flats fishing. It's that good. However, there are places where you can launch a boat and be fishing within a few minutes.

With an average depth of 2 1/2 feet, the 136-mile long Laguna Madre's sand and grass flats support critical spawning and feeding areas for a variety of marine life, including redfish and speckled trout. Shallow-running, tunnel-drive flats boats, some equipped with towers and poling platforms to aid in spotting fish on the expansive flats, are a favorite among guides and recreational anglers on this part of the coast.

Notable features in this area include the shoreline of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, the Arroyo Colorado River Mouth, the Three Islands area, Port Mansfield's East Cut, the Graveyard and Kenedy Land Cut, Baffin Bay, and the King Ranch shoreline.

On the southernmost end of the Laguna Madre, vast stretches of wadeable shorelines and grass flats are accessible by skiff from marinas and launch ramps at South Padre Island and Port Isabel.

It's a short run from the launch ramps to South Bay, a small, mangrove-lined estuary with a mix of shallow grass flats, shell bars, and tidal creeks. In the fall, anglers catch tailing and cruising redfish on the moving tides at sundown along South Bay's shoreline and often see roseate spoonbills and reddish egrets, too. Trout and snook can also be caught on the edges of the bay's channels and tidal creeks.

To the north, Port Mansfield, a fishing village in the heart of the lower Laguna Madre, offers lodging, accommodations, launch ramps, and easy boat access to miles of grass flats and firm, wadeable light-sand bottoms. (If you fish without a guide, make sure to carry a compass, local tide chart, and food and water.)

Last August, while wade-fishing with guide Terry Neal and his son T.J., we took advantage of a standing high tide that was moving across the flats on the north side of the East Cut, Port Mansfield's jetty pass to the Gulf. The result was about three hours of world-class sight casting for redfish.

Gear and Flies
My favorite rod for prospecting the Texas flats is a 9-foot, 8-weight.When the wind kicks up, however, a 9-weight helps punch big flies through the wind. Most of your targets are from 40 to 60 feet when stalking reds, but it helps to be able to punch 90-foot casts when the conditions allow.

Reels. You don't need a bonefish-quality reel for reds, because they rarely run more than 200 feet, so a reel that can hold an 8-weight, weight-forward floating line and 150 yards of 20-pound Dacron or Micron backing gets the job done.

Lines/Leaders. Because Texas reds feed mostly in shallow water floating lines are sufficient. Some of the best lines are the stiffer ones with short front tapers and stiff cores that help when shooting line in warm climates. They include Scientific Angler's Bass, Bonefish, or Saltwater tapers and Cortland's 444 Lazerline Tropic Plus, to name a few.

A stiff 9-foot leader made with a 5-foot butt section of 30-pound monofilament and a 10- or 12-pound tippet allows you to turn flies over in the wind and fight big reds without the fear of breaking off.

Flies. Redfish aren't choosy eaters, so any fly presented well can get attention. Some new Texas redfish fly patterns include the East Cut Popper, the Matagorda Fighting Blue Crab, and the Laguna Critter. Redfish love crustaceans, so most classic crab and shrimp patterns work well in Texas. Also, Seaducers, Deceivers, Clousers, bendbacks, and small deer-hair and hard-bodied poppers tied on #4 through #1/0 hooks are killers on the flats. With the sun at our backs, we had a steady stream of reds in the 25- to 30-inch class moving across the flat into the current. When we weren't casting to redfish coming straight at us, we caught school trout (15 to 18 inches) on crab and shrimp patterns dropped into the little guts on the edge of the channel.

The previous spring, fishing south of Port Mansfield with guide Charlie Buchen, I found myself hurriedly tying on a slow-sinking Cactus Shrimp pattern, while my partner, Doug Pike, was urging me to hurry up and get out on the bow of the boat.

Barely 50 feet in front of us--and getting closer as our flats boat eased forward--were a half-dozen redfish feeding in a foot of water, their waving tails bunched up in a tight circle. Doug, a demon with a level-wind reel, had a bead on them with a topwater plug and was ready to pull the trigger, but he gave me the first shot with a fly.

I dropped the fly into the middle of the gathering, the water boiled, and I felt the hook hit something solid. Fly line and fish suddenly came streaking straight back at me. When I finally caught up to the fish, both of us were heading toward the stern, leaving Doug room to pick out another target from the bow.

Once I got control of the fish with my 8-weight rod, I brought the fish in close. Instead of the dark bronze back of a redfish, I saw the silver jaw and long slender shape of a big trout. The female, which measured 27 inches, had been shadowing the feeding reds, grabbing food they kicked up. She had been quick enough to snap up my little shrimp fly before the wide-bodied reds could get it.

From Port Mansfield north to Corpus Christi lie some of the most remote and intriguing sight-fishing spots on the Laguna Madre. These include the Kenedy Land Cut, the Graveyard, Baffin Bay, and the King Ranch shorelines. The fishing shacks that line the shorelines and spoil islands remind me of similar structures on Biscayne Bay's bonefish flats at Stiltsville, Florida.

Corpus Christi guide Bill Sheka recalls the summer of 1996, when a huge school of redfish camped out in the Graveyard tidal flat for several days. On several trips that summer, he and his clients caught and released more than 30 redfish a day. When the school relocated across the flat, Sheka says, it was so noisy it was like a jet turning up its engines at an airport. "Those reds would fire up and you couldn't hear yourself talk," Sheka says. "The whole school would come roaring by and they would hit you in the legs. You could hook a fish, and it didn't matter. They were just moving to a different part of the flat."

The Middle Coast
The middle part of the Texas coast, including the coastal communities of Port O'Connor, Rockport, Aransas Pass, and Port Aransas, offers many sight-casting options for boaters and walk-in wade-fishers. Thick submerged grass beds, shell reefs, and sand and mud bottoms are trademarks of the middle Texas coast and provide prime habitat for forage fish and crustaceans as well as redfish, trout, black drum, flounder, and sheepshead.

South Bay and the East Flats are wade-fishing areas near Port Aransas that are easily accessed by skiff or with kayaks launched from beach roads. Area marinas offer skiff rentals for a half or full day of fishing.

Another excellent choice for walk-in wade-fishing in the Port Aransas area is at Wilson's Cut behind Mustang Island on Highway 361. Wilson's Cut, a launch ramp and channel access to Corpus Christi Bay, offers access to prime grass flats behind Shamrock Island and Shamrock Cove. On these flats you can find good numbers of tailing and cruising redfish and black drum, as well as the occasional and solitary heavyweight sow trout.

One early September morning on the north shoreline of St. Charles Bay near Rockport, Houston fly fisher Bruce Gillan and I paddled our kayaks in a blustery north wind into one of the tidal lakes within the Aransas Wildlife Refuge. A gang of redfish moved off the lake on a fast-falling tide. We cast to them as they flew down the little creek channels, busting baitfish as they bailed out of the marsh.

The Upper Coast
The upper coast is about a two-hour drive from Houston and has good sight-fishing opportunities, though it is much different than the other areas. The upper-coast bays from Sabine Pass to Freeport are deeper and more exposed to the wind than those on the middle and lower coast. The ability to anticipate and capitalize on moving tides and moderate wind conditions is more critical here than on the middle coast or Laguna Madre.

Look for a sustained, moderate southeast wind that pushes clear, green water along the bays and beachfronts. Tide tables (available at local tackle stores) reveal those periods when gamefish are most likely to be ganging up at familiar haunts (such as San Luis Pass and the marshes on West Galveston Bay) to lie in wait for tidal currents to push forage fish and shrimp to them.

The most dominant feature on the upper coast is the 600-square-mile Galveston Bay system, which includes Bolivar Roads Pass northeast of Galveston and San Luis Pass on the southwest end of Galveston Island.

The Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Bolivar Pocket, Texas City Dike area, West Galveston Bay's bayous and coves, and Christmas Bay provide good fishing.

Bolivar Pocket is a protected estuary with a mix of hard sand bars and soft mud guts, located at the base of the North Jetty on the Bolivar Peninsula.

To reach the pocket, take the free ferry from Galveston (it runs all day from the northeast section of the island) across to Bolivar Peninsula. Wade-fishers can look for reds, trout, and jack crevalle that chase bait over the flat on incoming tides.

The Texas City Dike, an hour's drive from Houston, offers excellent wade-fishing over hard sand bottoms around a series of spoil islands.

The protected coves and bayous near Galveston State Park on West Bay offer excellent wade-fishing opportunities. Nearby Jumbile Cove, another favorite of veteran West Bay wade-fishers, is located just west of the Jamaica Beach subdivision on the bay side of Galveston Island. You can reach Jumbile Cove by boat or kayak from launch ramps at the Sea Isle or Jamaica Beach subdivisions. Christmas Bay, located on Folletts Island across San Luis Pass from Galveston, has clear, shallow grass flats and shell reefs that offer excellent year-around sight-casting opportunities. Beach roads on either end of Christmas Bay lead to wade-fishing.

The Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, 30,000 acres of brackish marsh on the north shore of East Galveston Bay, offers walk-in wade-fishing and sight-fishing over hard-sand bottoms, grass flats, and scattered shell bars. Big schools of redfish sometimes roam these remote shorelines on the back end of East Galveston Bay.

Houston fly-fishing guide Chris Phillips recalls wade-fishing along an Anahuac shoreline when he saw a wave washing across the flat. When he realized it was a school of redfish pushing across the flat, he yelled to his friend, who was within casting distance of the moving fish.

After his friend hooked one of the reds, Phillips saw a sight he won't forget: about 35 10- to 12-pound redfish jumped out of the water at the same time.

Redfish are not known for their jumping ability, but they can do it if they get the urge. On the Texas flats, a sight-fisher can expect to see just about anything.

Fly fishing for Texas reds on the flats can lead to all kinds of experiences. On some days, the drill is to throw a fly from a kayak to a boil made by a lone redfish crashing bait on a remote creek inside a wildlife refuge. On other days, you might be surrounded by tailing redfish and black drum in ankle-deep water on a backcountry tidal lake. Whatever the situation brings, it will likely be visual--and will keep you coming back.