Texas Gulf Coast
Port Lavaca Fishing Forecast
Should you go? A straight answer for Port Lavaca — scored 0–100 from the actual wind, tide movement, seas, sky and barometer, not just moon tables. Built around redfish, speckled trout, black drum.
Today on the water
TodayWorth a trip — 9 mph S, gusts 19, 0.8 ft tide falling through sunrise, 1.9 ft seas, falling barometer.
Boating: Good · seas ~1.9 ft · 0.8 ft of tide
Today’s bite windows
- 8 AM–12 PMGoodfirst light + falling tide
- 9–11 PMFairlast light
Wind against tide: 5–6 PM — 13 mph S into the outgoing tide. Expect steep, close-together waves in the pass on that stretch.
What’s driving it
- Wind9 mph S, gusts 19
- Tide0.8 ft range · 1 in daylight
- Seas1.9 ft peak
- Sky1% rain chance
- Barometer-0.03 inHg over the day
- Moonwaxing crescent
The week ahead
Best day this week: Sunday (82/100, prime) — 10 mph S, 0.9 ft seas.
| Day | Fishing | Boating | Wind | Tide swing | Seas |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Today | 68 Good | Good | 9 mph, gusts 19 | 0.8 ft | 1.9 ft |
| Thu, 8/20 | 63 Fair | Good | 11 mph, gusts 22 | 0.8 ft | 1.4 ft |
| Fri, 8/21 | 70 Good | Great | 11 mph, gusts 21 | 0.9 ft | 1.3 ft |
| Sat, 8/22 | 74 Good | Great | 10 mph, gusts 18 | 1 ft | 1 ft |
| Sun, 8/23★ best | 82 Prime | Great | 10 mph, gusts 18 | — | 0.9 ft |
| Mon, 8/24 | 76 Good | Great | 11 mph, gusts 18 | 1 ft | 1 ft |
| Tue, 8/25 | 80 Prime | Great | 10 mph, gusts 14 | 1 ft | 1 ft |
Ratings refresh through the day as the forecast models update. The dashboard shows the same scores with the charts behind them.
Best time to fish Port Lavaca
Fish the moving water, and pay as much attention to the wind as to the tide chart — a sustained south wind piles water onto the north shorelines, and a winter norther pulls it out and stacks fish in the guts.
On any given day, the windows above are the honest answer: they weight moving water first — the middle hours of a falling or incoming tide — then the solunar periods (moon overhead and underfoot), first and last light, and they subtract for wind that makes the water unfishable and for lightning. A slow day still shows its best hour or two, because that’s when you’d go.
How the rating works
Every day gets a 0–100 score from the same data the rest of Salty Forecast runs on: wind carries the most weight (32%), because it decides whether you can even fish, then tide movement (26%), seas at the nearest offshore buoy (12%), and sky, barometer and moon phase (10% each). A falling barometer ahead of a front scores high; a hard post-frontal rise scores low. Nothing here is a black box — the factor bars above show exactly what helped and what hurt.
Generic solunar calculators give Port Lavaca the same “activity” times as a lake in Ohio, because they only look at the moon. The moon matters — it’s in here — but a 20 mph wind or 4-foot seas beats it every time, and that’s why this score reads the whole picture.
Live now on the dashboard
The full Port Lavaca dashboard has this rating beside live radar, the tide curve, hourly wind and the 14-day outlook — free, no account.
Open the live Port Lavaca dashboard →Common questions
- Is today a good day to fish Port Lavaca?
- Today rates 68/100 (good). Worth a trip — 9 mph S, gusts 19, 0.8 ft tide falling through sunrise, 1.9 ft seas, falling barometer. This updates through the day as the forecast models refresh.
- What time should I fish Port Lavaca today?
- Today's best windows are 8 AM–12 PM (first light + falling tide) and 9–11 PM (last light). Moving water is the biggest single factor — the middle of a tide swing beats slack water almost everywhere.
- What's the best day to fish Port Lavaca this week?
- Sunday looks strongest at 82/100 (prime) — 10 mph S, 0.9 ft seas. The week-ahead table above updates as the outlook firms up.
- How is this different from a solunar calendar?
- Solunar tables only track the moon, so every town gets the same "activity" times. This rating starts with what actually cancels trips — wind, seas and lightning — then adds real NOAA tide movement, barometric trend and the moon. When a day scores Prime here, it means the whole picture lines up, not just the calendar.
Nearby fishing forecasts
More for Port Lavaca: fishing weather · tide chart
Scored from the Open-Meteo model blend, NOAA tide predictions and the marine wave model. A planning aid, not a guarantee — fish don’t read forecasts, and neither wind nor lightning cares about your plans. Check conditions before you run.