Port Aransas
Fishing Port Aransas Fishing Reports
Port Aransas Deep Sea Fishing
Port Aransas Bay Guides
Contact Us
Port Aransas Fishing Report
June 2, 2009 Port Aransas Offshore Deep Sea Fishing
Report
Summer is in full swing
from the jetties out to 100 miles offshore for all the
different types of fish that you want to catch. I will
start out with what is happening deep offshore. There
has been a persistent color change roughly 50 to 70 fathoms
offshore of Port Aransas. The closest place to catch
it has been heading off Hospital rock and keeping your eyes
open. When it is ripping, you can't miss it. I
have heard many experienced billfishers claim it is one of
the best rips they have seen in years. One side is
green and whitecapped while the other side is cobalt blue
and slick calm. I noticed that the green water was
moving south-southeast over the weekend, which is heading
straight into the blue water. Reports were that the
rip / weedline did not start to "turn on" unti late in the
day. I know of a few blue marlin taken from it along
with some sails and good size wahoo and dolphin. SO if
you pass it early, check on it later, it could make a good
trip into a great trip. The blue water does not start
until you get to that color change, but there are plenty of
fish inshore as well. Red Snapper season has started,
and there are plenty of kingfish, shark and ling around too.
The bill fish bite has turned on with some decent numbers of
blue marlin and sailfish being caught by various boats.
I have a video of the Cherokee's fish from last week, and
some pictures and video of a little blue that was caught by
yours truly on the Gloria II.
Moving nearshore, the water is
extremely nice at the jetties with the calm weather we have
been having. I was fishing with Rene Lopez last week
at the south jetty and we caught trout (one lost at rock at
least 25 inches), small grouper, 3 kingfish, jackfish,
spanish mackeral, cero mackeral, mangrove snapper and saw
some tarpon rolling. There was also bonita chasing
bait everywhere. I mentioned that it was pretty enough
for there to be sailfish around, and sure enough there have
been a handful caught the last few days around the jetties.
See pictures of one caught by Kay and Bill Culpepper today,
June 2. The forecast is excellent for the week and it
looks like we have a nice summer pattern going on right now.
June 2, 2009 Port Aransas Inshore Bay Fishing Report
The fishing has been improving
with the weather. The light winds are making for some
great catches of trout in the surf and in the bay. The
surf usually only happens in August and September when the
light winds and small seas allow some of the guides to go
hit San Jose Island with some good live bait to tear up the
trout. The redfish have also been caught in large
numbers by all the guides. They are even seeing
jackfish in the bays and I am sure a few of the guides will
hit the jetties to take part in the kingfish and
unbelievable sailfish catches.
May 27, 2009 Port
Aransas, Texas Deep Sea Fishing Report
Wow. What a way to start
the summer. The first good weather weekend happened to
coincide with memorial day weekend. With seas 2-3
feet, most of the Port Aransas fleet made it offshore.
On the longer trips, most charter boats and recreational
boats hit the color change rip in about 50 fathoms that went
from offshore Ant Hill up to Baker and
on to Falcon. The rip was holding a lot
dolphin, wahoo and even some tuna, with lots of a
variety ofbait on and off the rip. This is a very good
sign because the blue marlin, white marlin and sailfish will
not be far behind. Last year, the hot billfish bite
started Father's Day weekend and stayed extremely hot
through June. Take a look at the archives to get an
idea of what went on last year at this time.
Some of the boats that I got
reports from Peter Young on the MoAzul, which caught a
good number of dolphin, wahoo and tuna and may have had a
finicky billfish in the baits as well. The Ambush
went out as well and came home with the same catch of
dolphin and wahoo. The Caliente, with
Captain John Brennan is still catching Amberjack,
kingfish, grouper as well as the dolphin and wahoo.
They even jumped off a blue on the rip as well. The
High Bid had an inshore trip that produced a nice catch
of ling, kingfish and shark.
The catch of the week went to
the Cherokee, and Captain Tray Clark.
The Cherokee released a large Blue Marlin at the Dumping
Grounds. Considering the fact that they called it
one of the better blue marlin that they have caught, you
know it was big. I will have video up of it within the
next few days. I have seen it, and it is a good fish.
They also missed a couple of smaller billfish and iced down
some good meat fish for the grill.
Earlier in May, a group of us
went to Puerto Aventuras, Mexico and fished with a good
friend, Captain Bobby Johnson on the Solid Waste. It
was a great trip with fishing taking place about 500 yards
off the beach. The boats do not even get up on plane
when leaving the marina. With the proximity, and
various activities other than fishing, I highly recommend
getting down there for a little R&R. Check out the
slideshow on YouTube:
May 27, 2009 Port Aransas Inshore Bay Fishing
As with the offshore fishing,
the bay fishing has really heated up. The redfish has
been very consistent, but the talk right now is that the
trout have been thick on the calmer days. The guides
have been using croakers for the most part and have been
limiting out, according to Frank Eicholz, Larry Kelley
and Mitchell Collins. Don Miller
took his group out over the weekend and caught a limit of
reds for them. I have heard of cut up
skipjack/ladyfish being an excellent redfish bait, so give
it a try.
A good local fisherman and
friend, Rene Lopez hit the North Jetty last
week a couple of times and caught just about everything.
He said that once you got through the skipjacks, there were
trout, redfish, grouper, flounder and snook to be had.
I am probably leaving something as well. He was using
Yozuris and also had some live shrimp. On one day he
even caught 4 snook on the Yozuris. I have not heard
of Tarpon yet, but it is a matter of time.
With this good weather, the
kingfish are moving in close, with lots of report s of
catches at the standpipes, and some small ling nearshore as
well. Give a call if you want to get out there
fishing. There will be a couple of boats doing
strictly state water trips for snapper, kings and sharks as
well.
March 15, 2009 Port
Aransas Deep Sea Fishing Report Although the
weather has been wet and chilly, the fishing is red hot
offshore. Captain Nate Forbes on the Iced Down has
been out a few times this last week and has reported
excellent fishing. He has been bringing in good
numbers of blackfin, large amberjack and he has left the
wahoo biting. He even managed a good size dog snapper.
The last trip out was a "two cooler" day. Meaning he
had topped off both coolers with fish. Proof is in the
pictures.
The High Bid with Captain Aaron Chambers
went out on a quick trip and caught limits of kingfish and
even threw in a 15 pound dolphin. The report is that
the water is a shade of blue at the rocks.
The Bounty Hunter made it out and caught 6 wahoo
that totaled 290 lbs. The had one 40 pounder bitten in
half by a shark. Captain Dennis Lugg also
managed some kingfish around some rigs but he said he could
not keep the red snapper away from the trolled ribbonfish on
the surface.
Overall, the offshore fishing has been excellent as long
as the weather cooperates. Feel free to call if you
have any questions. Tight Lines!!
March 10, 2009 -
Golfito, Costa Rica Report. Wow, what a trip.
A few of us went down to fish with the Muy Caliente
of Rancho Tropical in Golfito, Costa Rica last
week. We knew it was going to be good but what we got
was beyond anything we had hoped for. Captain John
Brennan and mates Keith Banks and Tico Jeremy put us on a
great bite. We ended up releasing 77 sailfish
and a couple of dorado over the three days of fishing.
Day one had 14 releases, we did not find the fish towards
the middle of the first day. We headed out at first
light on day two, which is very unusual for charters to take
out the customers so early, and it paid off. Captain
John Brennan put us on the fish early and stayed on them all
day, which ended the same way it started with a double
header. That made the count for day two at 39
releases. Fishing continued to be fast and furious for
the sailfish on the third day with 11 releases by 9am.
We kept pace until noon until the anglers hit a spot of bad
luck. It always seems that catching the fish can be so
easy when the fish are aggressive, but when they are
finicky, it can make any angler weep and want to crawl into
the cuddy. Anyway we managed a few more before the
bite turned off and ended up with 24 sailfish on day three.
We also managed a couple a dorado for the barbeque and some
gorgeous pictures. I can not say enough about how hard
these guys fish, how much they enjoy helping and teaching
and how smoothly they work the boat and the cockpit.
Keith and Jeremy are extremely efficient and hard working
and they have to be when Capt. John keeps them on the fish.
Please feel free to call me or email if you have any
questions about fishing Golfito with the Muy Caliente.
February 9, 2009 - Deep
Sea Fishing Port Aransas Texas - It looks like the
year has started off with a bang last week when the Iced
Down with Captain Nate Forbes made it out on a 12
hour trip and made it back with 800 pounds of fish for the
charter. That is correct...800. The catch
included 9 ling cobia averaging 40 pounds, a limit of
amberjack for 5, and 7 wahoo taken around some
floating debris. What a day for the private charter.
Nate mentioned that the water was clean but not blue.
I have noticed that the weather buoy 45miles offshore Port
Aransas had a water temperature around the magical 70
degrees needed to turn the wahoo on.
Other fishing reports have mainly been from the long
range tuna trips, and the tuna have been cooperative.
Most of the floater trips have been very successful for
yellowfin tuna and some other species including dorado (mahi
mahi, dolphin).
There are a couple of new boats that will be available
for offshore deep sea fishing charters out of Port Aransas,
Texas this year. One boat is a 43' Viking called
Caliente and will be captained by John Brennan
who is currently releasing many billfish down in Costa Rica.
Another boat that can get you out there is the Reel
Insanity a 58ft custom for the high end luxury charter.
It is a custom Carolina boat that is as pretty as it is big.
I expect that Port Aransas boats will be very busy this
summer with the unfortunate landfalls of last summers
hurricanes in Port Isabel and Galveston. Fortunately
for Port Aransas, we dodged the hurricanes and are ready for
a great season. Call early to book your trip and I
will answer any questions that you have.
Inshore Bay Fishing Port Aransas - It has been
quiet on the bays around Port Aransas, Corpus Christi and
Rockport, but the redfish and black drum have been making
some noise the last month. Mitchell Collins (aka
Fish Pimp) has reported very low tides the last few
weeks which has made it easier to find the schools of fish
including one catch of up to 84 pounds of fish for one of
his charters. Things are only going to get better with
the rising temperatures and the arrival of the trout.
Another new attraction to Port Aransas is the golf
course. Newport Dunes opened last fall to rave reviews
and has been well received here in Port Aransas. Ask
me about the course and I can give you plenty of
information.
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.
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.
