Taking the wife and my boys(4 and 8) camping at goose island state park the last week of July Monday through Thursday. I am an avid and experienced bass fisherman and I have went a handful of times inshore bay fishing, have done well with gold/silver sprites, swim baits, artificial shrimp. I know they have the long pier in the state park. For the kiddos I am not looking at catching anything big necessarily. Are pinfish(I think that is what they are called) plentiful off the pier? Or ladyfish? Croaker? Would little crappie jigs/roadrunners catch some smaller fish? Any info is appreciated

Fishing in Texas State Parks does not require a fishing license. Fishing is good on the pier and from the oyster bars you can wade on. Lights at night help the catch. Live shrimp and other bait can usually be bought in Fulton or Rockport. Lately, the bait shops haven't had any shrimp, though. HEB sells frozen shrimp that is pretty good. It's against the law to fish in Gulf waters with shrimp that isn't from Texas. HEB's packages tell if it's "Texas Grown or Caught". Buy it in the people's seafood section, not the "Bait Box". Artificials will also work. You should catch some trout and black drum, plus the trash fish. Have fun and mind the heat. IslandJim

I have fished there quite a bit over the years; off the pier, wading, and kayaking. On flies I have caught reds, specks, flounder, black drum, sheepshead, ladyfish, catfish, and a few other species, all within 100 yards or closer to the pier. You should do just fine with fresh dead or even frozen shrimp. Water movement is the key; check the tide tables. Small tides will result in shorter activity periods. The pier is lit all night every night, and there is always at least some activity. With good water movement the channel by the ramp can be productive also, and if there have been a lot of fish cleaned at the ramp it can be good at night (it’s also illuminated all night) sometimes too. Don’t let the pelicans & raccoons run you off, LOL.

I love that park; when my wife was alive it was our favorite RV destination. For years a group of us spent every Thanksgiving there in our RVs. A lot of special memories there. I hope y’all make some special memories there too. Good Luck!

Just left Goose Island after several days at one of the bay front campsites. I caught quite a few SMALL redfish right from the shore in front of my RV with fresh/dead shrimp. Wished I’d had some cut bait, Fish bites….or something more heavy duty as I was constantly replacing shrimp. It’s shallow but the fish were there:

As mentioned above ^^^^ by Mr. Ford go the boat ramp and sit in a chair on the other side of the the little bridge across from ramp and the kids can catch catfish every cast:

Sit right here or over by the ramp:
We are now at Blue Water RV Park on the beach past Freeport to try my luck at some surf fishing in the churned constantly windy surf! 🤔🤷🏻‍♂️🙄

Awesome!!! Thank y’all so much for the info and help. What kind of set up would I use for frozen shrimp? Like a 1/2 oz barrel weight, a swivel, then a couple of feet of line and a circle hook?

Unless the water’s really moving, drop down to a 1/8 or 3/16 oz. sinker.

Carolina rigged w/ appropriate egg weight.

Awesome thank y’all! This time of the year and in that area is there any chance of topwaters or swim baits doing any good, like early morning, dusk, or around the lights on the pier at night?

I threw a top water @ sunup & sundown around the bridge/boat ramp but didn’t get anything. Didn’t really spend much time on this and it’s all about timing. If the tide was rising/falling and there was a decent current moving through it could be good. Fishing around the bridge and right off our bayfront campsite the current was light so yes a 1/4-1/2oz sinker would be more than adequate. I was just using a 2/0 circle hook for my dead shrimp bait. Fish the pier. We got there last Saturday and the pier was crowded. After the weekend there were very few people on the pier weekdays. Kinda wish I was still there. Now I’m on the beach near San Luis Pass and sitting under a beach umbrella. The water is churned up and muddy, using a 4oz weight and still drifting sideways in the STRONG riptide and dragging in 5lbs of seaweed every 5 minutes! Good luck, enjoy & post your results, Neil.

I know this is an old thread but I am just really glad to see that Goose Island State Park pier is open again. We had so many years of catching great trout there late at night under the lights on speck rigs, mirrlures, and later, DOA shrimp. I had a phenomenal time with a fly rod off the pier 3 or 4 nights once I conquered that technique. This is still one of my favorite places on the Texas coast.

I'm happy this old thread popped up. We will be there next week for one of the three two week stays all on the bay on Redfish road towards the end. I discovered there was more fish being caught on that end last year. I learned a lot last year and hope the be in the bite this year. I'm going to get a Texas license like I did last year with the saltwater endorsement so I can fish off the park areas and also to support the Texas outdoors. One thing we discovered, you get your wake up call around 430AM with the air boats heading out for duck hunting. Going to try some top water this year on the bay and pier. The tide tips I've learned here will be a great benefit so, thanks for that!

Anybody fished Goose Island recently?