I fished around Packery and at the big jetty in Port A this weekend. Here's what I saw:

Friday night the bite for sandtrout and croaker was very good on dead shrimp around the parking lot by the TPWD boat ramp. The bite was best during the slack tide between the outgoing and incoming tide. As soon as the tide started ripping in, the bite slowed to a crawl.

At Packery on Saturday there were lots of mullet headed south in the surf and making their way around the end of the PC jetties. Cast-netting them for bait was a breeze. Mullet soakers in the surf, and in the channel toward the end of the rocks caught slot and oversized reds. Closer to the beach on both the channel and surf sides there were quite a few flounder caught. Bob B banged several oversized snook in the surf at the base of the north jetty Saturday morning and again mid-afternoon. Large floater/divers worked on the snook. I, predictably, netted mojarra and boxed a bunch of solid mangrove snapper. The mojos were thick on top of the submerged rocks on the channel side by the start of the railings at the north jetty.

On Sunday I started at the PC jetty and loaded up on Mojara, thinking that I would use them to catch Gulftrout at the big jetty in Port A. The washout near the base of the jetty is slowly filling in, but you still can't park right next to it. My favorite corner on the surf side was locked down by a couple happily boxing pinfish. A big group of guys were crowded around the spot where the jetty used to start on the surf side. They were flounder fishing soaking mullet right next to the rocks. I heard a couple guys say that the flounder bite was strong early. By the time I got there, a couple keepers were caught, along with a bunch of undersized. My lone flatty fell in the undersized category.

After going thru a bunch of my bait, my spot on the channel side opened up. I relocated and started soaking Mojara on bottom with visions of 3 lb gulf trout in my head. I didn't catch a single one. I did catch a bunch of mangrove snapper, one rat red, and then went on an epic pinfish run. I must have lost 10 rigs to the rocks in the process. I think that the water is still too warm for the gulf trout. Last year I caught them with live shrimp in late November and all through December. I'll try again after the next strong front expected next weekend.

While I fished I watched several guys walk off the rocks with big reds on stringers. I also saw a couple of black drum and more flounder. Pretty much everyone I saw was using live mullet.

This concludes my Coastal Bend update.

Shoreboundangler.

Is the jetty boat running to the north Port A jetty on St. Joe island?

Thanks for the report from Packery and Port A. I keep looking for posts that tell of sheephead moving into Port A, I guess not till middle of Dec... Last I had heard on the jetty boat was they were still waiting for the dock to be built on San Jose island. The dock at the home base is built and ready. I guess the weather and strong tides were delaying the construction. That was 2 1/2 weeks ago...

Jim