Fishing in Port Aransas

TXBryan

TXBryan

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My family made time for a brief getaway to Port Aransas (Port A) last week. We had a fun and relaxing fishing day with Captain Danny and did pretty well. My son got to hang out with his two best friends and on the way home he said it was his best "vacation" ever. That's what you wanna hear!

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My boy on the far right

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Mostly black drum and a few speckled trout. They are all eating great.

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My poor boy all worn out and taking a break from the action
 

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Went out on a party boat from Port A, several years ago. Had a good time and caught many fish. When we lived in Rockport, I used to fish off the Jetty at Port A. Good fishing.
 
Looks like they had a great time! I've never fished out of there, but I have gone to work out of Harbor Island (right before Port Aransas) to the rigs several times since the 90s. I just looked on Google Earth and the docks we used back then seem to have been semi-abandoned now. I guess the hurricanes in the teens put the squash on their business.
 
Rockport - Port Aransas area has some great fishing in the shallow flats and small islands within a mile or so of the shoreline. Redfish, drum, speckled trout, the occasional ray or small shark, all great fun on light tackle.

My first introduction to "hardheads", a breed of catfish with barbs capable of delivering a painful sting on contact. My host was adamant, don't bring it into the boat, just cut it loose.

Surprisingly powerful tidal currents in those very shallow waters! Best to have someone who knows the area well if you are boating that area.
 
Caught a bunch of fish at (and near) Port A over the years. Specks, reds, black drum, skipjack, croaker, the occasional flounder, lots of hardheads and gafftops, and some I wasn't sure what they were.
 
Imissedagain said:
Any Snapper or Snook over there?
Click to expand...

Snapper a little further out. Around the rigs seems to be where most of the snapper are caught. We were bay fishing, sometimes called fishing the "flats" and the water averages about 4 to 12 feet deep where we were.

Kinda interesting that the cold winter weather last season really put the hurt on the bay fish especially speckled trout. Thus they have raised the legal minimum from 14 to 17 inches. Consequently we threw lots and lots of 14 to 17 inch fish back and the bottle nose dolphins ate every one of them within a foot or two of their release.

We have snook but they are a little more rare than in Florida. I lived in Gainesville back in the late 80s and caught a few snook down around Apalachicola - wow are those good eating!
 
Thanks TXBryan.
Always wondered about edible fish on your side of the Gulf.

Outfitting Tournament Sport Fishing boats for many years. the only thing the crews talked about once GPS was online, was how soon they could just tell the Autopilot to take them to Texas and not hit any oil rigs.
 
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