South Padre Islands fishing info????????

Hi everyone
I am planning a vacation to the S.P. Islands in mid february and would like to know if anyone has any experience fishing in the area. I would need to be hooked up with a local guide so if you have hired one and would recomend them please let me know. Thansk Chris Winchester

I was down there last February myself. My wife and I went out bay fishing with Captain Murphy’s guide service and it was fun.. didn’t catch too many fish though. In my experience, I did a little research and had much better luck from shore, fishing the bridges etc. when the tide was coming in and out. Although my main intentions were focused on Alligator Gar while I was there, I did try the ocean thing. If you are staying around the Brownsville area give the ol’ Alligator Gar a try if you get a chance. There are these litle river/ resevoir type things rolling about town they call resacas and they are filled with Alligator Gar, Tilapia, and Carp. I did hook into a couple Gar in the 50 lb.+ range but didn’t land one. All I can say is that they are a blast( the locals there thought I was crazy for wanting to try and catch one) basically they think they are crap fish. All I’m saying here is you might want to give the underfished freshwater species a try also. If you’d like any further info send me a PM.

I live in McAllen TX, about 60 miles west of SPI. (Moved here from WI 2 years ago). Here is a link with some names and phone numbers of charters out of SPI. http://www.sopadre.com/fishing.asp

I’ve been on the Osprey before, took the 8 hour trip. Pretty reasonable (about $60 if I remember correctly), includes tackle, bait and lunch. Boat goes out 15 miles or so (2 hours out – 2 hours back. Only 4 hours fishing. Make sure you have your sea legs, I spent most of the time chumming!. About 40 people/boat, saw lots of fish caught, including a 6′ shark.

If you need any other info, let me know and I can get it for you.

Ryan

http://www.portisabel-texas.com/info/attractions.html

Is there a season on the red’s now?

There’s a fishing pier in Port Isabella that you can do some kick back fishing day or night. If I remember right its located behind a white windmill on the north side of the road to the cause way. The rays and eel can be a pain so try and find a way to suspend the bait off the bottom. Remember to bring the biggest needle nose pliers you got and watch out for the barbs on the tails. Having cutters on the pliers is nice too.

If you fish the beach on the gulf side, look around for some one that sells this PVC plunger for sucking ghost shrimp out of the sand, works great and they’re one of the better baits.

Make sure you have very heavy sinkers. They sell ones shaped like a lead silver dollar in one, two and three onces with the wire on the side. A must have since the current will roll a regular sinker back into shallow water. Last resort you’ll have to buy a couple of sinkers with copper wire leggs that dig into the sand.

I always swear I’m taking the planar boards with to fish the gulf side the next time I go down. The wind/wave/tide action creates a very strong current parallel to shore some days that has to be perfect for them.

Seams to me there was a peir on the gulf side called Bob Hall that you can fish off 24/7 with luck some days. I mostly fished south of Aransas Pass up by Corpus Christi that you can cross on the ferry there or down at the bridge. There can be good fishing along the rocks on the pass too. Some times you’ll see people wading in the shallows with gigs at Charlies Meadows looking for flounder. They listen to the ship to shore radios and when some thing big is coming in they run down there with lanterns and gigs and wait for the ships wake. The fish end up flopping around in the trough of the waves in the shallows, other wise its mostly catfish.

One of the interesting things down there was I caught a big drum (12#+)and tossed back then caught some fish called whiting

http://agfacts.tamu.edu/D11/Calhoun/Mar/Wildlife/Fish/TXSWFish.htm

that I kept and cleaned. Delicious! But the guy parked next to me was giving me this strange look. When I asked him why, he said he preferred the drum over the whiting cause he like fish to taste like fish, in other words fishy. Go figure. The whiting were a lot like small walleye, 1 to 2 lb each. I caught all these on one of my walleye rods. The last bite I got on my surf casting rig and started pulling me into the surf before I grabbed the drag, turned around and started marching back out of the water before I broke the line. Bring heavy gear, but bring a light line too, can be a blast.

Moral is expect to catch any thing. Oh, make sure to have a way to clean the gear with fresh water after every use. Its like fishing a Minnesota road after a snow storm. Your lips will taste salty every time you lick them to give you an idea.

And oh, watch out for the jelly fish.

WarrenMN

Avoid the Osprey bay fishing charter at all costs! The guys that run it are a bunch of jerks. They thought it was funny to stab fish through the eyes and throw them back, it was also apparently fun for them to basically fillet a fish live and throw it back to swim around with no skin…. this was done to all the fish caught that weren’t worth keeping for dinner. Needless to say I wouldn’t let them unhook my fish.
I second WarrenMN on the surfcasting. You can basically walk down to the beach and fish pretty much anywhere. Give it a try, it’s really fun. You can buy a cheap setup at most of the baitshops down there for around $40.00. We caught drum, pompano, and whiting… We also kept a couple of whiting and they were delicious.

I was down there a while back and had a good time on one of the party boats. They took us out to the oil rigs and we caught red snappers and cobia around them. Most were just keepers but a few were over 20 lbs. They clean the fish and supply everything. It was about 35$ each then probably more now. Fish were excellent eating.

Anyone heading down that way in the near future? A buddy of is heading down in a couple of weeks and is looking for more info. If you guys have any other info please post it. I was supposed to be going on this trip also but had things (wife ) come up. Maybe another time.

Wish I was going back down. There is nothing like getting up with the sun rise after an over night rain and the fresh smell of the big water. Been too long.
WarrenMN

Cat- if you decide to go 4 weeks later it will be Spring Break and fishing will be the last thing on your mind…

Looks like I might be going.

If anyone is looking for a condo rental on the beach I work with a guy that has a rental unit on the beach. Shoot me a name and number and I will have him call you.