Info Needed on Mustang Island TX Fish Hunting

Just take plenty of beer.

http://s679.photobucket.com/albums/vv157/ms6852/Fishing/?action=view&current=P1000094.jpg&newest=1

For surf fishing: A two- or three-foot length of aluminum angle, to hold a short piece of PVC to hold the handle of your rod, stabbed into the sand. A comfortable folding chair.

Use two- or three-ounce weights, the ones with "legs". The Gulf current runs parallel to the beach. Go down-beach from the Port Aransas tourists.

Bait? Ask at one of the fishing tackle/bait shops at Aransas Pass.

You can walk out on the South Jetty and try your luck. Live shrimp are good bait.

You can do like one thirteen-year-old did on North Padre. He saw a tiger shark sunning itself, so he swam out with the baited hook, tossed it, swam back and then hauled the "Old Gal" in: Some 350 pounds worth of teeth.

If you surf fish, rest assured that you'll need to at least partially disassemble your reel to clean with fresh water. Sand. Gets in the works when you reel in. Does terrible things to bearings.

Maybe eight or ten years back I was westbound on I-10 from Houston. Saw the outdoor store at the Katy Mills mall. Went past the boats on the way to the store. A 19' center-console Mako, rigged out with a 125 Merc, on a nice trailer. $19,000. I drooled and slobbered for a while, but successfully resisted. That's about as good a rig as an offshore guy could ever want, for seas up to around four feet. Lord knows how many times a buddy and I went out, and lots of times, way on out.

There's no limit to places you can wet a hook around here, trust me. CATCHING FISH, well, you can do that, too, even if you don't know the water, but it helps to know where the fish hang out whatever time of year you're fishing, of course. But, the kind of fishing you're talking about, well, just drive down here and find a spot. There's a little park right before the ferry at Port Aransas on the left that is pretty good and easily accessible for bank fishing. I believe it's county maintained. I have been there a couple of times. Good to kayak out of there, too. Kayak fishing is sorta getting popular down here last decade or so.

Surf fishing takes long rods and bait casting equipment. I don't mess with it, but lots of folks do. Of course, I do have a boat. I know the water around Port O'Connor/Port Lavaca better'n here (Corpus Christi), but I'm down here now and my boat will be coming with me.

An Ambassadeur 5000 is plenty big. I've used that general size on fairly sizable offshore fish. Using a heavier rig on one jaunt, I discovered that a 40-pound tuna is more fight than a 110-pound blacktip shark. Amazing little critter!

If you don't have a long rod, you can always wade out to the second bar, cast, and return to your lawn chair.

I vaguely recall using 12-pound test line, mostly. Offshore, I don't think I ever went above 20. Wire leaders, of course. Discussion at a tackle shop will help you to rig up properly.

Mustang Island has several "Beach Access" sand roads from the main highway along the island.

Trout and reds in Corpus Bay, as well.

But, Lordy, Lordy, how Port A has grown! I was there a lot, back through the '60s and '70s. Went back about three years ago and hardly recognized the place. Found a good local hang-out beer joint, though, complete with resident dog who had his own chair at the bar. (I sat down next to an extra-wide chair. Then, a very large dog walked in, looked around, and clambered up into the chair.) The spirit of Port A lives on.

If you come in on 181 you will take a ferry to the island. Once across, look to the left and you will see a marina and lots of shops. The wake jetties in the marina are sparsely fished & good catching, as are the benches behind the numerous beer haunts along the marina. Going down the channel you will find a sea wall / jetty across from st Joe's island, look for it by the RV's backed up to it or just follow a tanker. Great fishing. It's where the locals are. If you are new to saltwater fishing, it is good to hang around the experienced folks to figure out what to keep, what to eat, or what to run from. For good eats, try Virginia's.

To keep this on topic, I usually carry a gun of some kind.

I used to do the shark fishing thing in the bays, not the surf. I'd get a 4 ft black tip occasionally and the .38 came in handy as a tranquilizer on 'em (further gun/hunting content). Art obviously never fished for bull shark at big shell with that 12 lb test. I don't do that, either, but they run mid summer down there and it's popular, but you need a 4x4 to get there.

The Port Aransas of the 60s thru 70s is gone, way too commercial. used to be lots of old cabins catered to fishing, now condos cater to money & tourists, you got to go down the beach away to do any good. the old Anglers court in the old days was great. long time gone. used to be owned by coach Emory Bellards folks.

A 4x4 is good, but DON'T have mud/snow tires one it. An aggressive tread is one of the better ways to discover the use of a shovel and boards.

Wet or damp sand = firm. Dry sand = Not Firm, and speed and power are your friends!

Helps to have one of these little air pumps with you, and when on drier beach let the tires down to around 20 psi.

Good old Google maps: "Port Aransas Brewing Company''. You'll come off the ferry on Cotter. Go on down to Allister and turn right. About two blocks.

I see that Woody's Sport Center is still there. Good place in the late afternoon to watch the fishing boats come in; see what's been caught.

I mostly went after trout, reds and mackerel. No interest in bull sharks. October is a good month for flounder, both line and by gigging...

Go south down to the park at N. Padre. After entering the park, watch for the signs on the right for Bird Island boat basin. Drive down there and park, and bay fish. you can wade, use shrimp or artificials, don't need fo be more than knee deep. Use your bass tackle with spoons, or whatever soft baits are working (get info at bait shops) and catch redfish and speckled trout. Also you might hire a guide, but it's not cheap. My favorite bait is a rebel broke back minnow, touching the bottom as you retrieve. Good luck

A 4x4 is good, but DON'T have mud/snow tires one it. An aggressive tread is one of the better ways to discover the use of a shovel and boards.

Wet or damp sand = firm. Dry sand = Not Firm, and speed and power are your friends!

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+1. I have a lifted Tundra w/ 33" Goodrich T/A's, and I have pulled several folks out of the sand. If you get west of the Port Aransas maintained beach, It gets really thick & powdery. Don't come to a stop in that stuff. The mid Texas coast may be one of the last places to actually drive on the beach clear to the surf, but you really need to know what your truck is capable of.

If you do get stuck, several nice tow drivers are spaced every 1000 yards or so during peak season, and they will gladly drag you 100' and then relieve you of $50 - $100.

My favorite bait is a rebel broke back minnow,

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I have a couple of old ones in my tackle box that are beat up pretty well, paint missing, from attacks by mostly trout and reds. I used them to good effect this weekend in my inlaw's tank to catch bass. Versatile bait.

My fav bates are the soft plastics, swimming shad are good, various colors, 3/8 oz jig head. My absolute fav in the fall is a white "twin tail" or "split twin tail" shrimp OR as an alternative, the "mister twister" bass baits are quite similar. I like to work these on the oyster reefs in fall/winter.

Mirrolures are another good bait. Lots of ways to go, but the soft plastics work and they're cheap and plentiful around here. Happiness is a good worm bar.... But, if you want variety, just cast bait, dead or live shrimp, with a good two hook leader, light weight, cork or not, and 4/0 hooks. You'll get a variety and fight the hard heads this time of year, but it takes less knowledge to fish this way to actually CATCH something, even if it's a shark or a gafftop.

Oh, and beware the hardhead's spines.

I always used 12ft rods and 50lb "spiderwire" line... I caught bait with a cast net, caught some larger fish with it, then used the larger fish as bait.

It seems like the guys who are willing to swim to get out one bar further than the rest do better. Some guys even dropped their bait with a small boat. I would swim during the day, but it freaked me out to bad at night.

Holy buckets of fun... I mean it was a blast!

No swimming in saltwater with guns.... unless you are torture testing a Glock!

I was more worried about those stupid jellyfish than bad guys anyway.

I'm partial to the North Jetty at Port A. The fish in the attached photos were caught there. It's not as crowded. I guess the $12 boat ride out of Fishermans Wharf separates the fishermen from the tourists.

The Mustang Island beach tends to be really crowded on weekends. But I'm sure you will find a spot to accomplish your mission. Padre Island National Seashore (PINS) Is a really good area to do what your looking to do. It's about another 40 miles south of where your headed. It has 63 miles of unimproved beach that you can drive on and fish wherever. But be prepared, it is desolate.

I must be really dumb. I drove right down the beach with my motorhome and didn't worry about it. But then I was careful to stay on the level packed sand and not spin my tires.

I used to work offshore out of Ingleside in the 90's, my platform about 30 miles offshore used to get all the charter boats out of Port Aransas, it hurt to see all those paying fisherman barfing and chumming the Gulf, I felt for them, sometimes I had to get on a workboat and go to an unmanned platform at night or in bad weather....seasickness...something I got paid for..but something I would not pay to go thru....