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Port Aransas Fishing Report August 20, 2008 - Deep Sea Fishing Port Aransas - It seems like the weather is cooperating nicely the last couple of weeks which has made for some good offshore fishing. The shrimp boats are out there and there are some good catches of fish coming off of them. Some of the ones out a little deeper are holding some blackfin tuna this last week. No reports of yellowfin tuna yet, but if the boats remain out there through the fall, there is a good chance to see some good yellowfin tuna.
As far as trolling for billfish...it is either hit or miss. All of the boats I have spoken with have mentioned the large amount of weedlines from the inshore rocks of Hospital, Southern and Nailhead all the way out to the deeper waters of the fairway and near Falcon. Some of the rips have been described as "monster" size. It is a matter of time before some good catches come off of them.
Captain Nate Forbes of the Iced Down reports that he has been thick into the blackfin tuna his last four trips this week. He has also said the fishing has been good out of Port Aransas for amberjack, ling, kingfish and dorado.
All of the captains have been having tremendous success on the near shore trips too. High Bid, El Gato, Ambush and the Backlash are all catching limits of kingfish, red snapper, ling and sharks on state water trips.
I heard a report that the Let It Ride had an excellent day this week for billfish. I was told that they were 3 for 5 on sailfish and might have released a blue marlin as well in one day.
This is the time of year when it is important to keep an eye on that bottom machine while trolling. It seems that if you can find some suspended bait, you can raise some fish, it just takes some patience.
There are still some reports of floating debris out there so keep your eyes open. There have been more bent props and shafts than I have ever heard of this year.
Bay Fishing- The Port Aransas bay guides are getting into the late summer pattern. I have reports from the bay guides that they are coming across some huge schools of redfish around the Port Aransas fishing area. A lot of them were seen around the lighthouse shoreline. Just use common sense and cooperate with any others fishing the schools. Take your turn or move on to the next school and be courteous to your fellow angler.
This is also the time of year that some of the guides get out into the surf on the calm days for some very good early trout action as well as redfish. I have seen some tarpon rolling around the south jetty and have heard good schools at the north jetty as well. The best bait is live finger mullet free lined to the area they are rolling. Don't be surprised to get cut off by a kingfish when the water is real pretty at the jetties, which it is right now. The Port Aransas weather forecast for the next 5 days is light winds and calm seas, so make a call and go out fishing before summer is over.
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July 23, 2008 - Hurricane Dolly - Although the full force of the Hurricane was south of here, we did get some high seas and weather. Here are a couple of quick videos from Port Aransas.
June 25, 2008- Deep Sea Fishing Port Aransas Wow! The fishing has turned on in a big way. The billfish have moved into Port Aransas and a lot of the charters and private boats have been having excellent catches. Most of the boats have been have been catching there fish on weedlines from 40 fathoms to 60 fathoms. One area that was holding a lot of fish was a blue water color change around South Baker. It seemed as if most boats had 2 or three shots at blues and 2-3 chances at sailfish. When they weren't catching billfish, there was plenty of billfish by catch, such as wahoo and dolphin. The best chance at coming across a good area is to run straight out the fairway and keep your eyes peeled for weedlines starting around the rocks. Some notable catches:
Cherokee - Had back to back charters on Friday and Saturday of last week and released a blue marlin and a sailfish on each trip. Tray even managed to catch snapper, kingfish, tuna, dolphin, wahoo and ling. On Friday he was 1 for 2 on Blue Marlin and 1 for 4 on sailfish.
Mo Azul - Peter Young released a sailfish and a blue marlin over the weekend and had numerous shots at other fish "with a stick on the nose".
Iced Down - Released a blue marlin and a sailfish on Saturday along with the usual wahoo and dolphin. Hit some snapper on the way in to top off the fish box.
Paka - A tremendous day last week with 3 blue marlin releases in one day, along with a sailfish. The blues were estimated at 200, 350 and 500+ pounds. For some meat they caught wahoo and dolphin, with one of the hoos pushing 70 pounds.
Meat Haul - The Meat Haul crew went out Saturday and were 1 for 4 on blues and missed a sailfish. They too caught a couple of 40lb wahoo and some good dolphin about 30 lbs.
High Bid - Has been out catching their share of the fish as well. They seem to load up on snapper and kingfish and then troll for some wahoo and dolphin themselves. They also managed to catch a 72 pound ling.
I heard of some white marlin being caught as well on some of the private boats. The boats that have been going after swordfish at night have also been rewarded with consistent fishing. I saw online that there is a possible new dolphin state record that was caught out of Port Isabel...65.7lbs. Congrats!
Bay Fishing Port Aransas - The guides have been switching over to more trout fishing now that the weather is cooperating. Most of the guides are using croaker to get good numbers of trout, with lots of limits being reported. The reds are slowing down a little bit. A lot of the guides will head out into the surf to go after trout when the conditions are favorable. Whenever they get out in the surf, there is a good chance for other species not usually caught in the bays, species such as sharks, jacks, kingfish and maybe a ling.
Larry Kelley had a trip last week in which he caught 20 trout and then proceeded to take the clients out the jetties and they were rewarded with a 46 pound ling. Not bad for a bay trip. There are also reports of kingfish and bonita at the anchorage.
As always, call ahead of time to book your trip. It is summer and dates are filling up quickly.
June 16, 2008 - Deep Sea Fishing Port Aransas
Quite a few boats have made it out the last few days with the improving weather. Overall the offshore fishing in Port Aransas ahs been excellent. The deep sea charters have been bringing in great catches on every trip. The shorter trips have been producing limits of snapper and kingfish, along with ling, shark, dolphin and barracuda. The longer offshore fishing trips have been seeing all of the fish already mentioned along with wahoo, amberjack, more dolphin, and even some billfish, mainly blue Marlin and sailfish.
The El Gato fished Saturday out of Port Aransas and was able to catch limits of snapper and kingfish. Captain Butch Findley also caught some ling, mahi-mahi and shark for clients. The MoAzul made it out a couple of days and caught limits of snapper and kingfish, and missed a sailfish around the Aransas rocks. They did manage to release a blue marlin on the following trip. The Cherokee made it out on Father's day along with a good number of other boats. Captain Tray Clark caught their snapper and some kingfish and then decided to troll around some rigs in about 50 fathoms. They quickly hooked up to a good blue that wanted nothing to do with being brought in and unfortunately came unbuttoned after taking about 600 yards off the reel. The Cherokee did manage to catch a 65lb wahoo and some dolphin. Aboard the Iced Down, the clients have been treated to some excellent deep sea fishing. It seems like the norm right now is to get some good snapper in the box and then move on to do some trolling. It has paid off nicely for the Iced Down as you can see in the pictures below.
Overall, it looks like the fishing season is in full swing with the arrival of the billfish and other pelagic species off the coast of Port Aransas. I heard of a lot of the fish being caught on a rip/weedline around the rocks from 190 feet to 240 feet. The marlin were caught on the rip, a couple were released at Southern and some hooked up near Baker. It is nice to see so many fish "in close" with fuel prices being what they are. Reports from around the Texas coast are indicating a good blue marlin bite this last weekend, so give a call and get let's get you out fishing!
Inshore Bay Fishing in Port Aransas
The guides have been having good luck with the redfish by managing to bring in a couple of limits on each trip. It seems that they have the best success recently when they have some good fresh bait, specifically menhaden. Redfish are not the only game in town, Captain Mitchell Collins went out over the weekend and limited out on some very nice trout. One of the speckled trout was 24 inches.
Remember to book your trips early, most of the Weekends are filling up for both bay and offshore charters. Give a call if you have any questions about getting out fishing in Port Aransas.
May 19, 2008
OFFSHORE Port Aransas- Well it looks like the sport fishing in Port Aransas is starting to heat up with the weather. All of the boats going out have done very well recently. I had one group go out fishing with the Cherokee, Bad Boy and the Mo Azul. They all had excellent catches including limits of kingfish up to 40 pounds, ling, snapper, barracuda, jackfish, amberjack , ling and bee liners. The kingfish are thick at the rocks and should be moving in closer every day. There was also a wahoo that came off while the Mo Azul was trolling. Nate on the Iced Down reported some excellent grouper fishing along with all of the above mentioned fish. He did get thick into the ling and he reports that the ling have definitely moved in. The water is still green at the rocks, but the fish are definitely there.
I heard that a some private boats released a sailfish and that the Hale Yeah may have caught a couple of swordfish over the weekend. Time to get to Port Aransas and go fishing!!
INSHORE Port Aransas- When the winds let up, the trout fishing tends to improve. The redfish have been very consistent over the last few weeks. Things are looking more and more like summer everyday, the temps are heating up, the bait it coming in the jetties and I even saw some tarpon rolling at the end of the south jetty today. A few of the boats at the end of the jetty were catching numerous redfish with a few oversized redfish being released. Tray Clark went out on 5/18 for some flounder and sheephead and ended with 14 flounder and 16 sheaphead.
There are a couple of guides that have been fishing down in the land cut and have been having some good success with the trout on live bait, croaker and shrimp. Captain Grant Coppin reported that it is mainly trout right now with 2 or 3 redfish thrown in.
May 5, 2008
OFFSHORE- Some of the boats are making it out offshore and are bringing in some good catches. Over the weekend a few boats made it out before the front came through. Captain Peter Young on the Mo Azul and Captain Jim Harmon on the Bad Boy made it out Saturday and got into a lot of fish. They caught amberjack, kingfish, baracuda, jack crevelle, ling and released a lot of legal snapper. One AJ on the Bad Boy made it to 40lbs as well as a 20lb ling. THey both reported numerous undersized amberjacks as well. Nate Forbes on the Iced Down had a nearshore trip yesterday in the blustery winds and caught an 80 lb sandbar shark along with some snapper. Word is that the water is green and that there are some decent rips starting to show up.
INSHORE- It looks like the trout have shown up. Captain Mitchell Collins had a few trips this last week and was able to catch the clients both redfish and trout. He did mention that it was easier for the reds one day, and then slowed on the reds the next. The trout he was getting into averaged 18-20 inches. Captain Justin Cortez got took some clients fishing down to the land cut and brought home 27 trout, a black drum and a flounder. I know of a few guides that will fish the Laguna Madre, Baffin Bay and landcut so let me know if you want to get out down south.
Tray Clark of Backstabber guide has been out flounder gigging and has been quite successful. He has been getting 20-30 fish when the weather cooperates along with some sheephead. Most of the fish are 2-3 lbs.
April 04, 2008
OFFSHORE - Things are starting to change offshore. I have heard of a little bit of prettier water just inshore the rocks. There was a report of a big scattered rip between the 26 mile rigs and the rocks that had some wahoo on it. Nate Forbes on the Iced Down went out scouting this week and found some good Warsaw grouper and had a good trip overall. Looking at some sea surface temperature charts, the first push of warm water (74-75degrees) seems to be around the Dumping grounds about 75 miles from Port Aransas. I have noticed that this normally doesn't show up until May the past 5 years. It may be an early start to the season. Speaking of an early start...it seems that people are booking their trips early this year, so if you you are planning on getting out on the weekend, you may want to give Texas Charter Fleet a call to set up your trip.
Inshore- Larry Kelley went out a few days this week and gave me the first solid report of trout. He caught a limit of trout for 2 people on Wednesday in about an hour and a half. The next day the wind picked up and the trout shut off. He also reported that the spring tides are here and that you need to check out some of the "new water" areas for the spread out fish.
Flounder Gigging- Had the pleasure of getting out gigging with Tray Clark of Backstabber Guide service, once again he did not disappoint. In a quick hour and a half, we managed our limit of 10 sheephead and added 14 flounder. It should get better for the next couple of months as the flounder start coming back in the bays. As far as the sheephead, there were hundreds of them, so you can take your time and wait for some of the larger ones.
As always, feel free to email or call if you have any questions or need to book a fishing trip.
March 24, 2008
OFFSHORE - The boats are starting to get into some fish out there, at least some good meat fish. The Iced Down made it out a couple of days this last week once the waves and winds subsided. He managed to get a mako shark on back to back days along with some kingfish and snapper the first day. On the second day, he went out further than the 26's and got limits of amberjack, 7 grouper, An African Pompano and some nice snapper to finish off the day.
All the fishing reports that I got said that the water was green and cold (66-67 degrees). Capt. Matt Haworth, who runs the private boat Madera, got into some blackfin at an early bite out deep at a rig and then pulled baits out to Dutra with no luck. He also managed some grouper. The Hale Yeah (Ronnie Hale) had a good weekend with a swordfish, tuna, and grouper. Congrats on the swordfish!!
Inshore- I am finally starting to hear of some trout starting to show up with the warming water. Got some reports from the guides that they were getting into them around Traylor Island and redfish around Hog Island. Still a lot of black drum and sheep head out there too when the currents slow around the structure in the channel.
March 3, 2008
OFFSHORE-- Fishing offshore of Port Aransas has been good as long as the weather cooperates. This is usually the case for this time of year. I spoke with Capt. Nate Forbes of the Iced Down about his last couple of trips out. On the ICed Down, he was able to get some Amberjack, grouper and a 30lb ling. He did not have any luck on the wahoo but that can change literally overnight. He also ran a couple of party boat trips and they were able to get into some good numbers of blackfin tuna. He thinks that they should still be out there. If the blackfin tuna are there, then the possibility of hooking into a mako shark should be good.
Inshore-- I got some good info from a couple of captains on the recent inshore fishing around Port Aransas. Capt. Frank Eicholz told me that there have been some good numbers of redfish and black drum around Hog Island, and plenty of sheephead at the jetties if th wind is not blowing too hard. These fish have been caught using shrimp. He said shrimp is fine to use due to the lack of pinfish (baitstealers).
Capt. Ed Woodhouse said that the reds are showing up in the flats with the warmer weather/water. He has been able to trick them into biting with gold spoons, perch and shrimp. He is working areas of bait, mainly schools of mullet to catch his fish. He said there is a large amount of bait up on the flats.
International--Just returned with a group from Quepos/Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica for a fun filled fishing week. The sailfish bite picked up as we were down there with the first two days releasing 3-4 sails a boat and seeing about 12-15. The sails weren't real excited to eat, but luckily some were hungry. The third day of fishing led to the release of 9 sailfish out of about 25 in the baits. There was also some yellowfin tuna in the 40-50# class range caught.
The highlight of the fishing trip was the release of a black marlin estimated at 500lbs or better. It was a 2.5hr fight with only one jump. Below are some pics of the trip.
February 10, 2008
OFFSHORE--There was a decent weather window last week and it looked like some boats made it offshore. Most of the success was done at the floating rigs, with some good yellow fin tuna being caught as well as black fin tuna of course. I got a fishing report from a Port Aransas' boat that fished Southern and ended up with a couple of wahoo, some black fin and a 300lb Mako shark. Hopefully, I can get some pics of that mako soon.
Doctor's Orders was able to go fishing this last weekend and caught nice limits of state water snapper and also made it out to Southern to catch 4 blackfin, a wahoo and a mako shark.
I have seen other reports of makos interrupting wahoo or amberjack fishing with the mako coming out on top, You may want to be ready just in case, at least you can be prepared to have the proper fishing gear and equipment to land, or better yet, release one of these big sharks once it gets boat side.
Overall, the weather has kept a lot of the private boats from getting offshore, but when they are able to go fishing, it has been successful.
INSHORE--Guide and Captain Mark Jones went out a couple of times in the bay last week and was quite successful with the redfish. Both trips managed to catch their limits of red drum in a half day inshore trip. Mark said that the fishing is "slower" with the cold weather, and he is going out a little bit later than usual. He also said to be very patient and that the reds are acting slow themselves. If you catch one, do not leave after 10 or 15 minutes, but stick with it and you will get a shot at another one.
INTERNATIONAL-- Right now you can go just about anywhere south of here and get into some good fishing. It has been hot in Cancun and Isla Mujeres, Guatemala, Panama, and Costa Rica. I even had some friends who made to Vieques, Puerto Rico for a week and caught more large dolphin than you would ever need. They even went 4-8 on Blue Marlin. The marlin bite was a little unusual for this time of year, but the currents were in their favor.
December 12, 2007
OFFSHORE--Where to begin...not a whole lot of offshore fishing going on the last month or so due to the overall rough conditions offshore. I have spoken to a couple of captains that have been on some long range trips to the floaters and getting good numbers of yellowfin. Most of the fish are going 50-80lbs.
INSHORE--The flounder gigging season has been very up and down...with one night producing limits and the next night only being able to scratch out 6-8 flatties.
I have heard of some redfish being when the weather cooperates, most of the fish biting a little later with the warmth of the sun.
INTERNATIONAL--For those of you who have not heard, the stripe marlin bite in Cabo San Lucas is going off...one boat caught 179 striped marlin in one day, only to be out done a few days later with a catch of 190. In Guatemala and Costa Rica, the seasons are off to a nice start with lots of sails being released, and some good numbers of blues off of Los Suenos/Quepos this last couple of weeks. Fishing should remain excellent through April.
