On Hwy 186, Port Mansfield is a port and fishing community on the Laguna Madre opposite Port Mansfield Channel in northeastern
Willacy County. It was formerly an isolated and obscure fish camp known as Red Fish Landing. The port was opened in 1950 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which wanted a harbor between
Corpus Christi and
Brownsville.
The final Port Mansfield Channel was completed across Padre Island in 1962. The ensuing tidal exchange between the Gulf of Mexico and the Laguna Madre produced an abundant population of redfish, brown shrimp, and flounder, and greatly expanded the sport and commercial fish economy of Port Mansfield.
In 1966 its population was reported as 525; from 1968 to 1990 it was reported as 731.