The day · Brownsville, Texas
Afternoon · 30 min left
Sun 16.4° up, in the west · Gulf Coast & Mississippi Lowlands
The kind of day it is
Heat
Hot. Growth is fast and stressed, trout and salmon retreat to springs and depth, and the useful hours are at the two ends of the day.
Water deeply at dusk, not at noon. Fish the springs, the shade and the depth.
The day, phase by phase
Happening now · 15:01–18:47
3h 46m long
Afternoon
Where the sun is this minute. Its highest today: 66.9°.
The angle falls away again, but the ground is still releasing the morning's heat. Air temperature peaks well after the sun does — usually two to four hours late.
Where the light lands · Gulf Coast & Mississippi Lowlands
Heat and humidity peak, and the sky starts to go dark in the south-west.
Up close
The marsh grass is at its most stressed. Salt is concentrating in the sediment as water evaporates, and the plants are excreting it through glands on their leaves — you can taste it.
The whole landscape
The afternoon storm builds and breaks. On the Gulf Coast this is not weather, it is schedule; you can set your day by it from June to September.
In the water now
Bluegillbest now
On the beds and the shallow flats, in water warm enough to see the bottom.
Cruising the weed edges, pads and shallow flats, ambushing anything that moves across the top.
Working the seams and feeding lanes where current delivers food, rising freely to a hatch.
Tailing on the shallow flats on a rising tide, backs out of the water, rooting in the grass.
Warm water holds less oxygen. Fish the springs, the inflows and the deep water, and release quickly.
In the garden now
Hoverflybest now
Hanging motionless in a sunbeam, then darting — hoverflies use warm still air and are strongest in the middle of the day.
Praying mantisbest now
Motionless on a flower head or stem, waiting. A mantis hunts by sight and needs the light.
Aphidsbest now
On the newest growth and the undersides of leaves, reproducing steadily through warm daylight.
Spider mitesbest now
On leaf undersides. They explode in hot dry weather and collapse in humidity, which is the whole control strategy.
Above about 32 °C tomatoes drop their flowers and lettuce turns bitter.
Sitting this one out
Black crappie · Channel catfish · Striped bass · Speckled trout (spotted seatrout) · Snook · Green lacewing
The full guide
Everything for Brownsville this week in one place.
Gulf Coast & Mississippi Lowlands
The region this day belongs to, and what lives in it.
The almanac
The year's arc: day length, the moon and the water behind the air.
The week ahead for Brownsville
One email, Sunday evening. Unsubscribe anytime.