Live shrimp are ideal bait for many species in the surf and bays. You’ll need an aerator to keep bait alive unless you fish with a guide or friend who has a live well on his boat. Many prefer artificial lures – like the popular “Corky” pictured here. Plastic artificial shrimp and baitfish lures have brought in enough fish to feed an NFL football team for a season! An angler never knows what’s on his hook when he first feels a strike. (Photo by John Jefferson)
by John Jefferson
And I’m not talking about El Niño bringing hot weather to Texas. (I’m trying not to think about that!)
I’m talking about the annual excitement surrounding the fine fishing that occurs every year in the bays, surf, and offshore during late spring and summer.
My sister-in-law came to visit us in South Texas one summer. They all went to Padre Island one afternoon. I joined them after work.
They were fishing in the surf with my gear. When I arrived, I yelled to ask if they had caught anything. Excitedly, my sister-in-law replied she had caught seven little ones, holding up fingers indicating they were about ten inches long. They were already on a stringer.
Inexperienced at fishing, she didn’t know what they were, but said they had “a cute little black spot on their tails.”
I hastened to release them quickly! Undersized redfish were and still are illegal. And Padre Island is heavily patrolled.
That shows though that even an inexperienced angler can catch saltwater fish in the summertime. All they need is a pole, line, a baited hook, patience, and LUCK!
A guide helps, but many catch fish without professional assistance. As a kid, I was intrigued by roadside signs that read: “Port Aransas – Where the fish bite every day.” All other areas along our 367 miles of coastline could make the same claim.
The fish species most sought after in the bays and the Gulf are spotted sea trout (speckled trout), red drum (redfish), flounder, red snapper, king mackerel, and others. And there has even been a report of a recent catch of a permit caught in the Gulf. The most pursued species are trout and redfish due to their abundance, fighting spirit, and dinner table popularity.
I talked to a popular fishing guide, Captain Sally Moffett Black. She knows coastal fishing backwards and forwards — and explains it well. She recently sold Baffin Bay Rod and Gun, which she and her late husband, Aubry Black, had developed. She remains a guide for the lodge.
“Baffin is as good as it gets right now,” she told me. “The trout are eating and spawning and spawning and eating! That’ll last through June.”
As summer sets in after that, she’ll wade fish for trout until mid-morning and then move to shallow water for redfish and black drum. That pattern will work all summer, interrupted occasionally by stormy weather. She’ll fish that way the rest of the summer.
Baffin Bay is not controlled by Gulf tides, so Captain Sally relies on solunar feeding tables and barometric pressure to tell her when and where to fish. Texas Outdoors Journal carries what it calls “Fishing and Hunting Times” on the last page of each issue. Other magazines carry something similar, too.
Wade fishing is popular, but don’t tread too far out. And apply liquid bandage if you have a cut or scrape. Flesh-eating bacteria exist around oyster reefs from mid-summer on and can enter through a wound.
JJ
