Looking for recommendations to fishing from shore or a pier near Port Aransas. I would like to take my grandsons fishing. We are staying approx.. 8 miles south of Port Aransas on Hwy 361 the first week of June.

I would take them to Horace Caldwell Pier in Port A. It's inexpensive, comfortable, and lots of fish to be caught. In addition, they will meet a lot of other nice, helpful, friendly folks and will see constant action from others catching fish. They even have restrooms and a concession stand. I promise it will be an enjoyable and safe experience.

There are several good places to fish from the shore, although many of the public piers were damaged in the last hurricane and had not been repaired last time I was there. There is still shore fishing even if the piers are not repaired. Roberts point Park is located from the ferry to the harbor entrance. You can fish along the shore or off the pier if it is open. There is a public pier and shore fishing at Cline’s Landing at the end of N Station St. and a pier and shore fishing along Port St. (locally called Charlie’s Pasture), west of the ferry. You can also fish the south jetty and the wall adjacent to it. If none of that works you can cross the ferry and head toward Aransas Pass. There is shore and pier fishing off that road too. Let us know how you do.

Thanks for the references on places to fish. I am going to go by and check these places out when I get there next week. One more question, what is the simplest and best bait use to use?

IMHO Live Shrimp

I throw gold spoons, top dogs, or shrimp imitations if I am using lures. But the best bait is natural. Live shrimp or mullet is the best, but frozen shrimp or mullet will work. I also use squid. If you catch small non-gamefish you can cut them up for cut bait.

That far south gives you options. The Packery Jetties are an easy jetty system to fish because the rocks don't go out very far. Just be careful in the sand around there. 4WD wouldn't be a bad idea. Horace Caldwell is always a great option too. Live shrimp is tough to beat. If you're indiscriminant of what you catch, squid on the bottom will catch everything. Wade through the hardheads/gafftop and you're likely to catch bonnethead and Atlantic sharpnose sharks. I'll say this-hardheads are a pain, but they pull hard and are very easily caught. I've saved some fishing trips with kids by targeting hardheads.