First of all i have only fished saltwater two times. Both times were off of the jetties on south padre island.
My family is setting up a vacation for this summer in a beach house in the Port Aransas area. I have a 16ft aluminum bass boat.
Here is the deal, i would like to catch some fish while i am there, speckled trout, red drum, etc. Will the fishing be better if i take my boat and fish in the bay? If i didnt take my boat i would fish the jetties and surf fishing more than likely.

Is fishing in Corpus Christi bay good for trout and reds? Can my boat handle the waters of the bay as long as i dont go out really far?

There are bunches and bunches of places to launch your boat in and around Corpus Christi Bay and the Upper Laguna Madre. One could spend a lifetime fishing the area from Port A to just south of the JFK Causeway connecting Corpus to Padre Island. Are you by any chance current or ex-military?? If so, PM me and I'll turn you on to some really good deals available at NAS Corpus. Even if no, PM me and we can try to set up a trip out of NAS Corpus fishing the Boat Hole and Crash Channels area. The Crash Channel area is a place I have been fishing and a place I'd love to get a group together for for some night green light fishing.

Bringing a boat better for a "rookie"? Metal boat at the coast means lots of cleaning to retard corrosion.
You can catch a lot of fish w/o a boat in the CC/Port Aransas area. You can catch a lot of fish there w/ a boat as well. You'll just spend more money using the boat; fuel, (towing and running), cleaning the boat, etc.
Might suggest you decide if the costs involved with a aluminum boat down there are worth it and if so folks will be happy to suggest a few areas that can put you on fish in the CC/Port A area.
You can find good fishing from the surf, jetties, and in the bays w/o a boat, just need to decide which way you really want to do it.
Lastly, you might consider an offshore trip or two. Bigger fish most often and no hassle from your end, get on, ride out, catch fish, ride in, tip and collect your fish at the dock.
Think it over and post up when you decide and folks can help you out.

Well offshore fishing trips would be cool but not for what they cost. I know that hauling the boat, gas for the boat and washing it down would cost more than just shore fishing but i didnt know how successfull one could be fishing from the waves.

So how far out do you have to wade to surf fish and are you just wading out to fish the bay the same way? Waist deep? I have never wade or surf fished before. I have salt water spinning reel that i have used on the jetties. Do you use shrimp like you would on the jetties? When im swimming i keep an eye out for big toothy fish (sharks) in the water im in but do you have to worry about it more when fishing?

My M-I-L lives in Port A. What they call it? "A quaint little drinking town with a fishing problem."

That place is all about fishing (and drinking). You can set up at the public pier at Robert's Point and listen to great live music coming in while you fish on Friday or Saturday night.

There are many piers, Robert's Point, Charlie's Pasture, Station Street, all on the bay side as well as the South Jetty, North Jetty (take a taxi boat), and Caldwell pier on the Gulf side.

My favorite spot is about halfway to Corpus, "Fish Pass" a rock groin that when its "right" is about the best place to fish I've ever found.

In Corpus there is the Red Dot pier, and all along Packery Channel as well as Bob Hall pier (maybe I got Hall and Caldwell mixed up?).

Those all places you can fish without a boat.

Then you can go on a party boat, for reasonable. Plenty of trips, short and long. Even an old ferry boat that takes short trips to the jetties and in the bay (Island Queen).

I have never taken my boat, but have on occasion taken my kayak down there to fish. I launch in the bay across from Mustang Towers. Caught plenty of big reds out of it.

When I've got enough time I can fish a dozen spots in two days with no boat.

Know this, follow ALL fish and game rules, those guys are serious down there.

That and its windy a lot. Wind determines as much as anything where I'm fishing when down there.

One day I intend to take my boat and try it. A 16 foot semi-vee that I fish around West Bay in most weekends as I live nearby to Chocolate Bayou.

CW, FB there laid out some good stuff. Not much to add to it.
Just consider if your boat is a freshwater rigged one, it probably isn't as corrosion "proofed" as a SW boat. No boat is 100% in our salt.

If you truly take the time to clean it after pulling it out each day, you can really minimize any damage. Painted trailers can be the worse.

Suggest a car wash with soap each time, and as your leaving to head home and once again at a stop for gas or food.
As said, the time and money invested is needed or you could run into all kinds of problems.

The simplest way to catch fish w/o a boat is to fish the surf. Nothing more than a couple of spoons, gold, silver, copper, brand don't really matter. Throw that at dawn in the first and second gut, you can find good trout there all summer long. Bass lures will work for trout. topwaters, assassins, flukes, all can work in the surf. Some of those 1' dive crankbaits can do wonders on the fish in the first & second gut.

If you're looking to fish with bait, live shrimp, croaker, piggies, mullet, all will catch fish in the surf. Dead bait on the bottom will work as well. More trash fish with dead bait and bait in general, but there will be action.
If you soak bait in the surf, I'd suggest some type of bait fish, mullet, piggies, whiting, etc, not shrimp on the bottom.

Don't worry about sharks any more than when swimming, just be aware and use a long stringer if you're keeping fish. 10'-15' or more.

Stingrays are a bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, concern for me that sharks, Look up the Stingray thead in the SW discussion section for pointers.
There are lot of places that can be fished with your 16' bass boat and catch fish. You just need to find protected areas if the wind is really howling. Lot's of them around the area.
Think about what you want to really do and once you've decide, post up and folks can point in the right direction.

I'll be happy to send you my waterproof maps for you to use, got some "unknown" spots marked on it, if you bring the boat.

When it's too rough to head out of the jetties I prefer to fish the surf. I target the first two guts at dawn and dusk (first hour and last hour) with topwaters and soft plastics.

If you want to fish mid-day then you should use surf rods (10+ft) and dunk some live bait in the third gut or even farther out. You can catch much of your own live bait in the surf with a cast net. Or catch whiting on bits of dead shrimp and use the whiting for bait.

Does your boat have a steel, galvanized or aluminum trailer. If it ain't galv. or alum. then leave it at home unless you plan to replace the trailer soon.

There are lots of places that you can use a small, alum. boat between Aransas Pass, Rockport and Port A. Get a map of area and fish the drop offs. Typically trout will hold in about 6 feet of water around Steadman, Ransom, Dagger, Hogg and Traylor Islands.

Target them with topwaters, gulp shrimp, Sand Eels, live shrimp and live croaker or mullet on popping corks or free lined. Redfish rigs with live bait work well in the shallows (1-4 ft) for reds and trout.

Great info! Thanks, TOO. Im probably not going to take my boat. I really like the idea of surf fishing. How deep do i need to be in the water, waist deep? Or does it just depend on the area im fishing.

Also, do you catch anything different pier fishing than surf fishing?

The surf ranges in depth between the "guts" and the sandbars. The guts are the deeper troughs between the sandbars. The guts and bars parallel the beach. The first gut is usually calf deep to knee deep. The second gut can be from waist to chest deep. The third gut is usually over my head (I'm 6'3").

Fish the guts. Often times at first and last light (dawn and dusk) the fish will be in the first gut. Other times they are in the second gut.

Usually during mid-day the fish will be beyond the 3rd sandbar.

Look for baitfish and which gut they are in. Look for diving birds or birds floating on the surface and note which gut they are in. That's where you want to target.

If the surf is rough then often times the birds will be 200-300 yards offshore or more. If that's the case then put the fishing gear away, pull up a lawn chair and an ice cold one while watching the girls in bikinis.

I would like to get some info from you guys as well. I think I am in the same boat "haha what a pun"..as CWCW. Heading down next week to fish, but just dont know what kind of fishing to do. I love bass fishing, and prefer casting over live bait. Do 1' diving rapalas do the trick? I also have typical heavy bait casting reals I was planning on taking.

As far as these guts go. I have no idea what that is. Am I looking to just wade in up to my waist and start casting out in the waves? parralel to the beach with the waves. What would be a good call?

Below the surface, parralel to the beach, the floor is like a washboard, with the low spots being the guts. Where you see waves breaking would be the high spots. You'll get the idea when you wade out.
From what i've heard on this forum the surf is pretty slow right now on Mustang, mostly whiting.
Saltwater can be particularly hard on fresh water lures like the Rapalas you use for bass fishing. Give them a good fresh water rinse along with your bass reels and you should be allright.
+1 to anything LP says. He knows the surf.

Just a little info to add. i know you said you are probably not going to take your boat but if you do, one thing i didn't see mentioned is that if your trailer is not galvanized i wouldn't waste the time, a non-galvanized trailer will be destroyed by the salt.

If your trailer is galvanized or aluminum, I recommend you take the boat. There is a world of difference between boat fishing and land/pier fishing. Just stay in the bay and practice safe common sense boating and you'll be fine.

I used to go down there with a 16 foot John Boat and never had any problems. I see 16' Bassboats fishing beside me all the time.

Remember to flush your motor well and get all the saltwater off after every use.

Yeah, im not taking it, my trailer is not aluminum or galvanized, or i dont think it is atleast.

"If the surf is rough then often times the birds will be 200-300 yards offshore or more. If that's the case then put the fishing gear away, pull up a lawn chair and an ice cold one while watching the girls in bikinis."

OR, join SFCCI (Shore Fishing Competitive Casting Inc)and learn how to cast in excess of 200 yds. Go to www.breakawayusa.com and order their 2 pack of cd's. One is on long distance casting, the other on how to read the beach. Also remember that fishing off of a Gulf pier such as Bob Hall Pier is essentially surf fishing as the pier gives access to the whole beach structure. Fishing the pier when it is relatively calm and the water clear help you to SEE the beach/surf structure.

Wow, you guys have some really great info.

I have a 16 foot Nitro, and there is no way I would take that thing to the salt. With the money and time you spend cleaning it, you could be doing more fishing. You'll spend more time fishing and less time messing with your boat.

I had good success last year at the packery channel on the south side. The jetties there are easy to fish. I fished there about 3 days last year and didn't lose any tackle! I was catching redfish on live mullet on the bottom. I also did see some big stuff swimming out there...I would definetly check that place out. Good catches of specks can be had at night under the lights on piers using small soft plastics.

The south jetty in Port A is difficult to fish unless you are fishing live bait under a bobber or pitching speck rigs in the surf. You'll get hung on every cast if you are fishing the bottom. The station street pier is a good bet for an assortment of fish. Big stingrays are common, with sharks fairly common too. Lots of hardheads and gafftops. The night brings a few trout in.

Charlie's pasture is old reliable for me. Easy fishing, lots of fish to be caught. Cast netting along the bulkhead is a great way to pick up live bait. Live shrimp under a cork in the afternoon is usually good for a few nice trout during the day. At night remember the lights. Look into the water, see the trout. Use small artificial lures.

Sabiki rigs destroy smaller fish and specks at night. Fantastic set up for a kid.

So much fishing to be had off the bank and in the surf. Spend $25 for a trip on the Island Queen II and you'll get a nice bay fishing experience.

Good luck!