Fished Friday through Sunday in and around port aransas. Fished the surf the entire day from sun up to down on Saturday. Caught a 3-3 1/2 foot bonnet head shark and about a million croakers. Tried live shrimp on a cork and caught nothing. Used live bait, cut bait, shrimp, squid, you name it. Bait stealers were out in full force this weekend. Fished off the Port A south jetty most of the day Sunday. Didn't see anything caught on the channel side except some piggy perch and on the surf side I caught about a million more croaker and a giant hardhead. Oh and my wife caught a huge blue crab with an egg sack. There were TONS of dead crabs littered accross the beach for miles in every direction. The birds wouldn't even eat them. Anyone have any idea what that's about? By the way, turns out I think croaker is disgusting lol. So much for bringing home some good fillets for the freezer. I did see someone pull in a ray that probably weighed around 200 LBS, that was pretty awesome. All in all, good time but I didn't even so much as SEE a keeper fish caught all weekend. Not even a trout.

I found a dead blue crab that washed ashore too. No clue what that is about but certainly noteworthy. Maybe someone else will chime in...

Hit the surf from 6a.m. til 5p.m.
Whiting and gaftop were only thing caught. Was really hoping for flat surf. Laid down some by mid afternoon. Put some cut whiting on 10' surf rod, hooked into something big, fought it for about 8 minutes, got it within 50-60 feet twice and it started peeeling line again. Ended up breaking the 25# mono at swivel. Never got to see what it was, but wore me out, had to drink a cold beer at 9a.m.


This was Saturday

A lot of crabs in surf Saturday morning, wish I had brought my crab nets.

I made a mistake in my post. I caught a ton of WHITING, not croakers. And they tasted more "fishy" than anything I have ever eaten.. And I have never tried a fish I didn't like.

Whitewing, how far out did you have your whiting that you used for bait? I'm thinking of heading down to 91st tomorrow morning then fish a bit.

When I lived along the N.Carolina coast (Jacksonville) in the 70's and 80's, we called Whiting "Virginia Mullet". I was known to eat plenty of them too. This brings me to the subject of eating mullet. Don't gag yet!! Out there, the natives eat plenty of fish and this is one of them. Each year in Swansboro, which is right down Hwy 17 from J-ville and is coastal community, right on the ICW. Now focusing on whitings fishy taste to some, I have found out why but not all whiting taste that way. Mullet and Whiting are Bottom Feeders. As the ole' saying goes, "You are what you eat". That statement reflects to those two fishes taste.
Here along the coast we have sandy and muddy bottoms. Well, they do in N.C. also. I think you are getting to see my point. When I lived there, we of course could use gill nets. Gill nets come in different lengths, depths,and mesh sizes. For most fish we use "inch and three quarter stretched mesh nets". The mullet nets were "inch and a quarters". That's what we called the fish!! Sorry for the rant. Mullet sold for 10 cents a pound. If you sold it to the natives they would ask you where you caught it. Too make this short and sweet, that meant did you catch the fish in a sandy area or a muddy area. If it was in a muddy area...they NO EAT. Mullet and Whiting suck up bottom critters and they tend to ingest mud...Sandy areas are cleaner and water is cleaner. This relates to why those fish taste "dirty". Whiting get bigger out there...tiny ones here.Really!!! Small mullet that came out of clean sandy bottom areas are good to eat.
Didn't intend to hi jack your thread but I had to drop a few dimes to possibly explain the fishy taste. Their's a lot of different type of bottom fish here along the coast and freshwater areas. Of course the only thing I know about Freshwater is...I drink it and take a bath in it. I'm out.....

Was casting from 2nd sandbar, bait was hitting just before 3rd bar.

With September fastly approaching is the surf fishing any better now. I might try a little bit this weekend (Labor day), but that tropical depression off Florida might make things choppy.