Fishing in a canal, I'd buy some live shrimp, fish them under a popping cork as Ol' Mike mentioned. Use monofilament leers and small treble hooks. If they have a lighted dock, night time is the right time. Casting a creation known as a "speck rig" - two small bucktail jigs, sometimes with a "worm" trailer on a tandem leader with light tackle is a great way to catch both sand trout and speckled trout at night under lights. Reds will normally hang back on the outer edge of the lighter area and prefer a gold spoon i the way of artificials. Some folks use underwater "green lights" in the canals to attract fish, also. The Texas coast is just coming out of the worst drought in recorded history, and a very prolonged heat wave, to boot, so water salinity in the back bays has been high, and the water clear. Tides have generally stayed up due to strong inshore winds. I've caught nice flounder in subdivision canals with cut mullet on the bottom - a couple of times - but they generally prefer a moving bait, and are partial to live mud minnows. If the canal doesn't work out, wade the Gulf beachfront. If you try San Luis Pass, be very careful of the currents, several folks drown there every year.