Could somebody please tell me if there are any specific rules for fishing the oil rigs. The reason I ask is I have been told that you are not allowed to tie up to any of the rigs. What is the best way to bottom fish around the rigs?

you can tie up to most rigs without anyone saying anything. if you see a crewboat coming and it needs to tie up to the rig your on, you need to step aside and let them do their job. i've never had a problem and have never heard any of the people i fish with offshore say anything about it myself. do not try to get on any rig that you fish, unless your boat just happens to sink????? go early. all the small boats get out early so sometimes its hard to find a rig to tie up to because of space. depending on currents and winds, you can only fish one side or the other

First ... let's talk terminology.

Although we all use the term 'oil rigs' generically I'm thinking what you are referring to would actually be production platforms. As far as I know you can tie up to most of those located off our coast unless they are having an event that would require you to keep a certain distance as a buffer zone. In that case I would think they would hail you on the radio and warn you.

To those in and close to the industry the term 'oil rig' usually refers to something like a jackup rig that is involved in a drilling operation (in less than 300' of water?). I can't imagine tying up to one of those babies.

Even if you are not allowed to tie up that doesn't mean you can't still fish them. You can pull up to a safe distance and then drop your lines. Repeat the process when you have drifted away from the productive zone of the platform (AKA 'rig'). Sometimes when you do numerous, long drifts you will simply scatter the fish. When you approach a 'rig' check all sides and corners with your depthfinder. The fish are not always on the downwind side and up against the 'rig'. If it's calm enough and you have confidence in your anchor you might even try anchoring on the upwind side and chumming back into the 'rig'.

These platforms can truly be fish magnets and are often a fun way to fish.

Good luck!

Thanks Awesome,
That was just the information I was looking for. And you're right, I was referring to the production platforms.

you can also go up current side, drop bait drift back
towards the rig , pull out, repeat. Needs a full time
captain, if he's good, have just enough power to hold
position

It's usually just my wife and I. Guess who doesn't get to fish?

MT, You're not out of Kerrville are you.
REason i ask is we met a couple that mathces that last year out of Port O.

MT, I go out to the closer "rigs" all the time and tie up, both at PO and PA. I have never had a problem and I have been going out since the 80's. In the 80's I had a bigger boat and would go 40+ off and would still tie up, even on working rigs. On several occasions, I would have the people on the rigs tell me where to tie up. There are two things you should be aware of when you do this, the first has already been mentioned, if a crew boat comes up, you need to give them plenty of room to manuver. The other is to have a very long rope. This will keep you out from under the rig, in the event they drop something. A wrench dropped from a rig will do wonders to the deck, or head.

As I've said before, common sense is the first step to saftey. Gl and have fun!

Make sure you have a long rig hook, trying to tie a rope on can be almost impossible and very dangerous.

capt steve, you have to remember them righooks sometimes can come off and do some damage in rough seas when tied to a rig. i have never seen it happen myself, but have heard stories about it. in a bigger heavier boat, the rope will act like a rubberband and if the hook fails for one reason or another, lookout. we just pullup to the rig and throw the looped end of the rope over whatever we can find that looks strong and when ready to leave, just give the rope a flip of the wrist and your done. it is NOT any fun this way in rough seas. i have run,well my son run my boat under a rig one day and took off some of the rail of the boat. thanks to quick thinking. stay safe

You are lucky a little railing is all you lost, I will stick with my rig hook, besides if it is that rough I am not going to tie to anything.

If it is rough, I don't tie up. But I have no problems using the technique that iridered described. I have perfected to the point that I can do it by myself. Of course if is rough, either I don't go out or I drift.

Gentlemen,

Forgive my ignorance, but what is a "rig hook". I have seen boats tied up to platforms using a hook made of bent rebar. Is this what you are referring to?

Cheers,
Kelly McCoy
West Texas

most that i've seen are made of thick wall tubing/pipe with a rope down the center, but yes thats what hes talking about.

We use a home made one with 1.5" galvenized pipe. After using it I saw an aluminum one just like it at Academy for $50. Wish we'd not have breathed the galv-fumes!!!

Some of the guys on 2cool use jugs. They take an old bleach or soap jug with a screw lid ..... fill it 1/3 to 1/2 with water. Attach it to your rope with a small snap. Toss the jug over a crossmember of the platform and let the jug drift back to you. Retrieve it with your gaff or something. This can apparently be done without having to get real close to the rig.

I have yet to try this but will the next time I tie up.

I've never tied off on a rig but tie off to trees and stuff all the time. All I do is take a spare anchor rope and hook one end off to the bow clean, the toss it over the limb or whatever and then tie off the other end to the cleat, that way when it's time to go I just untie one end and pull and I am free. No need to risk getting hurt trying to unhook things.

Figured the same thing would work for tieing off to the oil rigs. I've always watched the party boat hands struggle trying to tie off and have wondered why they don't just do the same thing.

there a little difference between a smooth water lakes and the wind blowing gulf of mexico with the strong currents. the biggest problem is getting close enough to tie the rope to something. thats why we use the looped end of a rope and toss it over something. sometimes i feel like a COWBOY roping cattle????? just remember when tieing up to anything, be careful. things can go bad really fast no matter where your fishing, just offshore is alot more crazier. the thing about offshore of course is that there not much help close by all the time. i'm sure there a few of you guys and ladys that have fished offshore and not seen a soul all day. i know i've been out a few times and not seen nothing for the day, be it a boat or people or land. you may see a rig, but that doen not mean someone is on it.

rider;

The way I am talking about it's just a bigger lasso, but I know your right about the differences.

I've only been out close to a rig/platform a couple of times and really wasn't interested in tieing off at the time as drifting about 200 yards out was more than enough fish for me.

I had always assumed you had to have the rig owner/foreman's permission to tie off so I kept a distance from them. This thread is what really got me thinking about the entire idea.

My son wanted to see a rig this summer, and I thought about maybe trying to hit the 20 mile rigs and see what we see, but still not too convinced I need to.

I like the idea of an old jug and floating it back. That keeps you away from the rig.

Other than that, I personally have not had problems tieing to the rigs, but I only do it if the waves are within my comfort level.

Rigs can be the most productive areas to fish, and there are many different ways to fish them from tieing up to drifting to trolling. When I'm out I either fish around the shrimp boats, rigs or weed line. I'm not that knowledgable about the sunken reefs, so I have not tried to find them yet (figure there are plenty other areas to hit before I get desperate).

I made kind of a dry run this past weekend to see what types of issues I would run into if I tried to tie off to a rig/platform.

What I did was simply to try to tie off to a bridge pylon, in winds of maybe 10mph making waves of about 1' max including boat wakes.

I was actually surprised how difficult it was to get close enough yet not do damage to the boat. Took two attempts to get to the pylon.

End result was that I tossed the rope around the pylon as far as I could then used the boat hook to grab the line...

-------------

After this experience I think I will pass on trying to tie off to anything off the coast. I could see how things could turn bad really really fast in 2-4 foot waves, and I don't think the benefit is worth the risk for me personally...

Maybe with a little more practice but definately not this year.

Michael,

I have a rig hook very similar to the one on this web site that I bought at Island Boat Works in PA. It is very easy to use. I am not sure if they still sell them.
www.righook.com
KQT

I LIKE TO USE A SIMPLE (CHEAP) TOOL FOR THE JOB... GO TO THE POOL SUPPLY AND PURCHASE AN EXTENDABLE POLE LIKE YOU WOULD USE TO SCREEN THE POOL, IT IS PRETTY EASY TO ATTACH A BOATHOOK END TO THIS AND SOME ARE EXTENDABLE TO 15 AND EVEN 20 FT, AT LEAST GIVES A LITTLE ROOM TO MANUVER IF NEED BE. YES THEY ARE LONG BUT FULLY COLLAPSED WILL FIT UNDER THE GUNNEL ON MOST OFFSHORE BOATS SO THEY ARE NOT IN THE WAY....LEARNED THIS FROM MY UNCLE FISHING NEARSHORE RIGS OUT OF MATAGORDA 30YEARS AGO.

off the subject, but watched Kieth warren fishing some rigs and shrimp boats earlier..... the guy just pisses me off watching him fight those fish with a bass rod with 10 pound mono!!! arragh!

It was pretty calm, and they just idled up to the rigs and boats.

We forgot our rig hook this past weekend so we had to tie up. Luckily it was about as calm as could be and we had no problems at all. It was super crowded off of Freeport this weekend so several times we had to anhor with 300' and back down to the rigs. They had been so hammered we went out and found wrecks. marked spots and threw out a bouy. Then we took turns running the boat to stay on the mark. We did great. I think that when its crowded hit the rigs as early as possible and then go for unmarked locals.