Planning on making Redfish Bay my home base for inshore fishing. Although, Aransas Bay looks tempting. My boat (17' bay boat) has an 18" draft and I am very worried about running aground. Last weekend I took the channel parallel to Redfish Bay Causeway. Right after marker 18 I followed another boat cutting into the bay and he ran on top of an oyster bed. I have been looking at the Google Maps Satellite I see there is a channel. I plan to follow that out and then drift. The problem is it's 3' deep and I am having challenges with a proper presentation. Also, I don't have a trolling motor or pushing pole. I was thinking of doing a DIY version of a push pole.

Any advice on proper setup or general boating knowledge?

Navigation without a tunnel is a challenge. Best advice is if you’re gonna fish south of Port O Connor you really need something that needs less than a foot of water to operate in.
But you don’t.
Rule 1 pay attention. Remember wave height is 1/2 water depth. 1 1/2’ wave is 3 feet deep. Any change in waves is a change in the bottom. And not deeper. Reefs will look different by water changes.

No wind? Watch the bottom. Dark is ok, white sand is not.

Or you can just stay in marked channels.

The oysters can make redfish bay and the surrounding area hazardous. The best way to navigate it safely is to learn the area slowly. Run off a channel into the wind at idle speed. Watch the bottom as you go. If you get too shallow you can float out. Learn to understand tide tables. Tide changes can turn safe areas into bottom bouncers. If you get stuck in oysters be careful if you get out of the boat. Oysters can cut you to pieces. Over time you will find some great fishing.

Welcome to the forum! First thing- make sure you take a couple of guys with you when you go. It makes pushing a boat off a mud flat or sand bar a lot easier. I'm not kidding. In that boat you are going to run aground at some point. Better plan for it now. Second plan on getting a trolling motor when you can. It'll make drifting a lot less stressful. Right now if you are drifting a flat and it gets less than 18" you're stuck. A TM will at least get you back out of there. There are a lot of places you can get a lot of fish in your boat. Try to stay in those deeper waters that border shorelines. Wade fishing will be your ticket to more reds. I fished out of a 24' Pathfinder for about 5 years in Redfish/Aransas Bay. It had about the same draft. We still caught plenty of fish.

Yeah and if you see a boat like mine don’t think it’s safe to run the same place. I can’t tell you how many tuna schooners ground up thinking I had some special canal into a back lake.

Get you 200’ of strong rope to get you towed off a reef. Not if but when.

To the TFF!

Jerry how did you like the pathfinder? I would love to make a 22' tournament my next boat. What did you move to and why?
Thanks for the input.
Brad

P.S. Fishing San Luis Pass area and central Texas lakes.

They are well built boats. They hold their value as good as any bay boat on the market. Got rid of it because it wouldn't run shallow enough. The 24 was bad to porpoise without tabs adjusted right. Great ride otherwise.

Fished Red Fish Bay today. Yes, it's not if you run into the ground, but when...I did. No big deal. I lifted the engine and used a pole to navigate to safe water. I got cought up in about 1 ft. of water. I noticed the direction of the current and slowly trolled up current to find a spot to fish. I noticed several changes in depth ranging from 1 ft. to 5 ft. Figuring this was a good place to fish. Hoping there were some pockets holding fish.

Rigging. I used a variable depth popper set to 3 ft., live shrimp on a circle hook, sinker placed about 6 inches above the hook, and 12lb. mono. My problem is that I could feel the fish playing with the shrimp, but nearly impossible to set the hook. My theory is the fish playing with the shrimp was small or my hook was too big. However, after some time I did catch a nice sea trout. Any guidance or assistance would be appreciated.

Hook placement on shrimp. I set the hook in the head. No success. Set the hook in the tail, no success. Set the hook from underneath in the tail. Caught the sea trout. Makes me think...