6/13 Aransas Pass / Rockport Area - Via Texas Parks and Wildlife earlier this week "Flounder have been fair on mullet around the piers and Rockport wall. Black drum are good on dead shrimp and will be found around grass beds."
4/9 Aransas Pass/Rockport Area - Via Texas Parks and Wildlife week of April 7th- "GOOD. 67 degrees. Speckled trout and redfish are on shrimp and will be in the deep cuts, drop-offs, and near the flats and reefs. Catch and release encouraged for speckled trout. Black drum are good on shrimp or crab and can be found in the channels or around structure."
3/11 From Texas Parks and Wildlife Week of March 10th - "POOR. 67 degrees. Black drum are excellent right now and are found around structure on dead shrimp. Speckled trout and redfish are fair to good on shrimp or mullet if you can find them."
2/5 Aransas Rockport Area - Captain Dean Slowride Thomas of slowrideguide.com says the water level is back to average and the fish were up on the flats with the warmer weather earlier in the week but now with fronts coming the game will change. He suggests sitting out the strongest wind then working the deeper areas just off the flats with soft plastic for trout and reds. For drum just find some dead shrimp and fishbites.The coldest weather of the winter could be happening next week so stay tuned
11/19 Aransas/Rockport Area - Captain Dean Slowride Thomas of slowrideguide.com says the water is still up and with the warm temperatures the fish are in their summertime pattern still. With all of the water he's going up and fishing the sand pockets in the flats and catching redfish on soft plastics, topwaters and sightcasting with flies. The crowds have been sparse during the week but expect more on the weekend as the duck hunters increase in numbers. He says the ducks aren't moving much just sitting in open water this week.
10/23 Water is still High - Captain Dean Slowride Thomas of slowrideguide.com says he's up on the flats which remain deeper than normal and getting upper slot redfish action on topwaters. The trout are up there too. Front comes early Saturday morning so it might be a blowout Saturday. Expect the action to resume Sunday when the wind switches back to the Southeast.
10/15 Cold Front Arrives - The water remains high and after the coldfront Dean Slowride Thomas plans to work the deeper areas of Redfish Bay with soft plastics for trout and reds. Cooler weather will bring the fish back on the flats.
10/11 What high tides? - Even with the constant high tides Dean Slowride Thomas continues to find good topwater action in Redfish Bay for redfish. That may be how it got its name! Crowds are down and soon so will be the miserable heat we've been seeing with this crazy weather pattern. Trout have been good on soft plastics and live shrimp over the deeper grassy areas, potholes and along the ship channel.
10/2 Captain Sutton Schoonover with Full Circle Outdoors says - Cooler weather has the fish in a fall pattern. The higher tides have scattered the redfish. In the cooler mornings they are fishing some of the warmer muddier bottoms for trout and later on over deeper grass spots. Black drum are in tight near the shore and have been hitting flies like gangbusters! Expect lots of reds up on the flats when the tides come down.
9/12 Aransas Pass Rockport - Higher tides will make for good redfish action on topwaters in the flats says Captain Dean Thomas of slowrideguide.com He says the rain the cooler night time temps should bring the trout up there on the flats as well. Expect good action for trout on live bait near grass on the deeper edges of the Lydia Ann Channel.
9/04 Aransas Pass Rockport - Captain Dean Slowride Thomas of Slowrideguide.com says the redfish are on the flats if the hoardes of masses just realized that before blowing over them. He had solid redfish action but when the sun came up the masses in the skinny boats blew it up racing over them to get to deeper water. Captain Sutton Schoonover of Full Circle Outdoors says. "Fishing is great, slightly lower water temps have lengthened the morning trout bite. Bigger fish have been skinny early then deep later in the day. Smaller profile lures matching the bait has been working both on trout and redfish.
8/28 Aransas Pass/ Rockport - Cooler deeper water on the flats brought back the redfish bite back in earnest today as Dean Slowride Thomas of slowrideguide.com put his clients on limits of redfish on topwaters. Expect trout action to be good in deeper water just off the flats and the big tide recedes, bait and soft plastics resembling baitfish and shrimp should work well. Dean says the crowds are down and the fishing is great!!
8/21 Aransas Pass/Rockport - The Texas Women's Angler's Tournament is in Port Aransas this weekend so expect a crowd in the usual spots around Redfish Bay and the Lighthouse Lakes and Lydia Ann Channel. Fishing with live bait along the deeper grass areas should prove successful for those wanting trout. Reds have been a little finicky lately but drifting in the deeper flats early should provide a few opportunities to pick up slot redfish.
8/14 Aransas Pass/Rockport - Thank you to our Longtime sponsors Ron Hoover RV and Marine for sponsoring our site for another year. Thank you Steven Roberson and my pal Lana Bradley. Capt Dean Thomas at Slowrideguide.com says the bite for trout along the Lydia Ann Channel is still strong but the size has gone way down so he is concentrating on fishing the deeper flats such as Ransom and sticking it out drifting and throwing topwaters over sand spots in the grass. The reds have been running just over legal and his biggest trout Thursday was 23 inches and came at 1:30 in the afternoon in 12 inches of water. I know - Not what you'd think! The crowds are down so good luck!
7/24/ Aransas Pass/Rockport - Everyone is bracing themselves for Hanah this weekend. Earlier this week trout were all along the Lydia Ann Channel for those fishing live bait and soft plastics. Expect the redfish bite to improve in the flats after Hanah passes with a fresh influx of cooler water and higher tides from the Gulf.
7/10 Aransas Pass/Rockport - Going to be a busy weekend the water has dropped out but that won't hurt the kayakers fishing the lighthouse lakes and brown and root flat. You might want to concentrate on the drop offs and fish the Lydia ann and some of the other big channels in the deeper grassier areas with 4 inch shad tail plastics or live bait if you're looking for trout.
6/19 Aransas Pass/Rockport - Captain Dean Slowride Thomas at Slowrideguide.com reports that the water is still very high. Reds are up on the flats but they are not in schools one here another at another spot but the trout bite is back on in those grassy deeper areas off the flats and they are good sized too hitting K-Wigglers in the Flomingo color on 1/8 ounce jigheads.
6/11 Aransas Pass/Rockport - Captain Dean Slowride Thomas at Slowrideguide.com did well Wednesday in the high water drifting the flats around Ransom and Traylor islands getting redfish and trout on topwaters. Thursday the winds were out of the northwest and he never seemed to find the redfish driving around drifting the flats. He found some trout slicks in the deeper grass dropoffs but was never able to get the boat to drift right and only saw a few keeper trout. Expect the normal conditions of reds up high and trout in the deeper grassy dropoffs once the wind switches to the Southeast. Captain Sutton Schoonover of Full Circle Outdoors is working the shallower grassy areas with a lot of current for trout early then the deeper areas as the day wears on and has been getting limits.
5/22 Aransas Pass/ Rockport -Dean Slowride Thomas at slowrideguide.com He's booked up this weekend. The tides are still high and the winds got up to 40 miles an hour Thursday. Bite was tough in all of that wind. But Dean says the reds are on the flats hitting topwaters and soft plastics. If the wind and rain comes and slows down the wind he should be able to fish the deeper grass areas off the flats for trout.
5/15 Aransas Pass/Rockport - Dean Slowride Thomas of slowrideguide.com who says "the hight tide continuses and the redfish action has been good on the shallow flats with topwaters and soft plastics.. For me the bigger trout have been hard to find but we've been getting lots of schoolies on the deeper grass beds and along the edges of the shallow flats. Next week we have a new moon and hopefully some bigger trout will be in the mix."
5/8 Aransas Pass/Rockport - Aransas Pass Captain Sutton Schoonover of Full Circle Outdoors says "Fishing is hot in waist deep water with grass and current for trout. Catching better fish on the lightly wind blown shorelines. Most of the slot reds are coming from the same water. Shallow reds are feeding mostly at night and early in the morning on the full moon phase that just ended. Drum are in the shell bottom areas with cuts in dirty and cleaner water." Just search for Full Circle Outdoors on Facebook to book Captain Sutton.
Dean Slowride Thomas of slowrideguide.com says "Super high tide around the lighthouse lakes and Brown and Root flats and South Bay makes kayaking very good except for the wind.. Lots of red action shallow it's a full moon backside phase so they're way back in the lakes. Lots of speckled trout being caught in 4 to 6 feet of water along the edges of the shallow flats."5/1 Aransas Pass Rockport - The Conn Brown Harbor Boat ramp is open! Captain Dean Slowride Thomas slowrideguide.com was out and found some trout on East Flats near Island Moorings. The hot bite in the channel near the Quarantine Shoreline slowed from last week but he was able to pick up some reds on topwaters - spook jr bone pattern in the flats in one foot of water drifting Ransom and Dagger Island flats. Captain Sutton Schoonover of Full Circle Guide Service says the reds are getting sunburned in the lakes on the backside of San Jose Island. The trout bite has been good in the deeper water and they are still picking up a few oversized black drum in the deeper ship channels.
4/25 Aransas Pass Rockport - The only ramps open that we know of are the San Pat County ramp and Goose Island State Park ramp. Capt Sutton Schoonover of Full Circle Outdoors says " Fishing has been on fire lately. Catching upper slot reds sight casting in the flats on grass lines in about waist deep water on calmer days. Sunny days redfish are inhaling topwaters early mornings when it has been nice, cloudy and foggy. We have also been landing some nice trout all around 25 to 27 inches hanging around oyster beds as they are spawning. It's a great time to be on the water as Spring has sprung..
4/10 Rockport via Tp&W - GOOD. 72-74 degrees. Mostly clear. All beaches and parks have been closed until April 14th. Shore fishing is still allowed at this time. Redfish are very good, using small white shrimp or finger mullet around the flats and edges. Trout are very good on mullet or shrimp and are being found around the shoreline. Flounder have been good on mullet near the rocks. Black drum are very good and will be found around grass beds- blue crab or mullet.
3/07 Rockport via TP&W -GOOD. 61-63 degrees. Redfish are very good using mullet, mud minnows, or blue crab around the flats and channel edges. Trout are excellent on mullet and are around the reef. Flounder have been good on mullet near the rocks. Black drum are really picking up and will be found around grass beds- best bait right now since live shrimp has been scarce is mullet.
2/07 Aransas Pass Rockport - Lots of redfish reported in the clear water of the back lakes last weekend for Full Circle Outdoors' Capt Sutton Schoonover and my friends Taylor Garcia, and Leo Juarez III. On Sunday they caught over 60 slot and oversized reds sightcasting soft plastics in gin clear water. Expect more of the same until Sunday when the winds pick up possibly stirring up the visibility.
1/31 Aransas Pass via Dean Slowride Thomas - Good redfish being caught slow rolling soft plastics over grass on the flats. They are not easy to catch however sight casting. Trout are good. Once you find them you will find a lot. Fish drains off the flats and drop offs in 4 to 6 feet of water using soft plastics.
1/17 Aransas Pass via Dean Thomas - The reds are still in almost a summer pattern Dean says and they are hitting topwaters shallow. Watch out for Duck hunters and the next front coming in Saturday night!
12/27 Rockport via TPW - GOOD. 59 degrees. Redfish are fair if free-lining shrimp along the dropoff deep channels. Trout are drifting and wading over hard sand with shell pockets. Almost any artificial swim or natural bait are producing. Flounder are poor.
12/11 Rockport Via TPW - GOOD. Redfish are GOOD, on live and artificial baits. Be on the lookout close to shorelines for fleeing bait, accompanied by sounds of splashing, as redfish have been feeding close to the grassy edges. Trout continue to be EXCELLENT on lighter colored artificial bait such as Gulp shrimp under a popping cork. Live or fresh dead bait is always a good alternative. Flounder are FAIR, around structure and sandy bottoms, slowly working baits along the bottom. Watch out Duck season begins again so be careful if you are kayaking in the back lakes.
11/7 Aransas Pass via Dean Thomas - Fishing was tough today though they managed a good number of trout and redfish on soft plastics and topwaters. www.slowrideguideservice.com
11/1 Aransas Pass Rockport - Duck season opens Nov 2nd so watch out for airboats in the back lakes of the Lighthouse Lakes and San Jose. If in kayaks it might be better to wait until after 10am for the duck hunters to get off of the water. Tight turns and limited visibility make it dangerous for kayaks. From TPW earlier this week for Rockport "GOOD. 77–78 degrees. Redfish are good in 2 feet of water on shrimp, KWigglers paddle tail, top waters and will be found in schools. Trout are good in grass on shrimp, KWigglers ball tail, and top waters."
10/17 Aransas Pass via Dean Slowride Thomas - In spite of the rain and fronts redfish are still on the flats hitting Dean's favorite bone spook jrs. www.slowrideguideservice.com
10/03 Aransas Pass via Dean Slowride Thomas - Lots of upper slot and a fewoversized reds hitting topwaters - bone spook jr's. Trout are in the mix too. www.slowrideguideservice.com
9/26 Aransas Pass via Dean Slowride Thomas - Lots of slot and oversized reds running everywhere. Best bites early and late with lots of mullet and other bait roaming the flats. www.slowrideguideservice.com
9/19 Aransas Pass via Dean Slowride Thomas - A tough day finding reds which were everywhere during the stormy weekend. No reds but lots of small keeper and undersized trout fishing the Terminal Flats and Estes Flats area in 2 feet of water using soft plastics and topwaters. www.slowrideguideservice.com
9/12 Rockport via Texas Parks and Wildlife - "Redfish are fair to good on the shallow blackwater areas. Trout are good in usually better along deeper grass beds on main–bay shorelines where the bottom is firmer, mostly hard sand."
8/21 Rockport via Texas Parks and Wildlife - "Trout are fair in the guts and channels on free–lined shrimp. Trout are fair over grass while drifting with live shrimp. Redfish are good on the flats on mullet."
8/08 Aransas Pass via Captain Dean "Slowride" Thomas - Dean says earlier this week the water was up and the redfish and black drum were tailing in the Lighthouse Lakes for his kayaking clients. The water was too skinny for boats but the kayaks got where the fish were way back in the mangroves. Topwaters worked well for the redfish and spoon lures and crab imitation flies worked well on the black drum. https://www.facebook.com/slowrideguide/
7/31 Rockport via TPW - Redfish are good on mullet on the Estes Flats and around Mud Island. Trout and redfish are good on the St. Joe shoreline on Gulps and topwaters.
7/25 Aransas Pass Via Dean Slowride Thomas - Dean says the tide is back up and this week has been great drifting over grass and sand pockets throwing topwaters for lots of redfish and trout. Preferred lures have been the Spook Jr in Bone, Redfish, and trout patterns.
7/11 Rockport via TPW - "Trout are fair in the guts and channels on free–lined shrimp. Trout are fair over grass while drifting with live shrimp. Redfish are good on mullet on the Estes Flats and around Mud Island."
6/5 Rockport via TPW - "Trout are fair in the guts and channels on free–lined shrimp. Trout are fair over grass while drifting with live shrimp. Trout are fair at Traylor Island on live bait."
5/16 Aransas Pass/ Rockport - Babes on the Bay this weekend so expect a bunch of folks out on the water! Texas Parks and Wildlife reports this week on Rockport "Trout are fair in the guts and channels on free–lined shrimp."
Dean Thomas of Slowride Guide Service was casting at lots of redfish tails earlier this week in the Aransas Pass Area. Tides are up in the bay.
5/3 Aransas Pass/Rockport - The 8th annual Rock the Dock Boat Show going on today thru Sunday at 5 at the Redfish Bay at the Redfish Bay Boathouse. TPW reports- Trout are fair to good in the guts and channels on free–lined shrimp. Black drum are good in the Lydia Ann Channel on crabs. Trout are fair over grass while drifting with live shrimp.
4/5 Rockport - Texas Parks and Wildlife reports - "Trout are fair to good in the guts and channels on free–lined shrimp. Trout are fair over grass while drifting with live shrimp. Redfish are good on the Estes Flats on shrimp and topwaters.
3/20 Rockport - Reds and flounder in the back lakes.TPW reports - Trout are fair to good in the guts and channels on free–lined shrimp. Trout are fair over grass while drifting with live shrimp. Redfish are good on the Estes Flats on shrimp and mullet."
3/13 Rockport - Texas Parks and Wildlife reports - "Black drum are fair to good in Morris–Cummings Cut on free–lined shrimp. Black drum are good in the Lydia Ann Channel on crabs. Redfish are fair to good in the back of Allyn’s Bight."
2/7 Rockport - Texas Parksand Wildlife reports -"Redfish are fair on the Estes Flats on mullet in sand pockets. Black drum are good in the Lydia Ann Channel on crabs. Trout are fair over grass while drifting with live shrimp."
Captain Dean at Slowride Guide service got a nice trout today.
12/13 Rockport - Texas Parks and Wildlife reports - "Trout are fair on the edge of the ICW on glow DOA Shrimp."
11/16 Rockport - Texas Parks and Wildlife reports - "Trout are fair on the edge of the ICW on glow DOA Shrimp. Redfish are fair to good on the Estes Flats and in the holes on mullet and shrimp."
11/9 Rockport - Texas Parks and Wildlife reports "Bull redfish are good in the Lydia Ann Channel on crabs. Trout are fair over grass while drifting with live shrimp. Redfish are good on the Estes Flats on mullet and shrimp. "
11/2 Rockport - Texas Parks and Wildlife reports "Redfish are good on mullet on the Estes Flats and around Mud Island. Bull redfish are good in the Lydia Ann Channel on mullet. Trout are good on topwaters at Allyn’s Bight while wading sand and grass humps."
10/18 Rockport - Texas Parks and Wildlife reports - "Trout are fair on the edge of the channel on glow DOA Shrimp and Gulps. Redfish are fair to good in the holes along the Estes Flats on mullet and shrimp."
10/11 Estes Flats Weekend Report via Bulldog1935 - Full Report HERE
10/04 Rockport - Texas Parks and Wildlife reports - "Trout are good on topwaters along the south shoreline. Trout are fair over grass while drifting with live shrimp. Redfish are fair to good on the Estes Flats on mullet and shrimp."
9/13 Rockport - Texas Parks and Wildlife reports "Redfish are good on mullet on the Estes Flats and around Mud Island. Trout and redfish are good in the back of Allyn's Bight and schooling."
9/06 Rockport - Texas Parks and Wildlife reports "Redfish are good on mullet on the Estes Flats and around Mud Island. Trout and redfish are good in the back of Allyn's Bight and schooling. "
8/29 Rockport - TP and W says "Redfish are good on mullet on the Estes Flats and around Mud Island. Trout and redfish are good in the back of Allyn’s Bight." Don't forget to renew those licenses this weekend!
Port Aransas has fair speckled trout at the jetties on live shrimp and piggy perch.
8/22 Rockport - TP and W says "Redfish are good on mullet on the Estes Flats and around Mud Island. Trout and redfish are good on the St. Joe shoreline on Gulps and topwaters."
7/14 Ransom Island - Joe Poole and Slowride tooled around in Joe's new skiff and got reds on topwaters. TPW reports from Rockport "Trout are fair on free–lined shrimp in the deep channels. Trout are fair over grass while drifting with live shrimp. Redfish are fair to good in the deep guts with low tides"
6/14 Rockport via TP & W - "Trout are fair in the guts and channels on free–lined shrimp. Trout are fair to good on the outside beaches of Traylor Island on croakers. Redfish are good on mullet on the edge of Estes Flats and around Mud Island."
Fulton:The 9th Annual Texas Game Warden Association Fishing Tournamet and Music Fest will be held Friday and Saturday June 15th and 16. For more information go HERE
5/31 Rockport Via TP & W - "Trout are fair to good in the guts and channels on free–lined shrimp. Trout are fair over grass while drifting with live shrimp. Redfish are good on mullet on the Estes Flats. " Rudy's Cuties Ladies tournament going on in Aransas Pass Friday Captain's meeting tourney Saturday Redfish Bay Boathouse.
5/18 Babes on the Bay - Saturday is the big tournament with 800 participants expected. Watch for crowds and be courteous.
TPW says for Rockport "Trout are fair to good in the guts and channels on free–lined shrimp. Trout are fair over grass while drifting with live shrimp. Redfish are good on mullet in the deep guts on the outgoing tide."
4/5 Redfish Bay via Dean Slowride Thomas - Dean and Kingz wore the big reds out this morning on topwaters. The tide is way up and the reds are there you just have to do some prospecting. Best colors of course were Dean's favorite Bone Spook Jr. and the baby redfish pattern of the same lure. Trout are good near the channel around the spoil islands. The big shocker is the lack of crowds for this time of year. Hotel capacity in Aransas Pass is up to 60% so please give Dean a call at Slowride Guide Service 361-758-0463
3/24 TPW Reports this week - Trout are fair to good in Morris–Cummings Cut on free–lined shrimp. Black drum are good in the Lydia Ann Channel on crabs. Trout are fair over grass while drifting with live shrimp and topwaters.
3/5 TPW Reports for the week of 2/28 - Bull redfish are good in the Lydia Ann Channel on crabs. Trout are fair over grass while drifting with topwaters. Redfish are fair to good on the Estes Flats on mullet and shrimp.
2/14 TPW Reports - Trout are fair to good in Morris–Cummings Cut on free–lined shrimp. Black drum are good in the Lydia Ann Channel on crabs. Trout are fair over grass while drifting with live shrimp.
2/1 Aransas Pass -Kingz and NaplesJohn had a banner day in the marsh on 1/31 catching limits of reds on catch 2000's and soft plastics. What full moon?
12/1 Aransas Pass - Duck hunters are off until December 9th and there are redfish on the flats. Slowride Dean Thomas, George and John got into some nice topwater reds at Lighthouse Lakes using Spook Jr's.
Brought to you by Ron Hoover RV and Marine Rockport
11/11 Aransas Pass Topwater Bite On - Dean Thomas of Slowride Guide Service and Carrie Scruggs enjoyed Veteran's Day with great topwater action on trout and reds in Aransas Bay.
11/08 Rockport Via Capt Brent Hopkins of Ace in the Hole Guide Service - Day two with these guys. Only thing different is the trip was a little nasty with the weather we have in the area today. Cool, cloudy, wet, windy, and dreary made for some patients, but we got em!
10/25 CaptD Jones - I made a run over to Redfish bay between Aransas pass and port a. Launched from the public ramp in Aransas pass. All the bait stands are open and have plenty of good size shrimp. It looks to me like most of the debris in all the channels have been remove and the sunken boats in Conn brown harbor have been removed. The weather was awesome but had some high pressure building making the bite a bit slow. The fish were hitting live and dead shrimp in the United Channel. I have pretty much changed all of my tactics to include DSL lures but yesterday i couldn't manage but one hit all day when using them. It appeared that the bite was off as only 1 person was cleaning 1 fish. I also caught a very nice gafftop (sailcat) close to 8lbs.and released him as i really don't like to mess with them. Anyway til next time good luck to all
9/27 Rockport via Capt Brent Hopkins of Ace in the Hole Guide Service - "Catching seems to be getting a little better every day that i go out. The water is salting back real good with this bull tide we have going on right now, but it seems to be scattering the fish somewhat.
Today and yesterday I managed to put my clients limits of reds along with a couple of other species."
9/20 Ron Hoover RV and Marine Open! - I spoke to Lana Bradley today. They just got phone service today in fact. They have sustained considerable damage but are making repairs and are open for business.
8/28 Prayers to all affected by Hurricane Harver, Aransas Pass, Rockport, Fulton, Copano Bay - I know these comunnities will come back but they will need tourists even if overnight accomodations are difficult. Restaurants, gift shops, stores and fishing businesses could sure use your help.
7/21 Rockport Via SandJKENNELS - Who reported "Fished Rockport yesterday. Trout are biting in the bay on croaker. We found them early shallow and then deeper later on in the day. Bite was slow but there. No live shrimp or fresh dead was available at Sea Gun on Copano then. Maybe now."
7/7 Aransas Pass Area via Slowride Guide Service - There are some new rocks around Ransom Island that have begun producing trout lately. Portland shoreling rocks are holding good numbers of trout. The reds are up on the flats really early then scatter to deeper water when the sun comes up. Early they are hitting topwaters then in deeper water they are catching the trout over grass in four to six feet of water on pink Stoker Shrimp tails with 1/8th ounce jigheads.
6/3 Lighthouse Lake Reds via StixHD -
5/30 Rockport report Memorial Day Weekend - Here is Jeff's report
5/28 Ace in the Hole Guide Service - Capt. Brent Hopkins clients got limits of 25" and above slot reds and also released severl oversized reds using mullet.
5/18 Babes on the Bay this Weekend! - Good Luck to all of the competitors! http://www.babesonthebay.com
4/20 Aransas Pass Slowride Guide Services - Tides are up and the redfish are in. George aka Kingz Stevens with a slot red picked up on a Mann's one minus shallow running crank bait
10/28 Aransas Pass via SMFiredog - "Wife and I Fished out of conn brown yesterday. Wind from NE and E 10-15. Falling tide till about 11:00 then incoming rest of day. Tides are still way high making fish hard to find and pattern. Water temp from 77.5 to 79.8 according to Lowrance. Boats everywhere. Don't fish weekends for this reason but some weekdays are getting tough too. Fished from 10:00 am till about 3:00 pm. Caught 15-20 flounder 12-13 inches in a slough near light house on Berkeley gulp swimming mullet in pink. If you found an Eddie you found flounder. Wife caught tworedfish 22, 26 inches on cut pinfish. Moved into back lakes where reds were destroying mullet, lots of blowups but no takers on bone one knocker and spook jr.. Then moved over to Corpus Christi bayou area and found lots of dink trout no keepers. Found an area between hog island and old terminal causeway that was muddied up bad. First cast on edge of mud line and hooked a ginormous cow nose ray. After freeing him we proceeded to catch 10-15 14" trout and a few gafftop. Hooked into something that was fast and strong that broke me off about 15 seconds into fight. I was using Berkeley gulp jerk shad nuclear chicken on 1/8 ounce jighead. Wife was using shrimp under an alameda cork. No keepers today but wasn't in need of fish. Freezer still stocked. Just happy to share gods beautiful creation with my best friend. On a side note my wife caught two what I think are gag grouper about 13 inches long in the slough and a lane snapper about same size. Never caught either species inshore after fishing 30+ years. They were caught on cut pinfish in about three feet of water. Anyone else ever heard of this. One of these days I'll learn how to post pics but don't have photobucket or whatever those sites are u need. Anyway tight lines all. See you out there next week.'
9/28 Offshore Action is hot for Blackfin Tuna Crhfish ON the Deep Sea Headquarters 12hr trip 9/28 with Capt James Wheeler - My son and I went out on the 12hr trip yesterday with Capt James on the Pelican out of Deap Sea Headquarters. The target was blackfin Tuna and its easily the best offshore trip we have ever had.
We left at 6am in the dark, it was nice and cool with a fair chop and what I would call confused seas due to some storms out in the gulf. While it was sunny here in town, we had overcast skies most of the day with some showers. Nice fishing weather, not hot, only 18 people on board.
We were into fish on the first stop and really had non stop action for a couple of hours. There were a ton of bonita with the blackfin lurking below. I had my first tuna within 30 seconds of being in the water. I've always wanted to be in the middle of a situation like this with tuna. It was awesome. I had two fish back to back and many times it seemed at least half of us were hooked up on something.
I think we had close to 5 hours of fishing time. I did not fish the last hour and a half. I allready had all the tuna I needed, so I had a few adult beverages and watched. We had fish around us the entire time.
My son and I came home with 8 Blackfin and the boat had 87 total with a large shark and a few kings. I would bet we also caught 200 bonita perhaps more.
Here is our part, 125 lbs of tuna.
Capt James was great and came down and helped us fish. The entire crew was very busy the entire time with all the Bonita and their erratic runs. I think it would be hard to have a better 12hr tuna trip than this one. Nice folks, allot of fish, great crew and cool weather.
I can't wait to go again, but I got to eat some tuna first.8/27 Slowride Guide Service is having a ball on Redfish Bay -My buddy Joe Poole is getting trout and reds on top!
7/28 George AKA Kingz of Slowride Guide Service - Showed Houston Chronicle Outdoors writer Shannon Tompkins a good time this week and his report in the form of Shannon's article is HERE
6/10 Dean Thomas aka Slowride - Tides have been extremely high for a long time. No real sight casting options at the redfish lately. He's been blindcasting at reds in the grassy flats using topwaters. Trout are good along the ship channel using paddle tail soft plastics and of course life bait. The King Mackerel bite off the jetties should be great.
Carrie Scruggs with a nice red that inhaled a bone spook jr. One of Dean's Favorite redfish on the flats lures.
3/1 and 3/2/2016 from SMFIREDOG - "Launched outta Conn Brown to high winds and falling tide around 0930. Tried redfish cove area and caught lots of rat reds. Also saw several big drum tailing in shallow water along the ICW. Went to my HH along the ICW and jackpot. Redfish to 29" were in 3-4 feet of water around guts and drains from shallow flats. Caught 11 in the slot and one 29". Found trout to 19" scattered in 5-6 feet of water in same areas. Caught 7 trout 17"-19". I was throwing Berkley Gulp 6" Jerk Shad in nuclear chicken on 1/4 ounce jig head. My favorite fishing buddy (wife) was using live shrimp. Starting to see a lot of shad showing up in areas. Find the shad and you found fish yesterday. On Tuesday I found about an acre of shad popping out of the water and birds all over them on Quarantine shoreline but not one taker. They were everywhere from 2' to 24'. On this day Trout were thick at L Reef and behind hog island. Couldn't find the Reds this day. Also caught several small flounder around the drains from the LHL. It's looking like its gonna be a stellar spring for fishing."
2/11 Report from SMFIREDOG - "Put in at conn brown around 10 am. Tide was extremely low and still falling. Winds were outta NW 0-5. Water temp 58-59 deg. Started outside dagger in3-4 foot water and nada. Little bait present and lots of boats. Left there and proceeded out in corpus bay toward shamrock to try some wells since it was so calm and little boat traffic out there. Found lots of whiting, sand trout, sheepies, and specks in the 14-17 inch range, still a little early. Two limits of specks caught on live shrimp on the bottom. Left there and noticed tons of mullet on the edge of the intercoastal between ingleside point where they build the big platforms and sun ray. Dropped the trolling motor and started beating the edge with gulps (5" jerk shad in nuclear chicken and new penny chartreuse mantis shrimp on1/8 ounce jig head). My wife and I caught 11 reds from 22-29 right on the first drop off from the shore on the west side of the ditch in about 2 feet of water. (I won't say who caught more fish, but my beautiful wife tends to exaggerate if you happen to speak to her) Kept 3 reds and 10 whiting for dinner all other fish released to play another day. Saw another boat fishing the east side catching lots of dinks. Fished this same area last Thursday and found lots of reds and nice trout (17-20" class) then. Off the water by 2:00. Hope to see y'all out there. Remember to take a kid fishing."
1/14 Aransas Pass via Dean Slowride Thomas - Redfish are good on the flats even though it is cold. They're moving pretty slowly and you have to be patient and sneak up on them but if you do they can be caught. But if they are spooked they are done. A lot of trout in deeper water in 4 to 6 feet over grass bads on soft plastics- white paddle tails.
12/16 Aransas Pass via Smfiredog 12/15 - Made a trip with my lovely wife yesterday. Put in at Conn Brown around 10:00 am and ran to the Lydia Ann fishing around the drains coming out of the back lakes in the lighthouse area. Flounder were thick but mostly small 13-14 inch range caught 13 with only 3 keeper size, no big girls. Redfish were swarming too, caught 10 in the slot and several rats. Fishing in 2-3 foot of water using live mullet, live shrimp, and 3 inch curly tails in red and white on 1/2 ounce jig head. Left there and ran to the intersection of old terminal causeway and the intercoastal and found trout from 13-22 inches in about 5 feet of water in a drain off the flats. Saw lots of birds working Quarintine but it was to rough to fish for my liking. All fish were cpr'd. Tide was outgoing and wind was east 10-15, water temp averaged 68-69 degrees. Left them biting around 2:30 PM.
11/12 Kingz from Aransas Pass 11/10 - >...outta AP, not too terrible...
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...topwaters delivered...
.................................................11/2 Dean Slowride Thomas - Dean says he's been getting reds and trout. Specks show up this time of year where he's been catching reds all summer. Drifting the flats over the in the higher water blind casting with soft plastics and topwaters.
From 10/27
10/5 Lighthouse Lakes Report via Kingz - >Fished a small group this w/end outta Light House Lakes, scratched out a decent stringer deep in the lakes...
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....Tides about over foot above what I like to sightcast, but topwaters and crankbaits found these guys some fish...Despite the bananas...
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Thinkin bout the people involved in that tragic accident over the w/end, stay safe gentlemen...G9/23 Aransas Pass Redfish via Gotta Catchem All - Thanks to the reports on here I found a spot in AP without red tide this past Saturday to make this video(12min):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IljqkQzem-I
I'm trying to do something new with commentary while I fish and voice over, which is so much harder than I thought. Props to Prof. Salt and NextLevel fishing and many more! I love watching fishing videos and had a lot of fun making this one too.
This is the first red I caught, which was on a spoon. Was throwing a topwater, but switched to a spoon since the fish were just splashing at it.
8/15 Kingz aka George with at Report - ...some are more difficult than others...
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Had a few yesterday on topwaters outside Aransas...G6/25 Captain Dean Thomas of Slowride Guide Service says the trout are biting well and tides are up. - He's been working the ship channel spoil islands near Ingelside in 3 to 4 feet of water using glow and chartreuse tail paddle tail lures. The reds have been scarce lately he says they haven't been tailing in the usual shallow spots this week. The paddles tail action is also working for trout on the back side of San Jose Island Lydia Ann Channel area. Jacks are out in that area as well. Look for them hitting glass minnows and wreaking havoc!
6/12 Capt Slowride Dean Thomas - Says the reds are up skinny in the lakes early for you kayakers. For trout he's been running up the Ship Channel from Port Aransas back up towards Shamrock fishing the edges of spoil island with pearl and chartreuse paddle tails picking up good sized fish.
Here's a typical topwater red from this week
6/2 Grasscutter's Aransas Pass Report - Started on top of steadmans with a spook about daylight. Water was dead and no takers. Set up a drift to both sides with bait under thunder. Still dead. Went in search of fresher water and scooted out to the ship channel area. Started hooking up with trout. Guess I couldn't hide it enough because soon there were two boats with me. Then a third came in under trolling motor power and anchored, cutting off my drift. So, it was time to go. I nicely trolled out then headed to a like area a mile or so down and started hooking up again. And again, a boat comes in tight and trolls across my drift within 50 yards or so. They didn't anchor though and eventually moved on down the road doing their thing. Boxed five healthy trout, one over 18, all in about 5 ft of water, on pink thunder, 29 in. Flouro leader, no jewelry.
4/21 Redfish Bay from SMFIREDOG - Fished the area around Ransom and Dagger Islands Tuesday before storms pushed us off the water. Tide was high and falling with partly cloudy skies. Water temp 74.6 degrees. Launched around 1030 and ran down intercoastal toward Dagger. There were boats everywhere. Saw some birds working near the intersection of United Channel. Set up a drift and picked up some dink trout in about 20 inches of water over grass. Moved on to the inside of Dagger where I spotted baitfish fleeing and a huge muddy spot where redfish were rooting. Set up and drifted across the flats. Found several (10-12) nice trout 17-20 and six nice reds 20-27 near the edge of the flat next to a spoil island in about 2 feet of water. Liar birds were working and actually leading to the fish. My wife using shrimp under an alameda float picked off the trout and I used Berkley Gulp Jerk Shad in new penny to slay the Redfish. Lots of tiny shrimp in the grass. Kept one 20 inch Red and trout for dinner. The fish seemed to be keying in on the flats close to drains near the intercoastal(within 100 yards), but not in the drains. Found nothing in the middle of the flats. Off the water by 1330. Had a great time with the best fishing partner ever. Good Luck out there.
3/26 Kingz Redfish Bay Report - Spent two long days(Mon, Tues) with gentlemen outta Canada and the Carolinas documenting our south Texas waters...
Shot a couple of stills thought I'd share...
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Showed 'em plenty tails...from the northern edge of Redfish Bay, to south end of East Flats...Soft plastics early and blind casting Spook Jrs aft the wind came up...
Hope the crew is well...GCBfishing88's Estes Flats Report - Got my first inshore slam in Texas Tuesday. Took awhile but finally found them. Although small it still counts!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbqEgOmtbwc&feature=youtu.be
1/20 CBfishing88's Estes Flats Report - "Was able to finally take the kayak out at Estes Flats after all the cold and rain. Tried topwaters targeting reds but that did not pan out however I started using plastics in a deep cut and couple 50+ schoolie trout. All except for one were throwbacks but it was still great catching something every other cast. I attached a link of the highlights of the trip."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r08-Ho5arPQ
12/29 Aransas Bay Report via Reallifetexan -
We got on the water today about lunchtime, the bay was flat and winds calm - a really nice day. We tried 2 different spots, one produced nothing but the other did fairly well. While fishing, we got to see this litter critter:
See if you can see the baby raccoon. At one point, he actually got in the water and looked like he was going to swim over to us, but I think he realized how cold the water was and turned right back around and got back on land.
As for fishing, we caught numerous drum, reds, and a flounder. Many of them were just under the limit, my son caught another in a long line of 19" reds. Bait varied between artificial (gulp shrimp), dead shrimp, and live mullet. We did manage 3 keeper drum (15, 17, and 19 inches) and 1 red (24.5 inches). I managed to keep my camo crocs out of the picture this time:
It was truly a beautiful day to be on the water fishing, Probably the last nice day before I have to go back home, the rest of this week is supposed to be windy, cold, and/or rainy. It was a great way to round out 2014 and look towards 2015. Hope everyone had a merry Christmas and will have a happy New Year!12/26 - 12/27 Aransas Bay Report via Reallifetexan -
Went out Friday morning - started late, around 9am, and thought we might find fertile grounds in the Lydia Ann channel, so out we ventured. We tried several spots for a couple of hours, and all we caught were hardheads and a puffer fish. We then proceeded to work our way back up the chain of islands there, and couldn't even get a bite. By mid afternoon, we decided to abandon that strategy and struck out for a spot that is difficult to get to due to shallow water, but has produced in the past, and as soon as we got there, the drum were on. We caught lots of small drum and reds, but ended up boating 5 keepers and taking home 4. My oldest son caught the largest, we estimated it to be a little over 20", but we never got to measure it because he put the fish grippers on its mouth and proudly held it up for the world to see, but it slipped out of the grips, fell on the edge of the boat, and with a graceful pirouette, flipped right back into the water. Lesson learned on that one.
On Saturday, we got an earlier start and were on the water around 7:45am, but the wind was a lot stronger and we decided to just poke around the flats instead of braving the bay. We picked an area and did intermittent drifts, picking up three keeper reds - 21", 22.5", and 24". My two boys and I each caught one, and the size of the fish was inversely proportional to the age of the fisherman.
The duck hunters in their airboats were out in full force, those things sure make a lot of racket when they're pointed away from you. Not bad mouthing them, I know they're handy, but when you're trying to sneak up on redfish they can be a bit much.
One funny note: when we got back to the boat launch, I tied up the boat and went to get the truck and trailer, and as I was walking to the truck, I saw one duck hunter come running past me, stop, and then yell at someone who was walking toward him, "Hey, get the dog!" The other person stopped walking, turned around, and ran back to their truck to get their lab they had forgotten in the truck. I chuckled and then went about my business. After I had backed the trailer into the water, I walked over to the boat and as I started to get in, I realized that the same lab I just saw was standing in the back of my boat. I looked at my boys and asked what the heck was going on, and they said that the 2 duck hunters had loaded everything up and enthusiastically pushed off to go hunting, and left the dog on the dock. In an effort to get to them, it had gotten in our boat and was then patiently waiting on its masters to return, which they did. I swear the look on that dog's face was priceless! I'll let you fill in the blanks on what it looked like the dog was thinking..12/10 Captain Dean Thomas of Slowride Guide Service says the trout bite is on- Fishing the dropoffs around the flats such as Brown and Root, Ransom and Estes Flats using white paddle tails has produced easy 5 five limits the past few days. Dean says it is that warm weather that has them active particularly on the incoming afternoon tide. Most of the keepers have been in the 17 - 19 " range with a few over 20". The redfish are still tailing on the flats.
Here are some action shots.
The brains behind the Slowride operation Jennifer Thomas
And another limit from Dean's kayak
11/8 Kingz and Captain Dean Still on the reds - Dean says he has been working some slot and pig reds the past two days on the Mud Island Flats and back lacks of San Jose Island Yes in spite of the cold water. He's surprised but they are working the swirls and splashes in 18 inches of water over mud and about one in ten will take their suspending 51m red head white body mirrolures but when they do it's a good one. Duck hunting is off the chart too for redheads, pintails and widgeon.
Kingz with a nice red
Dean with a slot
11/16 Kingz and Captain Dean Get Out Ahead of Next Front - We were looking for it this morning...But only a couple...
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10/30 Captain Dean Slowride Thomas reports - Water level is normal with high tide in the morning and dropping out until noon. Tailing reds at Mud Islandflats, St Joe's lakes hitting topwater and flies and then after that action slows down he's been fishing the drop offs and getting lots of trout on down south paddle tail. REMEMBER DUCK SEASON STARTS SATURDAY so you might want to fish the Light House Lakes Area late.
Here's my man Kingz with a nice red from today
9/25 Cedar Bayou is Open! - Yep, it's official now since I see our CCA Flag waving proudly.
Today is the day!! Cedar Bayou has officially opened, and it couldn't have happened without YOU! A giant thank you to our generous and dedicated members and partners who made the restoration of this iconic pass a reality!! Photos Courtesy CCA Texas
9/20 Captain Dean Says - The water is high and they are having their best luck blindcasting topwaters for redfish as they are not tailing much. Black drum are all over the flats. Even the Sheepshead will hit a fly too!
9/3 Captain Dean Slowride Thomas Says - Temps are down some and the days are getting shorter but the water is still high. Places in the Light House Lakes that are normally ankle deep are now waist deep. He says for best results try blind casting spook jr's anywhere you see bait activity. The water is too high for tailing action he says. For bait tossers it is hard to be drifting the sand pockets with cut mullet or cut menhaden.
Here's Dean with a nice red 9/4
8/ 24 Copano Drum! - John Trevino and his buddy Richard caught and released these two large Black Drum that hit at the same time while they were fishing the bridge in Copano Bay
8/ 16 Lower tides Hampering Fishing Flats - Stick to the edges of the spoil islands and flats in deeper water for trout and redfish. Redfish have been out only early in the shallows.
7/29 Captain Dean Thomas of Slowride Guide Service Says - You need to get out at the crack of dawn if you want to fish shallow right now. Some of the flats near the ICW in Aransas Pass are holding reds early but the action is done by 7:45 Here is an example from this morning.
There have been trout deep just off the spoil islands and flats where there was deep grass when the water was up but now even the oyster bed by Brown and Root is dry during high tide.
During the calmer days Dean has been taking his skiff out to the Port A Jetties and fishing for King Mackerel and even getting Bonita to hit on topwaters using XFactor lures by Rapala. Dean says he's not exaggerating when he has seen kings jump close to twenty feet out of the water with with the topwaters in their mouths. Look for kings slashing bait in the channel.
Dean took this one on a diving lure which was one of the rare times they could troll due to the sargassum.
5/14 Weekend Fun with Kingz and some Waders! - Had some real players this w/end...Weren't happy drifting, chose to get out and wade...
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Nice guys outta Dallas...
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.5/12 Spring Tides are Up, Redfish in the Flats and Babes on the Bay this Weekend in Rockport - Expect Big Crowds and lots of determined anglers. www.babesonthebay.com/
4/20 Rockport Easter Report via SheSalt - This will have to be short, because its almost 5!
Got to go to the sunrise service on the boat Sunday...which was awesome!
Check it out next year if you're in the Rockport area for Easter.
After the service we grabbed some breakfast tacos and went fishing. Just the lady and I relaxing before the big day coming up next weekend.
The tide was up and so we were shallow. Found reds and solid trout using live shrimp.
4/9 Kingz and the Wildy Crew catching reds in Aransas Pass - Captain Dean Slowride Thomas with a nice red on a Skinny Water Arsenal Lure
More Fun with reds!
3/21 and 22 Kingz fishing with the Wildy Team - Report HERE
3/7 Aransas Pass area via Smfiredog - "Fished Redfish Bay yesterday morning from 0900 to 1600 in and all around Hog Island. Started off at South Bay bait and got some of the most beautiful live shrimp I've ever had. Probably around 15 ct. size. The folks at South Bay are great people and always willing to point you in the right direction. Put in yak across from Finn and Feather where they are building the new Kayak launch and dock then paddled across the shrimp boat channel and started fishing in about 6 feet of water. I was throwing topwaters, killer flats minnow, and gulps. My best and most beautiful fishing partner was throwing popping cork and live shrimp. As we paddled and drifted deep to shallow I had one hit on Flats Minnow in about a foot of water. The water was Gin clear and a few big mullet up shallow. We fished all the way up to the first cut and nothing. Paddled through the cut and fished the downwind/down current side(tide was rippin in) and nothing. Followed the cut around into a little backwater marsh and saw a few reds but no takers. Partner caught a big sheepie next to the oysters. Tried drifting the flats and nada. Fished close to the channel, shallow, deep, around the platforms, oysters, grass, mud, sand, and crapola. Everyone I came across sang the same song. There were plenty of mullet(as this is what I was looking for to find the fish) in some places, mostly 10-18 inches of water, but no takers. I have never been skunked this bad. Hope yall are doing better. Till next time, good luck."
2/16 Rockport via SheSaltGuy - "Went out for a couple hours before dark on Sunday. Fished dead shrimp around blackjack pt and found alot of puppy drum and a few rat reds. Managed 2 keeper drum before heading in. Fishing on bottom with no weight/light jighead and small hook was best for actually getting the puppy on the hook.
People are finding alot of keeper drum right now. Just wasn't in the cards for me Sunday."2/3 Rippinlips Superbowl Sunday Report - I know I'm a lil bit late on this report but I thought I would go ahead and share anyway. Well it was kinda short and sweet bc we had a front that was forecasted to be moving in around noon. So I headed out around 8am to see if I could find a few trout. Fished the Aransas Pass area and started out with about 6 undersized reds that were all quickly released. I was fishing an area that was about 3' deep and real close to a channel. After I weeded through all the rat reds the dink trout bite started. And I mean these trout were DINKS !!! LOL, some were around the 10' mark. Hahaha, anyway I made a move and fished some pot holes over grass and picked up one of my keeper trout for the day that went 18". By this time it was almost 10:00am and I was about ready to head back to the dock when all the sudden my plug got NAILED !!!! Drag rippin and line runnin off my curado I finally finessed the fish toward the boat. I got my net ready and it was a very nice 24" trout. I would just call it a day with the two keepers and head back to the dock.
The fish were delicious and went on the bbq pit along with the rest of all the food we made that evening. Food was definitely more impressive than the game !!!
12/13 Kingz finds the Trout - ...was the ticket this mornin...
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....soon as the bottom got firm, we were outta the zone...
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Didn't have to measure 'em...Chose to keep 10 between us both...G11/28 - 29 Via RealifeTexan fishing Aransas/Copano Bay Areas - Went out for 2 hours yesterday afternoon to some deeper oyster reefs thinking the cold weather would focus the trout there. The wind was light, water looked good, but me and my 2 sons couldn't even get a bite. Went out with my 12 yr old son today (my 9 yr old opted for the movie after freezing his butt off yesterday) from 1pm - 4pm. Wind was much higher, water was choppy, so we didn't go far, tried a spot that was fairly shallow and had some oyster shell, and ended up finding some drum and trout. The drum were biting very slow (we lost more than we caught due to our impatience), and after we caught 3 drum, suddenly the trout started biting, and we had to switch from not setting the hook for 5 minutes to setting the hook immediately. The trout bite didn't last long, we only got 2, but all in all we were pretty happy. My son caught 3 - 16" and 17" drum, and a 17" trout. I got an 18" drum and a 16" trout.
11/16 LHL and Mud Island - Captain Dean has been on the fish with Stoker Shrimp lures and catching a lot of reds. The water is up and the fishing is good and apparently the reds are eating shrimp. Here is one of the three Dean cleaned that were full of shrimp.
11/11 Aransas Pass Light House Lakes Area via Kingz - He says the fishing is good though it would be better with a little less water. Duck season starts tomorrow.
Here are some recent catches
10/8 Golla Boys Go Floundering 10/5 - Charlie sent me this email and photo "Here's a few the boys stuck over the weekend. Justin & Chris with four of the bigger ones. Super high tides made it hard finding many but the ones they did were big. The largest one in the picture is just over 7-pounds."
10/3 George gets a full house outside Aransas - His story is HERE
9/23 Aranas Pass/Ingleside report via Smfiredog 9/21 - "Took the kayak and fiance to Aransas Pass Saturday morning. Started out around Hog Island. Winds were howling but the fishing was good. Caught several redfish, flounder, and a few baby jacks. Best baits were Berkley pogie in white and New Penny Shrimp Gulps. Ended up keeping one Redfish for dinner. Then around noon loaded up and headed to ingelside. Much more protected and fished with live shrimp and Berkey Gulps New Penny. Fiance caught three keeper drum (good eating size) and mangrove snappers. Also caught several flounder and redfish. Hooked a nice fish that broke me off. About an hour later I returned the scene of the crime and caught a nice redfish that had eighteen inches of flourocarbon leader hanging out of his mouth. You guessed it, my leader. Thats a first. Ton of skippies too. Anyone else seem to notice an overabundance of skipjacks, they seem to be everywhere. Great day fishing. Of course always is when I'm with my best friend. Even when she outfishes me. Lol."
8/30 Bait Balls and Spanish Mackerel off the Port A Jetties via Slowride
8/12 Aransas Pass out to St Joe's via Slowride - Dean says the Lighthouse Lakes and Brown and Root have been too low to fish lately so he's working the area flats between Mud Island and St. Joes for upper slot redfish. The best bite has been on the fly as they are not just fired up to chase plastics or topwaters much.
Meanwhile in the Shrimp Boat Channel the Jacks have been rampaging. Today 8/12 Jennifer Thomas ( The brains behind the SlowRide Guide Service) Gets into the Jack action.
7/9 Aransas Bay Morning Wade 7/7 via Rippinlips - Decided to do a lil early morning wade before it got too hot this afternoon. The tide was pretty slack and the wind was only blowing about 4mph. So the fishin conditions were definitely not ideal this morning. I really like to fish this location on a strong incoming tide do to the way I fish it with the SE wind to my back. It was about 7:00am when I tied on my first Norton Sand eel, I was throwing the dark plum w/ chartreuse tail. I started wading out into about knee deep water and was throwing back toward the shore along a long grass line. It didn't take long to pick up my first red that went 18" and was released. I proceeded to walk the grass line and on about the 6th cast I had my first good hook up, and my curado was peeling off line fast !!!! Got that first red in my net and put it straight on the stringer. Walked about another 30 feet and hooked my next tournament sized redfish and in the net she went & straight on the stringer. Ended up catching a bout 7 dink trout that were released and about another 4 rat reds that were released. I was back in the truck and heading to the house at 8:30am. Im gna fillet em on the 1/2 shell and fire up the smoker pit
NICE SLOT REDS, WISH I WAS FISHIN A TOURNEY THIS MORNIN !!!
6/23 Lighthouse Lakes Sunday Funday with Kingz aka George - Light House Lakes...
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The gentleman caught and released three slots before 8am...
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A good day...G6/17 Aransas Fun with Kingz - ..more fish...Found some redfish over the w/end with NaplesJohn and a gentleman outta SA...Good Saturday outside Aransas rattlin topwaters...
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Bidness pickin up...G5/29 Aransas Pass via Mickeyd - "Winds in Aransas Bay have made fishing tough. Reds are in potholes scattered around Estes Flats but last weekend's traffic probably stirred them up.
Have not heard about trout under the birds in Lydia Ann as of last week but some wade action on backside of Traylor Island for trout.
Seems like Paul's Mott and Alyn's Bight have cooled for black drum action.
Hoping winds lay down around Friday."Marcus Obsessed got this nice 31" red on cut mullet fishing near Ingleside 5/29
5/18 Windy Aransas Pass Report via Jake H - Took my oldest son out with me Saturday to fight the wind and try to catch some fish. Since the wind was so bad I decided I would just anchor and fish some live mullet on bottom and some under a balloon and let my son use fishbites on bottom. He caught a few drum and a bunch of hardheads and I got a limit of keeper reds a few undersized and one big girl that went 37" ish (wasn't able to get a good measurement because my board only goes to 30") I also got two trout in the 18" range and my pb trout at 26"
Sorry I didn't get a good pic of the trout or pics of any other fish. The big red was released. Even though Ive caught lots bigger reds in the surf Im counting this red as a pb too since it is the biggest I've ever pulled out of the bay. I think fighting the wind was well worth two pbs.
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Jake4/14 Redfish Bay via Rippinlips - We had a late start this mornin bc I ended up having to work late through the night. Loaded the boat around 7am and we were on our way to the water. By the time we hit our first spot it was about 8:45am and the wind was about 7mph out of the SSE. I opted to throw top waters and so did my dad. Water conditions were fair with a nice green tint to it, but still a lil off. First drift I picked up a nice fat trout that was right at 15" but he was released, we dont keep em unless they are 16" due to the shrinkage on 40lbs of ice in our cooler. Next cast after that I immediately hook up as soon as I start to "walk the dog" for about 10 seconds, GULP !!!!! I HAVE A BIG TROUT on and she is strippin line off my Curado fast. I get her to the boat and its a solid 25 1/2" trucha !!! Right after my dad nets the fish and Im working on gettin my treble hook out of the fish's mouth, my dad immediately casts back out, and SLURP !!!! FISH ON !!!! I net the fish, and its another solid 25" trout. Back to Back fatties in the cooler. We finish the drift and release about 10 undersized trout so we decided to re-drift it. 2nd pass through produces some more trouser trout, so we decide to make a move before the top water bite dies off.
Next location is a nice lil boat ride away so we hit the throttle and turn on the "air condition" for a minute. Location #2 starts off great and I throw a nice solid 21" trout in the cooler. By this time its about 10:00 and the wind is starting to pick up a lil bit. We continue to work our way drifting the shoreline in about 3-4 feet of water and release about 10 more small trout. We both decided the top water bite was over, so I tied on a pumpkin/chartreuse saltwater assasin and my dad tied on a red shrimptail. On about the 4th drift I pick up another box fish that will only go 16 1/2" and this fish looks like a dwarf compared to the other 3 slobs that are already in the cooler. Around 11:00 the wind is starting to break that 15mph mark and you can tell its gna be the prevailing winds before this front we have coming our way, so we decided to call it a trip and head back to the launch. By noon we had the boat out of the water and were taking pics. All in all it was a great day and we had some solid trout. Another memorable fishin trip with my dad.
-Until the next trip-
My first keeper of the day, solid 25 1/2" trout
My dads first keeper of the day, NICE 25" trout
Ended the day with 4 nice QUALITY TROUT
GREAT DAY ON THE WATER3/29 Aransas Pass via Kingz - ....on topwaters in South Bay outside AP this mornin...
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26 and 28....Have good Easter CCF3/18 Aransas Pass - Slowride Capt. Dean Thomas told me that he had a full spring break of clients both on the boat and in the kayaks and said when the winds allowed he saw all kings of tailing reds though they were very fininnicky and not easy to get to strike. Expect more of the same when tides are up and the water is clear. Here is a nice scene from 3/18
Jennifer Thomas, Ms. Slowride and the brains of the operation is doing guided nature tours.
1/28 Redfish Bay 1/25 via from Rippin Lips - Went out early in the morning with one of my buddies from work in his 21' Shoalwater and hit it hard pluggin with no other than some red/white shrimp tails. The bite was on pretty much from 8-10am and than it just quit. All fish were caught in about 3-4 ft of water and the water clarity was gin clear !!!! We were back to the launch at 10:30. Great day on the water all the way around. Made about 2 gallons of fillets, Im on my way to restocking my freezer now. I was running a lil bit low there for a minute...
1/25/13 - 5 flounder 4 trucha !!!
1/18 Kingz Aransas Pass Report - Very lil water...found some redfish interested in soft plastics cruising down a drop along the Morris-Cummings...couldnt buy a trout...???
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................................12/15 Kingz and Slowride Recently CP'rd Reds -
Lazy I guess... . .................. . G
11/30 Aransas Pass via Anzuelo 11/26 - "Fished the last couple afternoons along the Shrimo Boat Channel. Spooked a lot more flounder than I caught though I did have some fried flounder this evening. "
11/15 Aransas Pass from Mickeyd - Just got in from fishing around the Sailboat Channel, Lydia Ann barge repair area, Lighthouse Lakes entrances and the Shrimp Boat Channel.
Very few fisherpeople out and about. Some duck hunters out at the end of the Sailboat Channel. Nothing until 2:30 when the black drum showed up around the E Shore of Brown and Roots flats by the Sailboat channel. Got a two man limit in an hour and then went hunting reds. Never found any reds but talked to a couple at the fish cleaning station that had a mix of fish from an area N of Mud Island. Reds have been in Estes Flats the last couple of days according to my neighbor. Bites have been late, around 1PM until 4PM or so. Tidal movement has me confused with these NE winds but there was above average water. Most fish being caught on either live or dead shrimp. Nothing on cut mullet.
Hope this helps!
_________________
Mike11/3 Kingz Week in AP - Here is his report!
10/3 Kingz 10/2 Report from Mud Island - Mother..Shipping...
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Lost alotta water during that last front...
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But we were able to scratch out a few along a drop near Mud Island this morning...
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Good mornin, nice weather...G9/19 and 9/21 from Rippin Lips - The first pic was taken on 9/19 and I was fishing the Aransas area in some of my favorite channel slopes for the flounder and picked up a few nice trout as well. Biggest flounder went 19" and the big trout went 22" All fish were caught on plugs. Root beer/orange tail
This second pic was my second day of fishing 9/22 done in the same location, fishing the same techniques. Water was a lil off on this day but the flounder were still hanging out and of course the trout were still abundant as well. The big flounder went 19" and the trout were around the 17-18" range. All fish were caught on plugs. Same as 1st trip.
9/11 Captain Dean Rocks the Kings at the Jetty 9/7- Kings are biting well inshore with bull reds, trout, spanish mackerel and tarpon out there in addition to a few flounder, bluefish and small jack crevalle
8/26 YakAttack's Report from Rockport - Been a while since I've posted any reports, but Saturday was kind of special. I haven't fished with my dad since I was about 10 years old, due to us moving away from the coast. 11 years later I came back into the area and fell back in love with fishing. I started teaching my oldest daughter the art of fishing and now she is 6 and well on her way. The picture below is her first keeper drum!!!
My 6 month old daughter isn't quite ready yet, but she is much more attached to her daddy than my oldest and surprisingly very coordinated for her age. See the picture below.... Great balance already!!! She will be out on the water with as soon as she can start walking!!!
We had a mini family reunion Friday and I was able to convince my parents to delay thier return trip and for my dad to come fishing with me, a buddy and his dad in Rockport. We had a blast on the water and have the sun burns to prove it.....lol. I caught my 2nd best trout ever (23in) with my dad helping net it....... I will never forget this day!!!
8/20 Captain Dean International Supa Star - Dean has been getting redfish bites early in the morning in very skinny water. Flies are often the one thing that won't spook the fish. Here he is starring in an Italian video.
7/19 Kingz' Topwater Fun with Capt Dean and Friends - outside AP, early in the mornin with tops...Just a couple of pics...
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Been pretty as well...
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...........Have a good w/end out there...I'm out...G7/6 Capt Brent Hopkins - We have had some really high water here in the Rockport area that has driven me crazy some days over the last couple of weeks, but we have also had a little rain that I have welcomed (even if I had to cancel a trip or two). With this high water the redfish have scattered on me and most have moved to parts unknown by me because I can't seem to find a good concentration of them on a daily basis. So with that being said, I've been mainly trout fishing for the last couple of weeks. I usually like high water conditions for trout, but this go round seems to have me stumped why I can't catch a better box of trout on the reefs or in the flats while fishing from the boat. Most of my charters I've been averaging around 10-20 keeper fish while fishing in the boat, but having my clients wade fish the shorelines has been a lot better as for putting a quality box of fish together. In fact, my clients made ONE WADE the other morning, missing their limit of 40 trout by two! Other wading trips have been good too, but we've had to make more than just one or two wades to catch a good box of fish.
By far, live croaker are working better than artificials right now, and they will continue to do so until we get into fall and cooler temps. We have a lot of bait in the bay and it's tuff to catch keeper trout right now on artificial baits during the heat of summer, but we have been able to do a decent job of catching a few fish to take home while throwing artificials. If my past years notes hold true, our redfish left for parts unknown last year about the same time and should "show" back up come mid to late July. Just in time for when our trout bite slows a bit due to the mid day hot sun heating things up and the lack of wind. Today, I took my first redfishing trip in nearly two weeks and we did OK. We caught enough fish to make me feel the trip worth while and I saw decent numbers of fish, but fighting that full moon is something else! We'll still be able to fish for trout during July & August, but we'll have to get them early before daytime temps get too hot. Most days during late July & August, unless my clients choose to fish only for trout, I'll be concentrating mainly on redfish due to the excessive heat, lack of wind (and rain) that shows up during this time of year. We all need to pray that the little rain that we've had over the last few months keeps it up through the summer.
Capt Brent with a 27" trout caught and released using a soft plastic last week. Fish was too long or his arms were too short to get a shot of it :)
6/8 6/6 Aransas Pass via Rippin Lips - I decided to change it up a little bit yesterday and go target some nice redfish for the bbq pit because Im already stacked up to my neck with trout. Anyway myself and two other buddies went out of Aransas Pass yesterday morning and made quick work of 3 LIMITS in less than 2 hours !!! We launched at Hampton's and fished some of my honey holes around Hog. Heat index was well over 100 degrees by the time we were gettin off the water about 10am. Calm, hot, and humid is a bad mixture. Looks like we are gonna have a pretty HOT summer to say the least !!! Im still searching for that tagged redfish for the STAR Tournament, so I will be huntin em down till I find one...Water clarity over there was good, a nice tint of green. UNTIL NEXT TIME
THATS THE WAY WE DO IT
9 NICE REDS
HEAT INDEX
TIME TO FILLET EM UP
6/4 Aransas/Rockport via HROD2222- Couple of buddies and I fished with Capt Ben Wells this morning in Rockport/Aransas Bay area. The water clarity was moderate to good. The bite was on early, caught a mix of keeper and undersized trout. There were dolphin everywhere disturbing our fishing (or did we disturb their fishing). Anyway, I was hooked on a +20" trout and I cranked down the drag to horse in the trout due to the hungry dolphin. I got within 5ft of the boat and BAM! the dolphin hit my trout. And for 2 seconds my drag screamed and POP! (and no I was not using legal trout to catch dolphin).
The bite stopped around 0930, but we had a few croaker left so we decided to hit one more spot. We caught a couple more keepers and undersized trout. I have to give it up to Clinton, he really had his work cut out for him. As he was reeling in to check his croaker BAM a Jack Crevalle hit it within 8 feet from the boat, on Top! Caught it with a Shimano Sienna 500 on 12lb test mono. We fished hard and results were great.
http://youtu.be/HSHmMYbYORc5/10 Rippin Lips Aransas Bay Report 5/8 - Well we thought the weather window was gna be good for Tuesday the 8th so we went for it !!! Woke up and loaded my buddies boat around 5:00 am and the winds were already 12mph SSE. We were gna go for it no matter what, so we headed off to Ingleside to launch the boat. We headed out toward my 1st spot and the winds were gradually picking up. We had 3 trout in the box within the 1st 10 casts !!!! HELL YEA, ITS GNA BE A MEAT HAUL... Then it slowed down a lil bit, but we were still catching 14 1/2" dinks. So I decided to make a move and go look for the bigger trout before the wind got up 20+ and the rain hit... But you could definitely see the rain and smell it coming by about 10:30am. So we headed off to spot #2. Right off the bat we had 4 more in the box !!!! Drifted a long grass line in about 3 foot of water and put a couple more in the box. Still catching a lot of dink 14-14 1/2" trout so made another move. Spot #3 here we come!!! Wind is already up to 20+ by now and you can see the rain getting real close, but we fought through the white caps and got to my last location. We put our last 4 keeper trout in the box on about 2 drifts and probably released over 60+ trout through out the day. By now the rain was within 400 yards and you could see it hitting the water, so we loaded up all the gear and got ready for the ride back to the dock. Over all we came back with 13 nice trout and I released one 18 1/2" red and like I said, about 60+ undersized trout. GREAT DAY OF FISHING WITH ALL THE WIND AND WEATHER... TILL NEXT TIME, GTA KEEP IT EPIC !!!!!
NICE WATER, BAD WEATHER COMIN'
NICE MESS OF TROUT
ME AND MY BUDDY COLE
NOT TOO SHABBY ON THIS WINDY DAY
TORE EM UP
4/5 Kingz' Redfish Bay Report - Lotta new water in Redfish Bay...Lotta the usual launch spots along 361 are actually underwater...
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And it was just lil breezier than forecasted...
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Along with the new water I found some good action....About a 1/2 dozen of lil guys...
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And a few lil rats....
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Found one lower slot for my girl to enjoy tommorow as she recognizes Good Friday....
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Maybe this recent influx of water will help with your BT, I hope so...
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Yall have a safe Holiday...G
______3/29 3/25 Conn Brown Channel Report via Charlie Golla - >Fished Sunday evening with the boys and we found Spanish Mackerel coming in the bay system near the Port A jetties. They were all the way into South Bay and along the Conn Brown feeding on anchovies. Also found tons of anchovies up the Lydia Ann and into Aransas Bay. Flounder gigging was a little slower with all the bait present.
Charlie
3/8 Capt Dean Slowride Thomas - The tide is out in the Lighthouse Lakes. He's been drifting the backside of Traylor Island for long stretches and see lots of reds and catching them on topwaters. They are not really tailing just hanging suspended like horse mullet. Trout are numerous though not big mainly 17 inchers but he's catching them in grass in 4 to 6 feet of water. Work the edges of those flats for the reds.
2/12 Rockport via TPW - Trout are fair on the edge of the ICW on glow DOA Shrimp and Gulps. Redfish are fair to good in the holes and channels on mullet and shrimp.
New Years Eve - 1/2 via Tim W - "Had a great trip to the Rockport area with old friends. Found the red fish in three to four feet of water and they were hungry for "free lined" live shrimp.
Anchored up in a small wind protected area and caught and released over 35 red fish without moving on Saturday. Returned to the same spot on Sunday. and had about the same luck. Drifted the California Hole and Estes flats Sunday and Monday and hit a good number of trout on sub surface mirror lures and soft plastics. Alot of short fish mixed in with some nice trout. Tuesday the front moved in and we moved out."HAPPY NEW YEAR
12/31 Redfish Bay via IBTEXAS Dec 28 - 29 - Well I told my customers that if I saw 2 good days lined up before New years I was taking off to the coast. Im glad I did. We did not catch lots of fish but the weather and water were beautiful and had a great time fishing with friends and family. Happy New Year !!!!
12/15 Capt Dean Slowride Thomas - "says the water is still high though that may change with this weekend’s front. He has been catching quite a few large trout to 25” on spook jr’s fishing Redfish Bay areas over grass such as Steadman’s Reef, Terminal Flats. When the fronts have hit he has been just going to deeper grass areas, channels and pot holes. "
Here's a fat trout from this morning 12/15
And a nice red on his custom "purple nurple" Spook Jr.
11/21 Estes Flats from Hookem05 - Fished Estes Flats this weekend and had a great Saturday. Me and buddy both limited on reds and ended up with 4 trout. All caught on Zara Spook Jr and any dark Saltwater Assassin.
22" trout
33" red. Caught, photo and released to fight another day.
11/3 Capt Brent Hopkins - Still steady at fishing with limits to near limits of redfish. Trout and drum a little slow, but catching a few. Duck season starts this wknd!!!
10/6 Lighthouse Lakes via Team Kingz -
9/8 Capt Dean Slowride Thomas says - He's still working the fish early in the morning when the tides are up even with the full moon this weekend. The cooler weather has changed things and slowed down the bite on the flats but once he thinks prospects look good and at some point the big schools of reds will realize it is almost fall and being their big migrations.
9/2 Jetties still looking good for Kings - Tropical Storm Lee will slow things down but lots of folks have been hitting the Port A Jetties and just offshore for some excellent King Mackerel Fishing. - Captain Dean "Slowride" Thomas and his lovely wife Jennifer enjoyed good kingfish action at the Port A Jetties on the boat. (photo courtesy "My Darling Ben" Studios) 8/24
8/17 Copano Bay/ Aransas Bay 8/15 via Hrod2222 - Finally fished Rockport area with Capt Ben Wells. He put 3 sailors and 1 airman on 26 trout. We also had an opportunity to witness a dolphin feed on a 10-15lb drum. The dolphin smacked it 3ft out of the water. Had a great day off on the water.
6/30 Good bite this week for Capt Brent Hopkins - He says "I had 3 generations of girls this morning for my fishing charter and I decided to take them trout fishing since we had very little wind for redfishing. They did great in catching 20 solid keeper trout before we caloled it a day. Not too shabby for 4 girls that have never trout fished!!"
6/14 Scary Tale from Charlie Golla - "Waders Beware!
Friday Night, Chris and Matt were on a good trout bite on the outside Beach of Traylor Island. The bite slowed around 10:00 PM, so they switched from Gulps to live bait. Around 10:30 PM, Chris hooks up with a big Bull shark in waist deep water. Almost spooled, they make it to the boat and give chase. Heading east, the bull takes them to the middle of Aransas bay, around a moving barge in the ICW, and 2 ½ hours later, ends up next to Mud Island. The Bull hit a 6-inch mullet rigged on a mono trout rig. As it turned out the hook was in the corner of the mouth. Chris was using an Abu 6500 with 20 pound mono. The Shark didn’t survive the long battle so it was retained. It measured 6’-4’’ and is one of the biggest Bulls we’ve ever caught in the bay.
Charlie
6/4 Ingleside via Obsessed - Marcus wrote: "Nothing spectacular, but some fish caught over the weekend, lure of choice was "mighty white" saltwater assassin paddle tail over grass and a black/char spook jr on top."
Marcus Canales
5/31 Rockport Aransas Pass Via Capt Brent Hopkins -
Fishing Report 6-1-2011
I hope everyone had a enjoyable and safe Memorial Day Wknd. I thank all of those that have served in our armed forces and died for their country, so that others may live free. I also want to appologize for not getting around to posting a report the middle of May. Biz has been plum crazy for me the last month.
The wind has blown most of May, with the exception of just a couple of days, but my charters have still been really successful. In June the wind usually lays quite a bit and I'm looking forward to it.
Croaker are now in season and the trout have been hitting them making it easier for me to put my clients on a nice box of trout to take home. The fish are in really good shape and are good size averaging about 16 to 20 inches, but we desperately need some rain to keep things going for our trout bite. Fishing the outside beaches with hard sand & grass have been good because of the spawn, along with drifting the flats on the days that the wind has been too high to fish the beaches. Wade fishing has been good too with also producing the better quality of fish. Average catches have been anywhere's from 15 keeper trout up to the 40 mark.
Redfish have been great for me and limits of anywhere's from 6 to 15 slot reds have been easy all month long except for a few days a week or so ago due to the higher tides we were having which really scattered the fish. Just this week the water level has come down a bit making a whole lot easier to get back on them. It is amazing at how many redfish are out there!! My bait of choice for reds has been mullet, but they have been hitting croaker a little if you can get it in front of them after going trout fishing.
This kind of action should hold for the next couple of months until we once again reach the month of August when mother nature really turns on the stress level for both man and beast.5/19 Aransas Pass Lighthouse Lakes from Capt Dean Slowride Thomas - Dean says with the higher water he has been fishing the edges and doing well for redfish with many coming on spoon flies!
6/6 Golla's Gigging Report Aransas Pass from 5/4 - Had a high time with Justin at the old floundering haunt last night. Flounder were in good numbers right where we thought they would be after Northeast winds. We both had our five fish limit within an hour and were back at the boat ramp by 9:45.
Charlie
4/16 Aransas Bay Golla Style 4/15 - Slipped off in the back bays before the front blew in and found a good redfish bite. Sight casting to tails using a small white “bowtie fly” was the ticket. The bite lasted until the front blew in. Returned at dark with the boys and picked up a few flounder.
Charlie
4/7 TPW says - Redfish are fair to good at East Flats on gold spoons and small topwaters. Black drum are good in the Shrimpboat Channel on crabs and finger mullet. Redfish, trout and sheepshead are fair to good at the jetty on shrimp.
4/1 Rockport Via Capt Brent Hopkins - Fishing Report 4-01-2011
Redfish!! Redfish!! Redfish!! Does that mean anything to you?
Redfish have been great to awesome for me and my clients ever since the start of Spring Break. Limits have been almost easy every day I have been on the water. It seems the reds are everywhere I look and/or fish. I haven't exactly liked the weather all that well because it's been cloudy and cool for the last two weeks, but that hasn't dampened my spirits none. Rest assured the temps will be on the rise here soon and I can lose this jacket I've been wearing for a while. Black drum are also around but they seem to be on the move daily and hard to find with any kind of consistency in the area I'm fishing. The trout bite has also been slow, but then again it always is this time of year. I did catch a few trout over Spring Break, but I really had to cover a lot of water, and weed through a lot of little ones in order to put a few in the box.
3/25 Rockport Via Capt Brent Hopkins Report - He is still on the redfish "Fished with the same two guys I had yesterday, but today's fishing was a little slower than yesterday overall. Cloudy and kinda dreary makes for a little tougher conditions rather than brite sun in my opinion. We caught several fish, filled out our limit for the day, and released several other reds over the course of the day. On a scale of 1 to 10, and in my opinion...I give it a 6. My hat is off to Andy, being he only has one hand, and was able to control and reel in those hard pulling reds."
2/24 Aransas Pass from Capt Dean Slowride Thomas - Dean has been doing well after the recent warmup drifting Dagger and Ransom Flats catching Redfish and Trout on topwaters. He says the Spook Jr in Bone and also the white with pink head have been the "go to" bait. Below with a feisty red.
And here is "Ben" aka Goincoastal with a good trout. Both fish were caught and released. Dean says in the kayak he's been in his summer areas around Brown and Root Flats and South Bay and seeing lots of tails. The Lighthouse Lakes are still on the low side but good enough for kayak passage and the reds are back there too!
2/17 Rockport from Werleyr20 - We got on the water and headed out towards california hole from the cove harbor marina in Rockport. We fished until 8pm mostly wading and picked up over 50-60 (15"-23") trout in stomach deep water and 3 reds on a drift towards conn brown (18"-29"31"). We released all the reds and kept a few trout for the frying pan. All were caught on different color plastics with rattling jig heads. One guy that was with us got spooled on his baitcaster right at dark. Dolphins were trying to attack our stringers and we had to defend ourselves while fishing. IT WAS NUTS!!! All pictures were taken with different cameras so I will try to get them rounded up. BEST DAY OF TROUT FISHING EVER!!!
Capt Brent Hopkins Report - Limits of Reds for his clients 2/16
1/30 Aransas Pass Area via Captmike - The last 3 weekends have been cold, windy, trying to rain, you name it and it was not good weather to fish. But Sunday brought us clear to partly cloudy skies and the day started off at 62 degrees and got into the mid 70's, the wind picked up to upper teens, but didn't really bother us. I fished 4 guys from up in the cold country..
2 of them had been here for over 2 weeks doing training for farm equipment dealers, they make farm planters and equipment, with 1 more week to be here it was time for a break and we got the weather for a great day on the water. We started out in a cut for drum and red fish, and found lots of 19 1/2 to 19 7/8'' red to keep them interested and managed 2 nice keepers a 22'' and 27'' out of there. Two were flying home Monday and didn't want to keep fish, after asking if they ate fish and they did, suggested to keep a couple for supper and we did.
The tide went flat on us and we worked several different area seeing fish, drum, redfish, and some nice trout, but couldn't get a bite going. We ended up coming back to drop off on shell and mud and picked up several small reds and black drum, and 1 keeper drum for supper. The water when left this morning was way way out. and came back in a little during the day but still was way below normal.
Thanks guys for a great time and teaching me a few things about farming in the cold country that I never thought about down here. I heard you enjoyed the fish for supper nearly as good as the day on the water.
Look forward to seeing you again and thanks for a great time.
12/16 Redfish Bay - Via Seabass I took a last minute offer from HeavyDuty to fish with him and Scott on HD's new 22ft Dargel last week. Had a feeling the fishing would be good due to the impending cold front and then-current nice conditions. We got down to Rockport on Wednesday evening, eating dinner at a place called China A. Food there was fantastic! I ain't one for Chinese food, but HD said they had a good buffet that included seafood so I said let's give it a try. They had perfectly boiled shrimp, oysters on the halfshell, snow crab legs (that were really good-had no freezer taste to em'), along with a bunch of other tidbits that were excellent. Come to think of it, I don't think I actually ate any Chinese food while I was there
We got to Conn Brown about 0830 the next morning (Thursday 12/16/10) and headed out to fish some spots around Redfish Bay. The Dargel was a sweet ride...what with the near silent motor it felt like we were on a spaceship and not a boat. Good choice Steve!
First spot we were in the shallows and saw some big trout but they weren't coming near our lures. I even bounced a couple over their backs. We then went to another place in the flats where I got the first fish of the day...a pinfish that I snagged on my cocahoe minnow, heh. Shortly after I was looking into the potholes and saw a dark shape at the edge. The shape moved, so I threw a lure just past and reeled into the pothole feeling a thump as I reeled in. Moments later I got my first red in the boat! It was a keeper too. We continued drifting and getting strikes. A few small reds were released but HD and I managed 2 reds a piece in that area. I think Scott struck outI gotta tell ya, it was quite an experience to be able to stand up on the bow platform and actually see fish in the shallows. I was giddy like a school girl.
HD then decided to put us on some trout, so we moved to another spot where the water was not as clear but it didn't matter. Upon setting up a drift all three of us were catching trout or at least getting strikes about every 3 casts. We started getting keeper trout in the skinnier water, so we made a few more long drifts (with windsock), fishing into the mid-afternoon. Sometime around 3pm SEABASS got a limit of speckled trout! That's only the second time ever that I've accomplished that. HD and Scott also finished out their limits. I think we got back to the boat ramp with 30 trout and 4 reds (Scott may have got a red or two during that trip, I can't remember). When we got to the ramp that ole boy Chris was there and we gave him a few bucks to clean the fish. Dinner that night was grilled reds on the halfshell with accompaniments and cervezas.
I felt so good about the trip that I decided to sleep in on Friday while HD and Scott went back to the flats. They came back with another 5 reds, courtesy of the Dargel. It was a memorable trip, mucho thanks to HD for the invite. And good to see you again, Scott. It seems like HD, Scott, and I only get to fish together about once a year, usually in the winter, but every one of our trips have been a success. Looking forward to next winter...
Seabass
12/16 12/15 report from Redfish Bay - Capt. Dean Thomas and wife Jennifer have been doing well on the east side of Redfish Bay the past couple of days in spite of the low tides and high winds. He says if you can wade quietly up on the deeper potholes they have a lot of slot reds in there. He has been doing well fishing slowly (but not on the bottom) using Glow Doas and gold flake Doas.
Here is Jennifer with a few of the reds
11/30 - 11/25 Report from Capt Brent Hopkins Report - Fishing Report 11-25-2010
I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving while traveling and spending time with loved ones. I can't beleive we're already nearing the end of another year!!!
Fishing conditions here have improved considerably in the last couple of weeks and we have had very little boat traffic due to factors I can't figure out, but I love it!!. We have been having some great tidal flow and the water has cooled off quite a bit. Redfish have been fairly easy most days in Estes Flats out in front of the Carbon Black Plant, Conn Brown Flats, and Hog Island areas. There have been a few days here this past week though that were tough on me and my clients, but then again, there have been some banner days too!. Just about any bait you want to throw has been working including soft plastics while drifting, or the most productive bait has been cut mullet. Trout fishing has also improved considerably while wade fishing the sharp breaks, mud/grass and scattered shell bottoms while throwing soft plastics in areas such as Mud Island, Quaruntine Shoreline, and Moriss Cummings Cut. Topwaters have been productive when we have some strong incoming tides and nervous mullet late in the evenings. Live shrimp has been producing trout when fished under a popping cork over the reefs up in our northern bays like San Antonio Bay and Mesquite Bays. To boot, there has been a ton of black drum up north on the reefs for those of you that like to go after them.
On the duck hunting side of things, hunting was very good prior to the warming trend we had last week which shut things down quite a bit. With this last cold front we've recieved a lot more birds and we have had some great hunts. Look for our duck hunting to get even better as we near the second half of the split season. The second season opens up on Dec. 11 for those of you that want to get into some great wingshooting after doing some deer hunting.
Sincerely,
Capt. Brent Hopkins
HM 361-729-6911
MB 361-534-4007
Check us out @ www.aceintheholeguideservice.com
11/20 Naples2Tx Ap Area Fishing Report - Met up with CCRED and Robert in AP, fueled up w/ the Heart Stopper Chorizo & Egg w/ Bean and Bacon Taco, and paddled off into slick conditions. Lots of bait, and early on managed one 24+" trout on a SSJR. Thinking this could be a great day.
As is my generally bad habit, I begin my normal grind paddle, despite the fact that Steve is reporting they are seeing tails...I paddle an extra mile or so for not much. Strange thing happened in that I broke braid a total of three times on hook sets...never happened before so thinking bad spot or something. Work my way back towards the fleet and we get on a steady bite of mostly barely slot to undersize reds that were eager to please, though small.
"Stringer Shot"...
Robert found his third after this was taken...
Finished up the day with a trip to "Yummies" in North Beach for burgers and Chili cheese fries10/7 Ransom and Dagger Flats Capt Dean Slowride Thomas - Dean has been in the boat the past few days working these areas and he says the fishing is great. He told me about a trip today 10/7 with an older season bass fisherman who had never gotten a red on a topwater. He said he was like a kid grinning from ear to ear. Dean has been using the bone spook jr's to catch slot and upper slot reds. He says the Brown and Root Flat dropoff has been good this week too!
AngryBlue has this report from 10/3 - Two friends and I got together and set up a guided trip with Capt. Kevin McCoy out of AP this past Sunday. We left the dock at about 0645 and made a short run to our first spot, maybe 15 minutes, or so. Got the baits in the water and it was on! Not that I have a ton of experience catching redfish, but I think it's safe to say that it doesn't get much better than what we had that morning. We had our limits before 0800! We fished there for a little while longer, catching and releasing until we went looking for trout. Wound up catching a couple trout at our next spot and some more redfish. We were off the water around one. Capt. McCoy was great, putting us on the fish and making sure even a miserable fisherman like me was consistently reeling in fish.
9/8 Capt Dean Slowride Thomas Redfish Bay - Dean says the tides have been way high but with the higher tides and cloud cover they have been able to get good numbers of redfish tailing using topwaters. It is tougher to find them in the higher water as they get back deeper into the lakes and mangroves. So far he has not seen any schools of reds.
Dean also wanted me to mention Slowride's Paddle - In October 16th
This is the official post of the first ever Texas Paddle-In a celebration of Lighthouse Lakes Paddle Trails 10 year anniversary. The 'Paddle-In' is a gathering of all types of paddlers doing what they like best, paddling! We give the coordinates and the time and it’s your job to get there… just don’t be late for lunch!! The $25 fee, not required to join in the paddle group, will cover the cost of a catered lunch, a commemorative t-shirt, and get you a prize ticket. If you would like to paddle in the “group” then meet at Lighthouse Lakes Park no later than 8am. The “group” will begin launching at 8:30 and should take no longer than 30 minutes to get everyone off the bank. We expect to stretch out and have a string of paddlers with different paddling speeds and styles spanning a mile or more. The reward will be arriving on a beach with your fellow paddlers, enjoying a hot meal, cool drinks, and great fellowship. Then we will have a modest drawing of prizes, a few words about the significance of Lighthouse Lakes Trails, some pictures, and the paddle back… follow the crowd! October 16, 2010 8am at Lighthouse Lakes Park, $25 fee includes lunch and t-shirt, must be paid by Oct 1st for shirt, Oct 8th for lunch Open to any paddler, experience suggested, approx 8 mile round trip paddle from the park to destination and back to park. Lunch will be served at the destination at approx 11:30 am along with prizes and guest speakers. Return time estimated at 3:30pm Still open for sponsors and prize donations. Current Sponsors: Slowride Guide Services Sand Castle Condos, Port A Prizes from: Sea Breeze Motel, 2 nights free stay Drifter's Resort and RV, free night's stay Gator Glo, plastic cleaner & protectant TKF!, starter packs - shirt/hat/stickers/stuff Hibiclens - wound cleansing products (samples for everyone)
Download an entry form
8/15 Capt Brent Hopkins Report - Fishing Report 8/15/10 I do believe summetime is here!! Over the last two weeks it has been almost miserable after 11am out on the water because of the heat and lack of wind. These kind of conditions calls for a very early start to fishing trips before the fish "shut down" in oder to get fish on the hook. My best bite has been the first two hours of daylight, then the bite takes a sharp downward spiral from there. Redfish have been AWESOME for me while fishing mullet anchored up, and while drifting (IF we have the wind) using live croaker. The trout bite has been very slow in the Rockport area since the first of the month. Wade fishing for trout has been just about the only way to fish for them here lately due to the lack of wind in order to drift fish other than the surf. I have managed to get my clients on a few trout if they insist in fishing for them though. The surf is holding some trout, but it has not been a slam dunk out there either a lot of days. With the surf being the way it is, I've been getting on my fish early in the bay for a "sure thing", and not taking the chance of making the long run all the way out to the surf for a "hope to get on them" type thing. I believe the trout bite will pick up once we start to get some cooler weather, and so will the reds (That is IF it can get any better!) _________________ Remember when the cards are down and the bet is called, you have your Ace in the Hole. Check us out @ www.aceintheholeguideservice.com Capt. Brent Hopkins HM 361-729-6911 MB 361-534-4007
8/12 Capt Dean Slowride Thomas Redfish Bay - Dean says the past couple of days they have been catching tailing reds even past noon with the cloud cover keeping the flats from burning up. Once the tide dumps out he's been fishing off Hog Island. Best baits are bone colored spook jr's an gold metal flake DOA shrimp.
Dean also said on calm days the guides have been hammering the trout between the shrimp boat wreck and the ranch house on St. Joe's using croaker.
7/23 Good Trout and even some flounder earlier this week around Traylor Island on Croaker. Capt. Dean Thomas says he's been getting redfish in the flats and LHL areas. He managed this nice PB and J this morning. :)
7/15 Capt Brent Hopkins Report - Fishing Report 7-15-10
I thought that the water would have started falling out from the hurricane a few days after it had made landfall, but it didn't. The water stayed high and then we got another big surge of water in the bays about a week ago (which was a big surprise to me). The trout bite had been good to excellent for me several days after the storm, and during our big surge of incoming water, but now the water level has fallen out quite a bit and the trout bite has become a little bit tuff due to high winds the last few days and the lack of incoming tides. Today as I write this report the winds have laid. The reds are more concentrated now and still easy to catch if they would stay put. The reds tend to be on the move sort of speak, and not holding in the same area/spot day after day. Wade fishing for trout has been the "top producer" while throwing live croaker and/or plastic artificials along our shorelines. Redfish are in the flats and along portions of shorelines up in the north country. While drifting the flats I've also been able to put together some pretty good boxes of fish. The reefs out in the middle of the bays are also holding good numbers of keeper trout, a few reds and some black drum up in bays such as Carlos, Mesquite, and San Antonio. Hopefully we will get some water back in the bays before long and our trout bite will once again pick back up. If it doesn't, look for the redfish to be my main priority while our water levels stay low with minimal incoming tides.
Until next time,
remember when the cards are down and the bet is called, you have your Ace In The Hole.
Check us out @ www.aceintheholeguideservice.com
Sincerely,
Capt. Brent Hopkins
HM 361-729-6911
MB 361-534-4007
7/13 LHouse Lakes via CCKAYKER who fished 7/11 - Spent a couple hrs in the lakes this morning still higher than normal tides. Lots of bait, mixed under size reds with keeper trout. Nice being able to navigate through areas that have always been too low to get in but easy to get turned around being that most landmarks are not the same with the high tides. Be safe.
Charlie Golla gave me this info - "Tides have been way too high for any consistency. Fish have been spread out all over the place and it's been about as hard to catch a fish as I've seen in a long time. Weekend warriors have the whole place screwed to the point that fish don't bite on the weekends anymore. Flat burners and air boats have run off all the redfish we normally find in the flats.
Honestly thou, the fish are there they just need to get back into a pattern when the tide falls back out. Trout are holding out in three to four foot of water in the bigger bay systems. Last Saturday we fished all evening and caught a lot of trout but none made the slot. Up in the flats we only caught one redfish that measured 23-inches. Sunday Morning we started off behind San Jose Island and only picked up two keeper trout in the 17-inch range. We saw lots of redfish but only picked up two keepers. At one point we here drifting over some sand pockets when Justin looked down and asked, "Dad, what kind of fish leaves that kind of mark in the sand" After a quick look down, I saw what he was looking at. It was Cow tracks which indicates how high the tide has been."6/24 Dogman11 fished 6/23 and posted this report - Had the good fortune of getting to fish yesterday morning till noon. Fished Mud, Dagger, & Trailer Islands. caught a lot of dinks and kept four for a soon to be dinner. Not a lot of keepers, but a great day to be on the water. Trout were very aggressive on topwaters. Should be a great weekend to be fishing. Too bad I won't be there to enjoy the catching.
6/17 Ap 6/8 - 6/12 from David Ivanhoe - Sorry for the late report…just got back from Aransas Pass after couple nights in Austin. Fished last week 8th(Tues) thru 12th(Sat). It was my 13 yr old daughter’s first trip to the coast with big brother and Dad. She was excited and did great….as expected…she tore us up !
Wind would be the story for the week. Tues evening we fished a major drain around Dagger. Between two small islands in about 6 inches of water, got a shock when I landed my best trout as 27 inches. Had no idea she was that big. She came around the back of the boat and the setting sun just lit up her long body with all those spots !! I will never forget being so surprised.
Wednesday was Caleigh’s day as she hooked up with her first Red. It was a battle…she got tired and tried to give me the rod…..I wouldn’t take it……I told her she would catch this fish or not catch it….we don’t want to say ‘we’ caught it. She did it!! 27 inches.
Her smile was so big . She sent the pic and text to about 50 friends, right there from Dagger. Dad managed a 22 inch Red. She added a 25 inch Red on Saturday.
I ended the week with 4 Reds (20,22,23,24) and the trout. A great week of fishing even with the wind and dirty water. Cut shad caught all the fish, including the trout, all inside Dagger.
The strikes were not aggressive at all. We had to let them have it and take the ‘bow’ out of the line…..probably caught 15-20 hardheads a day…so light taps were common….but sometimes they were the Reds. Only one RBE (rod bending event) all week!My younger brother with his two sons joined us Thurs as they added 3 Reds, 22,23,25
for the week. What a treat to share the coast with them and I even fished one day with my oldest nephew.Big brother, Troy, got skunked….so littl’ sis has been ‘dishing it out’ all week. She got everyone…. spoke of that 27 inch Red in almost every sentence…She didn’t want us 5 guys to forget who had the biggest Red. I was proud of her to say the least.
So ends another new moon June coastal trip. Bet she goes again…..every year!
Best to all !Dave
pics
http://img688.imageshack.us/g/1212163.jpg/
6/7 Aransas Bay Report from Charlie Golla whose wife Cathy keeps catching big trout - Sunday evening Cathy picked up another good trout in Aransas Bay. Not as big as Fridays Baffin trout but a good one for Aransas Bay at 25-inches.
Charlie
5/20 Capt Brent Hopkins Report - 5/15
The wind has really been blowing the last couple of weeks here, so the trout fishing has been pretty spotty overall. Croakers are now large enough to use in my opinion, but just having them on the hook does not guarantee that you'll be able to catch them due to rough bays and dirty water. Wading has been best because you can hug the shorelines and stay in more fishable/cleaner waters.
Since very few trout have been showing up at the cleaning tables, I've been concentrating more on redfish and the bite has been phenomenal on my boat!!! Limits of slot sized reds have been very easy every day for my clients, along with some over-sized reds a few days out of the week. 9 to 15 slot sized reds in the cooler looks a might more impressive than a dozen trout or so. Especially when the average red kept is 25"!!!
Until the winds subside, I'm going to stay with the reds for now.
Check us out @ www.aceintheholeguideservice.com
Grant's Day out 5/16 from Hogheaven aka Brew-Skies Shallow Water Adventures
e also brought in a 26.5 inch trout that we ate for lunch... Great time. Dropped of wife and pop to go after some topwater reds. Shrimp, and spooks was the call of the day. Awesome not to have 30 MPH winds.
5/14 Dean Slowride Thomas says - The water is up in the Lighthouse Lakes and the fishing is great if the winds don't blow you off the water. Redfish are skinny eating shrimp and baby crabs. Use doa shrimp in gold metal flake or bone spook Jrs.
4/14 A 4/10 Report from Hogheaven aka Brew-Skies Shallow Water Adventures - Nice Morning, Wind kicked up a bit round 10 am, but all in all we saw fish. Some were real hard to convince to git bit, several follows, lot of time the fish would just ignore what was thrown to em. Stomachs were still full of crabs. Trying real early to get one to hit a fly was a real chore, fish just did not want to cooperate. All in all it was a great morning.
Topwater spooks were the bait that all were caught on.
4/5 Weekend Report from Hogheaven aka Brew-Skies Shallow Water Adventures - Well, after being somewhat on a Fishing Hiatus during Feb, and March, we Headed out fairly early this morning. Knowing the Water temps have been pushing 70degrees most of the week, I figured it be a great time.
Pictures have always been a better strong point of mine, then the writing part. SO... Here goes..
Strong Incoming tide, Shallow Grass Flats. All fish caught on Bone colored Spooks.
1/29 - Troutslayer says the Redfish are hot in Rockport - Here is his Rockport to Port Mansfield Report - Finally got some hard core fishing in. Tuesday we stayed around PA and Rockport and wacked the reds in guts. It is like shooting fish in a barrel when you get the low tides and Nwest wind emptying out the flats. Three of us caught 60 plus with about 20 keeper size on gulps of any shape or color. Not so good Wednesday. Put in at 37 and ran all the way to Mansfield in search of the elusive big trout. Nada and we looked at all points in between. Bait was scarce and when we did find it all we caught were dinks. Them boys in the Baffin bash will have a battle unless something changes...not to mention it may be a bit cold this weekend.
1/14 From Chris Golla - Had a good evening of catching Redfish and Drum on dead shrimp in Aransas bay.
Fishing the drop offs on a rising tide was the ticket this evening. Yesterday was equally as good but I didn’t have my camera.
Chris
11/1 Capt Brent Hopkins Report - The rain and cooler temps here in Rockport have been great, along with the redfish bite. Limits of reds have been the norm on my boat the last couple of weeks except for an occasional day or two. Best catching days though have come when we have had a steady north wind. THose reds love a north wind this time of year. The reds have been averaging 22" to 26" making a box full of fish look even better! Best bait for me has been topwaters and cut mullet. The drum I have been on all summer seem to have up and vanished on me though for the last week or so. Maybe once we lose a little bit of water they will show back up. We'll see. Trout fishing is still very slow around here in Rockport.
My charters up to POC while fishing for the larger bull reds have been good. My clients have been averaging about 10 or so a day which makes for some great picture taking and sore stomachs. The largest one we caught last week measured out at a whopping 48"!!! If you're wanting to do this trip this year, you better get on the ball now. These fish will be gone by mid November.
10/12 Capt Brent Hopkins Report October Report - Fishing Report 10-8-09
We have finally received some much needed rain here in Rockport over the last couple of weeks or so. No doubt we needed it in the worst way. The cool front a couple of weeks ago was a welcome change from the blazing heat we had been induring. It made temps so much more pleasant than those 100 degree days while out on the water. Our next front, which is pushing through as I type this, is bringing more rain and cooler temps again. Trout fishing has still been on the slow side. Redfish and drum on the other hand has been nothing short of very good to great for me with the exception of last week when we had some very high tides and a full moon making our fishing a little tough for those few days or so. Limits of reds and or drum have been the norm with the exception of a few of my trips. Mullet have been the bait of choice for the reds while fishing the potholes, shell beds, and shorelines. Topwaters and live piggies fished under corks while drifting the flats have been producing a few trout and near limits of reds so I've heard from my buddies that fish there normally. Once our water cools a little more our fish should get the hint and start moving into fall fishing patterns.
Also those of you that have trips booked with me and are wondering about the bull reds I fish for during October, they are there I think but not "really thick" right now. I went a couple of times last week and caught enough to actually call the trip a success but it was not up to "my standards". I think part of my problem of not slaying them last week is due to the lack of current and the full moon. Rest assured though, they are there and it will get better once we lose this full moon and our tide times change just a little.
10/5 Port A jetty report from 9/30 from Island Mike - I decided to change it up a little today and made my first trip to the Port A jetties - Nicole tagged along to keep me company. Headed out about 5:30pm. The plan was to head out to the end in search of bull reds on spoon'r lures. The conditions were nice, the water was clear and the waves weren't too bad. So we hike it all the way down to the end and I find a nice rock to throw from. First cast........lost my $6 2oz outcast. So I tie on the 1 oz and throw it for a bit before goin over to check the channel side. A couple of casts over there and I managed to lose my only remaining spoon'r. So I'm sittin there for a while kinda bummed since all I had left was a soft plastic and some mirrolures. I decide to go back toward shore and fish the rocks and the guts. On the way back I see a guy with a fly rod and I could tell he was workin something. As I get closer he says" Hey...there's tarpon rollin here....they're small, but there might be some good ones." So I tell him I don't wanna potlick, but he insists. If I had been standing there I can honestly say that I MIGHT not have done the same. So anyway.....I throw out and the my paddle tail is hit immediately. The tarpon jumps a few times and then shakes me loose. I throw right back out and hook another......but this one is MUCH better than the first. The fight is INSANE. Jumped about 5-6 times on me and made a few strong runs as well. As I was fighting mine, the guy with the fly rod hooks up and lands another nice one. I didn't get pics of his since we were workin hard to get em released. Mine was a bit bigger than his, but not by much. Here's the pics (not quite the best..but they do the job). My first trip to the Port A jetties and my first Tarpon. What a day!
8/30 Capt Charlie Newton reports - Our tides have really been different this past week, one day up and high and the next day down. That makes it really hard to consectively find redfish. I have fished all over the flats, from Blind Pass all the way across to South Bay. When you can get into South Bay it has really been producing on the falling tide, but be careful fishing the falling tide because it goes out before you know it and I have seen several boats high and dry under them this week. My favorite bait of choice is still live or cut mullet and I have limited out several days this week, but I have also come in with few reds also. All I can say is that's why they call it fishing and not catching. "Good catching to you" Capt. Charlie Newton www.redfishcharters.com (361) 729-8220 if you are ready to schedule you next fishing trip.
8/13 from Hogheaven aka Brew-Skies Shallow Water Adventures-Does Just the sight of bananas jinx a trip? LOL. Far from it. A good time was had, and some fish were caught. Albiet only one keeper at the end of the day which was released, but numourous Chances, Tailers, boils, and quite a few that just didnt make the measure. First time Kayakers, I think they may be hooked, and a little sore in the arms this evening.
Flats warmed up a little, but mainly due to the little tide movement. Not as much water coming in or going out.
Topwaters were what we used...
6/8 Capt Brent Hopkins Report from 6/1 -
Finally, here about 2 weeks ago, the wind decided to quit blowing so durn hard making our trout bite really turn on because of the green water and higher tides. Limits have been almost easy for me while wade fishing the outside beaches with sand & grass. Boat fishing for trout has been good too, but I can't seem to "get away" from wading right now. By far the best bait going is live croaker. The trout have been hammering them to say the least! I have had some really nice mornings too throwing topwaters for trout where I find a lot of nervous bait while bunched up together real tight like.
Since the wind quit blowing and we finally got our bull tide in here, I have not been red fishing at all for the last week or so. Prior to the winds dying, my clients were having some exceptional days catching limits of reds in the back lakes though. I'm sure the reds are still there, but trout fishing has been a welcome change of pace for me and I'm sticking to the trout for now.
Until next time,
Remember when the cards are down and the bet is called, you have your Ace in the Hole.
Check us out @ www.aceintheholeguideservice.com
Sincerely,
Capt. Brent Hopkins
HM 361-729-6911
MB 361-534-40075/26 Memorial Day Weekend Report from Hogheaven aka Brew-Skies Shallow Water Adventures - Great times out on the water. If a person can Figure out how to deal witht he crowds on the water then that person caught fish. Me, we usually left the dock at around 5am and were fishing by 515-530. This gave us the time we needed to fish some very popular spots before any one was on top of us. Trout was the main target, and up close in the shallows with topwaters was how we did it. the rest of the day was spent redfishing, cruising, and taking the kids out for some good times.
Largest trout of the weekend was pushing right at 29in, and was caught in less than a foot of water in Aransas bay. Sand and grass was key, along with plenty of bait in the water.
Couple of select pictures...
5/7 From Rick Sanders - Fished 5-7-09 around Aransas Pass using menhaden and cut mullet. We caught our limit of reds and 2 nice trout. The largest trout was 28 inches and was released. Only 1 rat red was caught. Wind was tolerable in the morning but got pretty strong in the afternoon.
We saw lots of smacks on the surfside of the south jetty the next day.
4/20 Fishing with David Sikes and Capt. Shorty Smith - I went fishing Monday and caught some fish! David Sikes called me at 9 Sunday night looking for someone to go on an airboat trip with Capt. Shorty Smith in the back lakes out of Goose Island. I threw caution to the wind not hearing from my boss at all last Friday after finishing my sound project. We caught plenty of reds and I had a blast my first time in an airboat. Look for the complete story in this Sunday's sport section of the award winning Corpus Christi Caller Times.
I didn't catch the most fish but I did catch the biggest . Be sure to give Capt Smith a call you won't be disappointed.Tyler
