My wife wants to take me and my 6 year old to the gulf for the 4th, either Galveston, Corpus Christi or South Padre island areas. We are coming from Georgetown north of Austin. She said she wants to go fishing too. Wait, did the earth just stop rotating for a second? Ok then, hopefully camping is next. But for fishing, we will do surf or pier fishing. I have some saltwater gear from my days in Florida. Any suggestions on where we should go that is safe, but with a good chance of catching something edible like reds or snapper or trout? I don't think I should push a guide and boat at this point. Have SUV and poles, will travel. thanks.

I always have fun and moderate to good luck at Crystal Beach on Bolivar. The wait for the ferry will be killer on the holiday. Better get there early or pack some drinks, sodas and smokes...

You might want to call now and book accomodations if you haven't already, most places are packed that weekend. The area you choose will determine what you catch but you can expect to catch trout, reds anywhere along the coast from the surf, peirs, jetties, etc. Probably not going to be catching any snapper from shore though. Sharks are plentiful along the surf as well if you're interested in that and have the tackle for it (possibly a kayak too in order to get the bait out into deeper water). And as mentioned, the ferry boat landings will all have loooong lines. Depending on time of day, you can expect anything from 10 minutes to 1 hr waits, sometimes longer.

thanks!

Sometimes its worth going through Winnie to get to Bolivar. Especially on those heavy weekends. You wont save much time, but at least your moving.

Hey Snagola,

Maxxtu and Crawdad, are both right!!! I will personally vouch for going to Rollover Pass and going through Winnie Tx.


Rollover Pass is great for families who want to travel and great results for camping an fishing. Safety there is pretty good. The locals there are friendly. There is a Bait and Tackle store 1 Block away so you can get your bait and live bait. It is called "Nancy's Bait and Tackle", people there are very friendly and helpful with any questions that you might have. They are great in giving you advice where to fish and what works best.

For great results most folks will use live finger mullet, mud minnows and live shrimp to catch them specs, flouder and Reds. If you have any further questions feel free to ask.

Good luck and good fishing!!!

The traffic around Houston is horrible, and hwy 45 to Galveston is just plain awful, stop and go, stop and go.

I prefer Corpus/ Port Aransas for the short weekend trip just because the traffic is so bad elsewhere. Why be aggravated?

The fishing is great on the jetty in Port A. All you really need is a bucket, some frozen squid to cut up, maybe a cast net to get some small mullet. Take extra hooks, weights, and leaders, and lots of water and sunscreen.

Check out Balboa Courts in RockPort. They have a 1000 foot pier into Little Bay and there is alot of area to wade fish. Safe for the kiddo with plenty to do when not fishing. Don't wait too long to make reservations the place fills up quik.