Hello all,
I'm taking my family to Port A to fish the north jetty the first week of April. I am a experienced freshwater angler with some salt experience. Any tips, locations, etc.etc. would be greatly appreciated. I am going to use a mix of live and artificial bait. I also plan on fishing the bottom with my 10' rod for larger game fish. While utilizing lighter artificial tacke in the interim with my 7' rod while waiting. Well that's the game plan so far. Any advice would be great thanks!

Pete

Pete, welcome to the TFF. Glad to see your post is fairly speific. You named a location, gear, you have & are using, experience level, who else is along, and time frame. Makes it lot easier to offer more specific suggestion.

First week of April is border line warm water time. Kind of the transition 'tween the cold weather species (sheepies, black drum, whiting, reds, pompano's etc) and the warm water species ,(trout, spanish macks, king mack, ling, shark, etc). There'll be trout, reds, black drum, whiting, etc, along the jetty year around, but warmer water makes the fishing a bit more fast paced. 65-70 degree water and above gets the fish a bit more active, but you can catch fish in the cooler temp water.

Gulf water might be 70'ish by your time, depends if we keep getting these strong fronts or if the gulf tides can be the boss by then. Got 30 days more or less to get from today's current surf water temp of 55. So 10-15 degree increase and it should make for better fishing all things equal.

Expect bad seaweed mats floating in the water. The jetties collect weed along the beach/jetty base, the north will collect it if current is running south. Don't know which way it will be running then. Consider wind as well. April easily can have front come through and make the gulf side north jetty get all churned up. If its a south wind the gulf north jetty water should be fairly nice. Bottom line, there'll be numerous factors to consider on fishing the north jetty in April. Might want to consider fishing the south jetty if the wind/current is from the north and has the water messed up on the north gulf side.

Fresh dead mullet or other bait fish on the bottom along the guts & out past the last sand bar at the surf line can produce reds, whiting, croaker, gafftop possibly, and as well other species. Fresh dead shrimp will also catch the same but you'll probably lose lots of bait to small stuff even in early April. If you fish the channel side make your own bottom rigs with a 3-way swivel and use 10 lb or so line for the weight leader, when you get hung up you break off that leader and still have the hook leader.

We generally don't fish the bottom channel side on either jetty, we use the "TOO's famous slip rig" that we stole from jetty rats many years ago and we catch all kinds of fish with that rig. We eliminate 99% of the hanging up that happens when fishing the bottom channel side. We will fish the bottom gulf side.

full moon is April 4th, if you're there up to the 4th, you'll have an out going tide in the afternoon, closer to full moon the later the and stronger the tide will be in the evening. I'd suggest fish the afternoon/evening failing tide on the 2nd-4th channel side for reds, but I'd do it on the south jetty cause the jetty boat ends at 6'ish. I'd suggest on getting to the north at daybreak and fish the morning falling tide channel side, and after low tide fish the gulf side with the incoming tide mid-morning to early afternoon.

For artificial's I'm partial to spoons, but I change to a single Kahle hook. Silver works, 1/4, 1/2, & 3/4 oz just in case. Wire is also a JIC. limetreuse color plain jane soft plastic grub on a light jigheads are a north jetty secret bait, but they are the weapon for the real locals and old salts.
Might consider Gulp in shrimp or free lining live shrimp gulf side, should catch some trout that way.
First weekend of April is Easter, expect a crowd.

Good luck

Great advice too! Got a pic of that slip rig?

That's great advice!

Any advice for myself? I will be down with a boat march 13th. We would be up for anything, I hear the black drum fishing has been good, where would we be able to find them?

For gar:

Left the excess on the "TOO's Famous slip Rig" so folks can see details better. Simply a bobber stop, (rubberband also works as well) red bead, unweighted cork with tube that is clear all the way through, egg weight, red bead again, swivel, leader and hook. You can fine tune the rig for the species fishing for off the jetties. This is a 5/0 Kahle, 40# leader, 1/2 oz weight, and 20-25# main line. For trout, mangos, sheepies, etc, we go to 1/4 or 1/8 egg, 2/0-1/0 hooks, and little [censored] ant sized floats same style as in picture. Trim the bobber stop close to line, it slides up and down the line to the depth you want to fish.we've fished as deep as 35' and caught reds right off the bottom. We almost never get hung up.


Jm, mid-march drum run should be on as you mentioned. Not a huge Big Ugly fishermen but for that time of year for starters look at fishing anywhere along the CC ship channel from the jetties all the way up to Ingleside. Just pay attention to the big ships & barges running the channel they'll make things interesting. Consider the ICW along the Ingleside to Aransas Pass to Rockport stretch, as well as Lydia Ann channel, and if you want to travel and be a bit more protected the ICW cutting through the northern most Laguna Madre area just south of CC bay.

Crab species, (blue, ghost, fiddler,etc) shrimp, mantis shrimp, all work on the Big Uglies. Don't need heavy gear but big enough to put some pressure on the brutes.

Also consider hitting the edges of the channels, cuts, sloughs, and drop offs on a falling tide, especially in the afternoon after the water warms a bit. Might find some reds that way. Might also look for shallow grass beds remnants, and drop bait on or on top of it.

Personally I'm fishing the Laguna Madre from JFK flats to Baffin in March. Maybe, just maybe the east CC Bay shoreline if we get a wild hair.

Thanks Too!!

Hopefully I can share something when I return.

About 100yrds from the very end, look for an old rusty engine block in the rocks on top of the jetty...fish the channel side...deep hole right there the Reds and drum stack in to ambush the schools of bait fish the current is pushing out. Use heavy sinkers and be prepared to lose some tackle.

I'm interested, going down this weekend. Will that rig work well for blacks off the jetties?

I never received an E mail notification that my message had been responded to!

TOO thank you very much for the detailed response. Very much appreciated! I definitely will try your slip rig, it's sure makes a lot of sense. I actually had planned on using a lemon rig which is as I under stand another old school setup. The slip rig is a much more practical and adjustable solution, so again, thank you. Also, using the light leader on the weight side of the bottom rig is another fantastic tip. Never even occurred to me. I will definitely be keeping that tip in the tackle box from now on.

I wanted to talk about bait this time of year. I had planned on buying some live bait, whatever I could find. Using a bubbler in a insulated bait bucket. Considered some sort of small live fish,or blue crab... Of course fresh dead shrimp and finger mullet. I just
wanted to get thoughts here.

We will be fishing both days from lunch to past dinner so from you said, I think just sticking to the south jetty would be our best bet. I just thought we could get away from the crowd a bit if we went over to St. Jo's.

Last question was how to spot the guts and holes from the jetties? Also I heard that there are large rock fingers that stick out of the jetties on the sea floor that create hole that reds and such use to ambush baitfish on incoming and outgoing tides?

Any help would be appreciated!
Thank you.

If this was asked about "TOO's famous slip rig" apology for not seeing this earlier. We've never caught a blackie with this rig off the jetties, but that's more due to not fishing the right bait in the right location. You can definitely fish right off the bottom out deep, but it's mainly a suspended bait technique.




-Lemon rig will work great for sheepies along the rocks.
-sometimes you'll get the 3-way hung up or the hook leader so be ready for that. Reel AFAYC so if you do get hung up it hopefully will be the weight leader. Consider a weak knot or even lighter line.
-Live shrimp is very good this time of year but a pain to truck out to where we like to fish. If not wanting to carry live shrimp, (which will catch different species, one April trip our total species caught on live shrimp was specks, smacks, reds, pompano, sheepshead, and some mango's) then buy fresh dead shrimp or a few pieces of squid and catch piggies out there and drift them when the tide is heading out.
-Live mullet will work drifted and crab on the bottom works for blackies.
- reading the water is a key to learning how and where to fish. One final tip straight from FFCB; fish the evening hours on the s. jetty this Thursday, Friday, & Saturday from 3'ish 'til sundown or the tide stops. (That tip is worth the price of FFCB.)
- don't be afraid to try the gulf side on an incoming tide if the wind isn't too bad and if the sargassum isn't heavy.
Good luck

Thanx for the pic TOO

Thanks TOO! Will post pics any catches.

So, TOO, you mainly use your famous TFSKR in the channel side rather than the beach side, or do you use it there also?

Both sides, but conditions must be right to fish that rig on either side.

Usually the target species on the surf side are not as big as the channel side, so smaller rig with live shrimp or gulp does well.

TFSCR Also helps when throwing into or across a 1/4'ing wind, less line below the cork when casting.

Thanks. About how deep do you set the stop for the beach side, please.

Also, you say about 35 ft on the channel side on outgoing tide?