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Port Aransas Fishing Report
August 23, 2010
Port Aransas Deep Sea Fishing Report
A lot has been happening in the last couple of weeks. Reports that the green water is starting to move out have been increasing. There was still some reported towards Dutra, but straight out and south have been much better. The weather has been very cooperative for the most part and the fish have also been numerous. THere are still reports of good weedlines starting as close in a 20 miles. That is close enough to get some chicken dolphin, aka mahi mahi and maybe some wahoo. THere will definitely be some sailfish in close as the El Gato and Captain Tom Ramsden caught 2 sails while on an 8hr charter. One of the sails was caught around the ships. Besides the sailfish, kingfish and chicken dolphin have also bee reported being caught at the ships.
The shrimpers are out there, and so are the different fish that go with them. The Caliente, with captain John Brennan, has been catching a nice variety of fish on his trips. The staple seem to be kingfish, amberjack, dog snapper and ling. On one of the fishing trips, he caught 13 different species of fish. Some people are happy with 13 fish, but 13 species...what a trip.
On a billfish trip last week, the High Bid released a blue marlin and a white marlin.
The billfish bite has been hot. A few of the boats have seen more than 7 billfish in a single trip. There are a lot of white marlin being caught this year so if you need to get your white, now is the time. Usually the sailfish and white marlin start to school up for the next couple of months, and as most seasoned billfisherman know, this is a great time of the year to have multiple shots at billfish.
A few boats have been making it to the floaters on some extended trips, and have been rewarded with some great tuna action, one tuna caught at Perdido topped the scales at 163 pounds. It wasn't the only big yellowfin tuna there. There were 100 pound plus tuna seen throughout the day down there. There are a number of boats that will make that trip so please call for information. Here is a picture of that 163# yellowfin tuna.
Port Aransas Bay Fishing
The fishing reports from the bay guides said that it was a little slow a couple weeks ago as far as the redfish were concerned, but the black drum were making up for it. Over this last weekend the reds seemed to have turned on, Butch Findley reports 4 limits on one of his trips. When the winds calm down, the trout have been pretty active as well, especially if you can make it out to the surf. There have been some large bull reds caught around the jetties, which is the norm for this time of year. Do not be surprised if you happen to see a few tarpon rolling around as well. Both of these fish are in the peak of there seasons and should be plentiful for the next month.
Port Aransas is at the beginning of the favorite season for fishing according to the locals. With school starting up, it is a little quieter on the island and the fishing is spectacular. If you ask any locals,what their favorite time of year to fish is, the majority will say the fall. Come find out for yourself and I am sure you will not be disappointed. Please feel free to call if you have any questions.
July 20, 2010 Port Aransas Fishing Report
It is still business as usual for the Port Aransas Fishing charters. This is the last week of red snapper season, so I hope everyone got a chance to get out and catch a few. The kingfish are thick around the shrimp boats in 150 feet of water, maybe eventually some blackfin tuna will start to show up on some of the deeper shrimpers. With all of the rain, the blue water is out further than normal, but if you can find some decent color chages or weedlines, they have been producing mahi mahi some wahoo and sailfish. Nate Forbes relesed a sail today and had another one take a look.
Speaking of Nate, a huge congratulations to him and his crew for taking first place in the POCO Bueno Blue Marlin Tournament with a 465 pound blue. Nate also released a second one during the tournament and a few meat fish as well. I happened to be fishing aboard the Happy Hour the same tournament and took 2nd place with a 454.5 blue marlin. Here is the video of Happy Hour's fish:
From There have been reports of some excellent weed lines and color changes the last few weeks. I know there is a lot of green water nearshore, but the blue water should be moving right back in in the next week or so. When it does, the fishing should be non stop again. Here are some pics from a weedline in 200 feet of water just inshore of Southern.
Congratulations are also in order for bay fisherman guru and good friend Josh Garcia. He took grand champion at the Port Aransas Boatmen's Deep Sea Roundup. Mitchell Collins also had an impressive tournament by putting his son on the winning fish to take home the top junior prize.
There is still a lot of fishing season ahead so call today to book your trip and I hope to see you on the water!
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July 1, 2010 Port Aransas Fishing Report
The deep sea fishing out of Port Aransas continues to stay hot. All of the boats were catching a ton of fish to keep the customers happy. This seems like it is getting redundant, but the fishing, or should I say catching, has been great. For the billfish fans, there have been a good number of blue marlin and sailfish seen and caught amongst various boats this last week. For the most part, the boats have been trolling weedlines and patches of weed to pick up their blue marlin, sailfish, dorado, wahoo and even some blackfin tuna. The Cherokee went out for a family meat haul and they ended up bring back snapper, 6 big wahoo up to 55 pounds, a 35 pound grouper, 2 40 pound dolphin and released a sailfish as well. The total catch brought back to the dock weighed in at 428 pounds. That will fill up the freezer. Here are the pics from the Cherokee trip:
The 8hr trips have been bringing back limits of snapper, kingfish, ling, baracuda and sometimes some dolphin. The longer meat trips have been doing well with amberjack and some grouper. The Caliente even managed a 100 lb wahoo while out last week.
The bill fishing has been excellent with some big fish out there. The Meat Haul released a 400# blue and there were quite a few blues caught during the LoneStar Shootout. Here are some pics and videos of some blue marlin from this last week.
Meat Haul Blue:
Happy Hour Blue Caught during the LoneStar Shootout:
Video:
June 21, 2010 Port Aransas Fishing Report
The wind started to lay down this last week, and the charters took full advantage of the good weather. The Herradura went for some billfish and they found some on a small weedline/temperature change between Falcon and Dutra. They were able to release one sailfish and came unbuttoned on 2 other sailfish. There is still some reports of grass out there, so take advantage of any current or temperature breaks that form a little line, the fish should be there. Here is a picture from one of Herradura's 8 hr trips:
Some of the charters that were not bill fishing had some excellent catches themselves. The Iced Down, High Bid, Caliente and Ambush are all getting lots of big red snapper, kingfish, ling, dolphin, dog snapper and Amberjack. Nate Forbes on the Iced Down even boated a 82 pound wahoo, that is a huge fish that is going to make for some excellent dinners.
Take advantage of the calm weather this week and get out fishing. There are still boats available for bay and offshore. Check out this week's forecast at the link below:
Port Aransas Bay Fishing
The report from the guides is still positive. They have been catching the redfish fairly consistently, and there have been some reports from a few guides that have found a couple large schools of black drum. Butch Findley and Frank Eicholz have both told me that they have been on one of these large schools for a number of days now catching their customers limits. Everyone is waiting for this calm weather for the trout to turn back on. If it gets calm enough, some of the guides will look at heading out to the surf and around the Port Aransas jetties.
Mitchell Collins, the Fish Pimp, has been taking the boat down to Laguna Madre the last week or two. He seems to be very excited about the fishing down there, and if Mitchell gets excited, you know its good. He has told me of schools of thousands of drum, and limits of trout on bait in no time. The Laguna Madre, Baffin Bay and the Land Cut are some of the best bay fishing areas in the country. It is worth fishing at least once, just to experience it.
The oil is still not affecting the Texas coast and we still do not see it having a negative impact any time soon, if at all, at this time.
There are still boats available for bay and offshore this week and weekend, so take advantage of the calm weather and go catch some fish.
June 6, 2010 Port Aransas Fishing Report
Right now all of the charters are bringing in just about anything you want to catch. With the red snapper season open, the 8hr fishing charters out of Port Aransas are bring back catches of Red Snapper, Kingfish, Ling (Cobia, Lemonfish), dog snapper, dolphin (mahi mahi, dorado) and wahoo. There are still a lot of weedlines out there from 8 miles out to, well, as far as you can go. I spoke with Captain Brian Phillips of the Mojo, and he just brought back the boat from Isla Mujeres and said that there is grass out to 400 miles, but there are areas as lengthy as 50 miles with no grass. So the weeds just may thin out eventually.
On the longer 12 hour fishing charters, the High Bid and Iced Down have reported catching the fish mentioned above as well as amberjack and grouper, and some blackfin tuna. The Ambush went out aon an 8 hr trip and caught limits of red snapper, some ling, kingfish, wahoo and blackfin tuna. A report from the Herradura from Friday had visions of Blue Marlin. They had one blue marlin attack a wahoo that they had online, then hooked up and lost another blue marlin, and saw a third blue marlin while bottom fishing around Baker.
Herradura Pic
The water is much prettier in closer than it was last week. Fishing Saturday the 5th out at Baker, there was more grass than you knew what to do with, but the water was prettier, not dark cobalt blue, but it was mostly blue. The Meat Haul worked the grassy area and released a sailfish and boated some tasty 30 and 40 pound wahoo, as well as a 33 pound dolphin. We also had an encounter with a large blue marlin (400+) that was chasing some dinner. So there are definitely some big girls out there, and we were only in 50 -60 fathoms.
Some of the other boats fishing reported that the scattered grass went all the way from Baker to Dutra and the Dumps. We stuck with a decent area and had a nice current form for about an hour and we managed a few bites and fish from that. So there are fish there, it is just going to take work if you are trolling. Here are some pics from the Meat Haul.
John Brennan of the Caliente sent in his pics and report from his trip Saturday:
5 amberjack (up to 65#)
10 king mackerel (up to 50#)
10 red snapper (up to 18#)
8 cobia (up to 39#)
5 anglers...
June 1, 2010 Port Aransas Fishing Report
Conditions offshore this last weekend:
Quick report of whats going on offshore. We headed out of Port Aransas Saturday knowing that the blue water was deep. We headed off Southern and came on a good rip, weedline in about 65 fathoms and pulled a few wahoo from it, but the water is green, green green. We started to troll out at about 120 degrees to look for the blue water and there was a good amount of bait (bonita, balckfin) in 70-80 fathoms, and the water is still ugly green. We managed a couple hookups and missed one big fish around the bait. We open water troll and got a 37 pound cow dolphin, largest cow I have ever seen, water is getting better but no blue at all.
We eventually make it out to the blue water, 60 miles and 230 fathoms south of the Dump to find one of the best weedlines I have seen offshore. It was holding a lot of bait, flying fish, little dorado. We only managed a couple of dolphin and was very surprised to not see any billfish. Slow bite might have been due to full moon. We ended up the day with a few wahoo and dolphin and a handful of missed fish or pulled hooks. I did not hear of any of the boats having a epic day, mainly hoos and dolphin. The water is green out to 58 miles and then pretty blue at the weedline. Also, take some mosquito spray, there were thousands of mosquitos offshore, 60 freakin miles. Proabaly due to the west wind.
I will get some pics of that rip up in the next day or two.
Overall, there is a lot of grass between the 26's and out to the blue water, all of which is holding wahoo and dolphin. Some of the charters boats have been fishing the grass patches inside the rocks ands getting 6 or 7 bullet hoos and lots of chicken dolphin, so you do not need to run out to the blue water to fill the fridge. I also heard of a good rip just offshore Baker that was producing the same meat fish and a couple blue marlin sightings. Congrats to the Incommunicado, out of Port A that released 2 blues near the 300 fathom hump.
Anyway, get out there and do not be scared of fishing the green water, it is still holding plenty of fish.
Red Snapper season is open as of today! The red snapper season will run through July 24th, so get out there now before it is too late. Besides the snapper, the High Bid reported catching 7 wahoo, limits of kingfish, ling and buckets of dolphin on one of the 8hr trips last week. It is a little uncommon to have the wahoo in so close, but they are mixed in with the dolphin in all of the sargassum that is floating around right now. On a 12hr trip they even added limits of AJ's, dog snapper, and some grouper along with the previously mentioned fish. Basically, the fishing is going off right now for everything. There have even been some blue marlin released over this last weekend. The Herradura released two blues on a nice weedline at the end of the fairway along with keeping a handful of wahoo and some dolphin.
The inshore guides have been busy catching their usual redfish and trout. It seems that these guys are getting booked up earlier than normal, so give a call to reserve your fishing trip.
May 24, 2010 Port Aransas Fishing Report
Both the High Bid and Iced Down made it offshore a couple of times last week even though it was a little windy. They were rewarded with some good catches of meat fish. They were able to bring back some dog snappers, ling, kingfish and amberjack. Next week they will be adding some large red snapper to the list as well. We have some good weather forecast towards the end of the week and hopefully throughout the Memorial Day weekend. I know last year it was flat calm and there were a lot of fish caught, even some blue marlin about 45 miles out. Here is a picture from the High Bid last week with Captain Aaron Chambers and first mate Matt Reed.
Bay Fishing has been on a tear out of Port Aransas with limits of redfish and trout being caught. With the light winds for the weekend, I imagine that the water will clear up very nicely and even more large trout will be caught.
May 9, 2010 Port Aransas Offshore Fishing Report
A lot has happened since the last report, and sure enough, the pelagic species have moved into the Port Aransas waters. I had a couple of different boats report a nice weedline a few miles off of Southern this last week and it was holding dolphin and wahoo. The Iced Down was one of the boats and although he said the water was not blue, it was still worth trolling. The Iced Down also had a short trip in which they caught 7 ling and a released a limit of sharks (Sharpnose) and an undersized Blacktip. I heard the Caliente caught a 98 lb Amberjack, heck of a fish. Amberjack fishing has been very good with limits and the average fish going from 25-45 pounds. That is a good fight and good table fare.
It looks like the prettiest water starts around 40-50 fathoms, so look for a color change or weedlines and there will be fish.
Congrats to the Ambush, they went out last week during the weather window and released two blue marlin. It is always great to see one or two blue marlin, but to actually release 2 in a trip is outstanding.
The federal Red Snapper season is open from June 1 to July 24. Judging by the amount of snapper that the spring trips have been having to release, it should be an excellent snapper season.
There is no problem with the oil spill off of our waters, we are watching the situation very closely and make sure to keep those who are affected in your prayers. Anyone who has spent any time along the gulf coast can understand the severity of the impact to the environment and lives of the local communities.
The bay fishing is in full swing with all of the guides reporting very good fishing for reds and trout. There will be reports of kingfish around the jetties soon. I also know that there has been some jackfish being caught around the ferries this last week too.
Give a call if you have any questions or if you want to set up a trip. Tight Lines.
April 26, Port Aransas Fishing Report
Fishing in Port Aransas has started to heat up with the warmer weather. The spring tides and south winds have pushed some warmer water, bait and sargassum into the Port Aransas area. The deep sea trips have been producing a large variety of species and good numbers as well. For example, I saw the Caliente bring in a nice catch last week which included 7 wahoo, amberjack, grouper, ling (aka cobia or lemonfish) kingfish, barracuda jack crevelle and countless red snapper that were released. That was with only 2 anglers on board. The High Bid also has been bringing in the same type of catches as seen in the pictures below.
This last week, there have been reports and talk of numerous ling near shore Port Aransas. When I say near shore, I mean caught off the jetties. Some boats have reported seeing dozens around the nearby rigs, although a lot are undersized, they are excellent fighters and there are plenty of keepers in the mix as well. As always, stop and check anything floating on the surface to see what may be lurking below. Here is a pic I received as I was writing this report.
Caught by, Rene "not going to call my friends to go fishing" Lopez.
The spring tides have also brought in baitfish into the bays, which in turn brought some large trout. Mitchell Collins, the Fish Pimp, had a day where he helped guide his group to catch a 28", 26" 25" and a 24" trout, along with the regular catch of redfish. He also took out a group of friends ages 13-16 in the afternoon and helped them bring back 3 limits of redfish.
There is a lot of fishing and catching going on and it will continue to improve with the weather. It is is just a matter of time, about a week or two, when we will get the first reports of billfish being caught along with the dolphin (a.k.a. mahi mahi, dorado).
Whether you are new to fishing or a veteran angler, if you have any questions about fishing out of Port Aransas or what trip may be best for you, do not hesitate to call or email. We are here to make your fishing (catching) charter an enjoyable experience you will not soon forget.
March 21, Port Aransas Fishing Report
It is that time of year when the fishing in Port Aransas heats up with the weather. We had some nice warm days overr the last 10 days, and the wind even cooperated for a good number of those days.
Offshore Fishing Report: The boats heading offshore deep sea fishing have been heading out to the rocks and the rigs about 35-45 miles offshore. On the rocks, most of the catch consists of kingfish, sharks bee liners and plenty of red snapper. Unfortunately, the red snapper must be released due to it not being red snapper season. The word from the captains is that you can not get away from the red snapper anywhere you want to fish. Captain Brian Phillips of the Mojo said that he had 10 pound snapper feeding on the surface out at the rocks. All they wanted to do was catch some kingfish, but had to avoid the snapper. The amberjack and ling bite has been very good as you can see from the pictures below taken of the Iced Down catch captained by Nate Forbes. The Iced Down also caught some good grouper and African Pompano. These fish seem to be around in good numbers through May and will still be caught throughout the summer.
A couple of boats the Mo Azul with Captain Peter Young and the High Bid with Captains Brian Cody and Aaron Chambers made overnight trips and were rewarded with a large number of blackfin tuna. The High Bid stayed out the following day and caught some amberjack, ling, kingfish and beeliners. There is also as many as you can reel in jackfish and horse eyed jacks that were caught and released.
Captain David Bujnoch of Third Coast Charters is a new addition to the fleet and has the fastest boat with the very comfortable 38 Fountain. This boat can make it up to 65 mph when the seas allow. He made it out for a quick 8hr trip and caught kingfish, jackfish, beeliners and sharks. He also had to release numerous red snapper.
All of the charter boats seem to have had an encounter at some point in their trips this spring with the extremely hard fighting and very tasty Mako shark. It seems that there are a decent number of them around and they are very willing to take away your 40 pound amberjack, tuna or wahoo. Even the Mako knows what fish taste best.
It will only be about a month until the blue water from the south gets within range of the Port Aransas fishing fleet, and with it comes the dolphin, wahoo, blue marlin, white marlin and sailfish. It seems that the best blue marlin bite has been around the month of June. This bite has been as close as 40 miles the last few years, so take advantage of it and get out there fishing.
Bay Fishing: With the warmer and sunnier days, the bay fishing in Port Aransas has taken off. The guides are getting more redfish than the last few weeks and limiting out there customers. THey are also targeting some black drum which are in good numbers and if you want to add to the catching, the sheephead are still around. It will not be long before the water temps get right for the trout to start showing up.
Flounder Gigging: Captain Tray Clark made it out this last week and although the flounder were not yet coming back into the bays yet, he managed a couple flatties but he did get 100 pounds of sheephead and black drum to make for a very good bag of fillets.
It is all starting to heat up, so get down here and take a break fishing in Port Aransas Texas.
March 4, Port Aransas Fishing Report
Nate on the Iced Down has made it out a couple of times this last week. His catches have included Amberjack, ling, some big B-liners or Vermillion snapper. He was able to get 3 wahoo last week along with some amberjack. That ought to make for some good eating. The weather is starting to turn for the better down here and it won't be long until we are in full fishing season. Call today to book your trip!
February 5, 2010
Nate Forbes form the Iced Down just sent some pics of a couple of trips last week. He ended up with amberjack up to 66 pounds, warsaw grouper, scamp grouper ling, african pompano on the 25th of January. Here is also a pic of the 263# Mako shark.
February 1, 2010
Port Aransas Deep Sea Fishing Report- The boats that have been getting out fishing have been having some good success with their catches. Nate Forbes on the Iced Down has run a large variety of trips the last few weeks. From 8 hours up to some of the overnighters at the floaters. On the shorter day trips, the catches normally include kingfish and sharks. For the longer day trips, he has been adding amberjack, grouper and some blackfin tuna. He has even brought in a few large Mako sharks, 263 pounds on a 12hour trip and a 288 pounder along with "lots of blackfin". That is some very good eating.
On one of the exteded trips, the boat brought back 28 wahoo with a combined weight over 1300 pounds. That is some excellent fishing and good for loading up the freezer.
Down south in Golfito, Costa Rica with John Brennan, the sails are turning on. I had one group fish a couple of days and had a one day catch of 10 sailfish and a blue marlin. They even caught some mahi mahi for the table. John then went on to win a local tournament out of Banana Bay marina with 29 sailfish releases over the two days. Here is a picture of the blue marlin that John Robinson released down in Golfito, Costa Rica.
January 19, 2010
It is not too early to start thinking about getting out fishing this year. Here is the report from last year for February and March. As you can see, it was some of the best fishing of the year. So if you are sick of sitting inside or you are going to be heading this way for spring break, book your trip now.
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).
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.
November 23, 2009
Not a whole lot going on , but a group went down to Guatemala this month and had an excellent time. Even though it is considered the beginning of the season, the were able to get thick into the sailfish. They tagged 20 sailfish the first day, along with some dolphin and rainbow runners. They tagged 12 sailfish the next day and repeated the final day with 20 sailfish tagged and released the final day for a 3 day count of 52 sails over the three days of fishing. The fishing season has begun down south, and if this is any indication, it ought to be another outstanding year in Guatemala. Let me know if you have any questions and I can help you get a trip set up.
For past Fishing Reports Click Here
August 12, Offshore Deep Sea Fishing Port Aransas
Wow, summer is in full swing and fishing in Port Aransas has been very good. The pretty water has moved back in close to the beach and the shrimp boats are out there in full force. As far as the meat fishing has been, High Bid has reported very good catches on red snapper and numerous dog snapper. Dog snapper will fill the void of the red snapper the rest of the summer as soon as red snapper season closes this Saturday morning at 12:01am. Along with the snapper, the near shore trips are catching lots of kingfish, sharks and some ling. There are lots of sharks on the shrimp boats near the beach as well as the blue water shrimp boats. The Iced Down, Caliente and the High Bid have all been reporting some blackfin tuna on shrimp boats out deep, although you have to find the right boat and contend with the sharks. When the charter boats make it out in the deeper water, they have also been bringing in some very nice catches of amberjack. Even though you can only catch one per person, nobody complains much if they don't have to reel in another AJ. The "little" 30 pounders will put a hurt on you, imagine what a 60 pound amberjack will feel like.
There are still not a lot of weedlines out there for mahi-mahi or wahoo, but there have been some dolphin caught on the troll as well as chumming up chicken dolphin for some light tackle action and tasty dinner. The billfish have been sporadic with most of the catches coming from around Falcon, Dutra and the Dumping Grounds. A couple of captains have done well with the tournaments this year...Nate Forbes on the Iced Down led his team to some well deserved cash with a white marlin win at the Rockport Offshore Challenge. Not to be outdone, Captain Peter Young was at the helm to help win Third Place Angler at the Texas International Fishing Tournament (TIFT) in South Padre Island.
August 12 Inshore Bay Fishing Port Aransas, Texas
Hot August weather right now but the fishing has not cooled down too much. Last week the guides were reporting good catches of redfish but they were not biting until later in morning and running into the afternoon. This makes it difficult because the heat starts to get to the fishing folks and they have to stick it out. There have been a few guides that have been catching a lot of black drum as well as the reds. If you get a guide that knows where they are, you might be coming back with 80 pounds of fish or more. On these calm days, a few of the bay guides have been taking the clients out in the surf and even offshore for some kingfish and shark action. Overall, the reds should start schooling soon and the surf should produce some very nice trout on calmer days. A few guides are even fishing down south in the Upper Laguna Madre to get some trout along with the reds.
July 12, Deep Sea Fishing Report Port Aransas
The Deep Sea Roundup is over and the fishing was tremendous. The charter boats do what they do best and came away with lots of hardware. Some notable catches were from the Iced Down with a 111 pounf Amberjack which is a new tournament record. The High Bid caught the winning ling with a 54 pounder. Most impressive was the Grand Champion, 8yr old Kendall Owens who fished on the Caliente captained by John Brennan. Congratulations to everyone!
The overall fishing is on fire offshore with lots of sailfish being caught along with a good number of white marlin and blue marlin. A lot of the fish were caught south from Southern to Colt. There was some weedlines and lots of bait which was holding the fish. Some large dolphin were caught with a 54 pounder taking first place in the Deep Sea Roundup. I will try to get some specific number of billfish caught, but in general, everyone says they have not seen so many caught in a long time. The Billfish winner was the Gunslinger who managed a Grand Slam on day two!
For nearshore fishing, the catches have been good for kingfish, snapper, sharks and ling on the shorter trips and the longer trips have been adding some amberjack and grouper. Cherokee caught a 115 lb grouper on there charter last week.
Another boat, the On Location, with Captain Matt Haworth went on an overnight trip over the weekend and released 3 sailfish and a white marlin as well as putting a sword fish on ice. Good job to Matt and the crew.
Give a call to get out fishing now because the summer will be gone before you know it. There is still lots of availability for boats no matter what you want to catch.
Inshore Fishing Report Port Aransas
Speaking with the guides, the black drum bite was very good the last few weeks has slowed down a little bit, but the redfish are still around. The trout have been hit and miss, but usually improves with the good weather. When these very calm days happen, a lot of guides have been hitting the surf for trout and some have even been getting their clients some kingfish around the jetties.
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.
