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Port Aransas Fishing Report
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.
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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.
