Been out a few times deep sea fishing with my dad while growing up. I remember one of the last trips we took we went to Biloxi with his fishing crew and caught a boat load of black tip sharks.

Life got in the way and haven't been fishing in years. Always been out for the bass in fresh water when I did, but now, I want to after some reds.

Will my freshwater gear work for salt life or do I need to get some salt specific gear? Just talking with the girl friend and she's all for it, so we're going to get the all water licenses and try to hit the coast this year sometime. What time of year is good for red fishing? Is there a season for them? I am certainly not opposed to getting a guide a couple of times either, is there a better part of the coast to hit up for bull reds? I don't know if dad could handle going out on a boat to fish any more, but would definitely ask him if he wanted to go. He's old a frail now, so...

I sure do appreciate any info you might dole out.

And no, I haven't gone through the salt section yet, will spend a couple hours reading through this section tonight.

Your bass gear is just fine for reds. You don’t lock the drag down or they will break stuff.

If you can catch a bass you can catch a redfish. They’ll hit topwater plastic swim baits spoon whatever. Not usually picky.

The challenge isn’t how.
It’s where.
For us it’s typically in the back lakes less than 2’ and sight fishing. It’s pretty addicting but you gotta have a boat capable of running in shallow stuff to get there.

Start at Port O Connor and go south for the best areas.
Guide? Look up Nathan Beaubot he posts here and fishes out of Seadrift. Or Andrew out of Port Isabel. Or give me a call and I’ll take you. My travel schedule is pretty whacked but we can find a day.

Anytime is good but now until December is best.

Pretty sure Shane here put his tracker up for sale after he caught a few.

Pat, I was actually going to hit you up last year. In fact, it was this weekend last year. It was a spur of the moment trip for the girlfriends B-day, just never materialized. Never even got to touch the water while down there.

If you'd like to try sharks, reds, tarpon, jacks trout, etc. from the Port A jetties hit me up with a PM. We fish mostly the Port Aransas North Jetty. You're more than welcome to tag along. We often spend the night out there.

Rinse your gear with fresh water each day.

I wish I was healthy enough to traverse one of those Port Aransas jetties - but those days are over.

@Lmgreeri,

If you were limited to piers and beaches, where would you recommend casting lures for jacks? I watch the webcams provided by The Dunes Resort in Port Aransas and the beach looks very shallow for a long way out - it seems like it would be a long wade before a person reached fishable surf? Is that just my imagination?

My son makes soft plastics, and he fishes out of a kayak for reds, trout, and flounder all the time. He has a YouTube channel and makes informative videos all the time.

He keeps very few secrets. Give him a shout. https://www.biteandfightangler.com/

JR

The hardest first lesson for a typical freshwater guy to understand is how shallow you can find what you're looking for. You read the "experts" who say you need to go deep to catch a redfish or trout. Complete BS. Why?

You're a 25" trout, what do you fear?
Getting eaten.
You're too big to worry about a pelican snatching you up, but anything that can end your day is out there in the deep water. If you don't go there, they can't get you. You'll catch more in the knee deep first cut in the surf than you ever will past the third bar. It will brain lock you for a while, because you have to unlearn everything you thought you knew.

Thanks Pat! I will keep this in mind

I actually have lots of surf fishing experience - back east - but the beaches drop off pretty quick back there. We did not have Jacks back home, but I caught lots of them when I lived in Hawaii, and not only were they awesome fighters, the Blue Jacks in Hawaii are incredibly good eating!

I want to catch Jacks and Reds, if I am lucky enough.

There's multiple "Jack" fish here, you have the highly desirable Amber Jack, which is a offshore fish.
Then there's the Jack Crevalle, cook it however you like, the cat wouldn't eat it.
And then the skipjack or lady fish, which are fun to catch a few but you're not going to stick a filet knife in one.

When you catch the surf flat and clear, the number of big trout and reds you can catch on a topwater fifteen feet from the bank is amazing.

I bet you $10 if we caught some 5 to 10-lb jack crevalle, and filleted them & removed the dark red meat immediately, and put the fillets in a brine, on ice, and I cooked them for you, you would be surprised how good they taste. Also, they are excellent in a ceviche!

Might be so, I've never seen a 5 lb Jack crevalle. All I do know, a few years ago a bud invited us for a big fish fry, he was really excited to have a bunch over to share in his exploit. A scoop full of poot mud would have tasted better. Seriously like licking hot road tar. We asked what the F is this? He didn't know the name of the fish, but he had pictures. Yep, cleaning table full of smiling jacks. I dashed home and got a couple bags of speckled trout filets to save his outing.

I do know, I can filet a trout, red or flounder, and not do anything else but cook it up and eat it. You might can make a hardhead taste like a prime rib, I'll never know.

You can occasionally get into some jacks off the end of Caldwel Pier but it's not an everyday thing for sure. You can reach them in the surf to...they will come in behind the 2ng bar often chasing bait. You might want to reconsider the Port A Nort Jetty though. Since they re-topped the walking path a few years ago you could take wheelchairs out there now. And when the jacks are in they run up and down that jetty. No better inshore fishing in the area. Another jetty with easy access and a good walking path is the Packery Jetties. In a couple more years Bob Hall pier will be back. I'm printing renderings of the design options for some architects this morning as I type this. Great jackfish action there.

Thanks, I will give the jetties some thought.

There is nothing you can do to make a Jack Crevalle edible to a normal human being. Clean it, prepare it and cook anyway you want, with any season or marinade and it’s still bad. Real bad. They don’t even cook it in Southern Louisiana where those Coon [censored] could cook an old tire and make it good. Anyone who likes eating it like would eat anything. People around the world eat just about anything. Jeffrey Dalhmer liked eating his guests. His mom said, “Jeffrey I don’t think I like your friends”. Jeffrey said “mom, try the vegetables.”

Pound for pound it will fight with about any fish in the bay or gulf. They will destroy a top water. I hate when we go fish the Chandelier Islands and within the first 5 casts of thr morning I hook a Jack or Bull red. He gets broke off, quick. No way I am fighting either of those while the trout are being hammered.

Skipjacks cut up make great redfish bait. Poor man’s Tarpon….lol.

Jeff,

I understand that you need to keep things as simple as possible and that you bread and fry everything so that the breading is all you ever taste. You can leave the specialty fish to others - no one will laugh at you. PS, don't ever order sashimi at a sushi bar! Stick to the "California Rolls" - they're right up your alley...

Except that you would be wrong. Grill plenty. I will take Yellow Fin Tuna for sushi. I have eaten fish quite a few ways around the world. Never have I seen a restaurant serve a Jack Crevalle. Even in China where they have about as wide a range of what is eaten as anywhere. No Jack.

Plenty more for you.

Apparently some people eat them.

https://saltwatermecca.com/jack-crevalle-recipes/

I had a guy tell me he could clean Kingfish ensuring they are bled right after they were caught. Then he had a special recipe that made them tasty. You could eat them. There probably are 100,000 things in the ocean that taste better. When we caught then I always donated mine to him,

Half the family is from S Louisiana. They've served me nutria rat, coot, gar, carp, peacock and stingray. All of it was quite good. I assure you if a coohon won't stick something in his mouth, it's not edible.

I’ve never tried it, but from time to time I hear tha crevalle is great “ if it’s cooked right.” Might be something to it. I’ll never know…….,,,

Jeff,

Yellowfin Tuna sushi (Nigiri / on rice) is girl sushi - let me know when you have worked up the courage to try sashimi (raw fish / no rice).

When I eat sushi I eat, Yellowfin (Maguro), Yellowtail (Hamachi) and Mackerel (Saba) sashimi with some Sea Urchin roe (Uni) and Raw Shrimp (Ama Ebi, replete with the fried shrimp heads), and they are all fantastically delicious - of the fish, the mackerel is my absolute favorite - yes, raw - and the non-fish sea urchin roe is a very close second)

Also, when I get a craving for shrimp I buy Colossal Gulf Shrimp and de-vein them with the shell and head on, deep fry them in peanut oil with a little chopped garlic, and eat the whole shrimp - shells, eyes, tentacles and all - and they are wonderful.

Jack Crevalle, when cared for properly (bled and dark meat removed immediately and fillets placed in brine on ice) and cooked appropriately, is great.

Don't be afraid to challenge your emotional biases.

Here endith the lesson.

We can settle this pretty easy.
I'll bring a bag of filets, trout, flounder or redfish.

You cook smiling jack however you like.
I'll cook whatever I've got

Have a few clueless people there, let them decide.
It's not a matter of *IF* it's a matter of *WHY*.

Pat,

Your plate looks good, but, if there is actually fish on that plate, how is anyone supposed to taste the fish with all that stuff it is mixed in with?

If fish has to be drowned in something, or breaded and fried to "taste good," I'll pass. I like seafood prepared pretty basic - so I can taste it. My favorite way to prepare fillets (when I am not eating sushi) is to broil them with a little butter on top, and maybe a small dash of high quality soy sauce.

Less is more, in my humble opinion.

When I lived in Hawaii I was a mate on a fishing boat and the First Mate was a supremely nice, extremely experienced, Hawaiian, that was born and raised in Hawaii. I learned so much from him that I can never repay him.

On the way out, we would always catch Skipjack tuna to use as bait, and the First mate would always bleed and ice one immediately, "for later."

On the way back to the dock at the end of the day, he would do a demonstration for the customers by expertly preparing a spread of sashimi and offer it to any of the customers that wished to try. It was beyond superb - you cannot get fresher - but invariably there were customers that thought that Gorton's frozen fish sticks were fish, and would not go near it...

They did not know what they did not know - so they could never be expected to be unbiased.

Once one side of the fish was consumed - often, mostly by the crew - the First Mate would then demonstrate how "Native Hawaiians would eat fish back in the day," and he would flip the fish over to the untouched side, pick it up, bend it in half, and take a HUGE bloody bite out of the side of the fish - skin and all - and with the biggest grin you have ever seen, munch it down, with glee! Nope, I never tried it - that was his lane and I stayed in mine.

Almost all the women, and a few men that acted like women, would groan in revulsion!

I will never forget those days - some of the happiest, most enjoyable days of my life - some of the best fish I have ever eaten - and hearing those people freak, was music to my ears.

Less is just less....
We eat a lot of fish, because I catch a lot of fish. Serve it up a lot of ways, that picture was just for reference, and if you've never had a good ponchatrain sauce, with oyster crab and shrimp involved, you just don't how happy your mouth can be.

Again, I'll bring a bag of fillets, you bring your jack, serve them up identical, and let's see which one gets eaten first. People eat gafftop too, but life's too short.

We are just going to have to agree, to disagree.

But you cannot ask people that eat fast-food for almost every meal, to be fair, unbiased judges of any dish - much less one that they have never had because they have always heard it was bad, and never tried it for themselves...

I have eaten Yellowfin right off the boat when we hit the dock in Venice.

With today’s limits if a Jack Crevalle was any good they would be cleaning it and eating it. Heck, now they even keep trigger fish on the head boats.

Generally, I will try a small amount of any seafood. I’ve had plenty of it around the world. For a bunch it’s, “I will pass, too much real good seafood out there.”

Apparently you have the ability to eat about anything and enjoy it. Most people don’t. In foreign countries they typically have a wider range of what they typically will eat.

Jeff,

I never said that Jack Crevalle was as good as Wahoo (one of the best tasting fish I have ever eaten), or Mahi Mahi, or especially good was Gray Snapper in Hawaii (spends its entire life eating shrimp and is flat-out awesome), all I said is that Jack Crevalle is no where near as bad as many people think it is. And, yes, I have tried lots of foods that I previously thought were inedible, only to learn that they were great!

And, Jack Crevalle just kicks [censored] on a fishing line - so I love fishing for them even if only to release them to fight another day.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Jack Crevalle are a blast to catch. Then be released. I'll be eatin' with Pat Goff, given the option. Best fish sandwich ever is the "Bake'n'Shark" in Trinidad. But they know how to make it. IslandJim

Go ahead on and eat those nasty jacks there ZM...I'm riding with Pat on the flounder and speck side of the boat!

Exactly.
Kind of like catching a big drum, it's fun for about 5 minutes then it's like fighting a garbage truck.

Jim gets a lot more snowbirds in Rockport than we do in Seadrift, and you see all the parked vehicles with Minnesota plates at the piers. Catching "catfish" and keeping them. You just go on with your bad self.

If we want to go catch something for the battle, head out to the end of the jetties and catch a tarpon. That'll scratch whatever fish battle itch you might be having.

If we're going to eat fish, I just want to put the filet knife to it, bag it up and take it home and cook it right then. If I have to do anything "special" to make it edible, it's not going to be kept. Period.

I do not understand - what it is about my opinions that gets you guys so girly - and why does it make you dis folks with Minnesota plates? No one is suggesting you be forced to fish for Jacks or eat them - I don't get it?

PS. I grew up eating sea trout (Spec's northern cousins), winter flounder (we had a summer flounder too, called a fluke, and it lays on the opposite side of its body than a flounder, and grows much larger - and tastes wonderful) and tons of blue crabs, and the facts are that they taste much better up north - noticeably so - and there is a scientific reason that they do. It is because they experience actual winters (or used to) and they put on more fat to get through the winters, and they taste much better - especially the blue crabs!

Now, don't go getting angry and throwing dishes...

Perhaps it’s your condescending manner……………..

The mirror is your friend, friend...

Texans really don’t give two dead flies about anything north of the Red River. That’s just the way it is.

Our bays are different than anywhere else
The fishing is different than anywhere else.
And yes, we can ridicule anyone catching a sack full of hardheads with a grand plan of eating those disgusting fish.

They eat mullet In Florida. I tried it, and it tasted like what you think a scum sucking fish would be. You want to eat a jack, by all means get all you want but don’t try to tell us we’re clueless. Go ahead and fill your box with skipjack gafftop and sand trout. No limits for a reason.

I am a gentleman, sir, and I never once said that you were clueless and I never starting giving you and your friends a taste of your own meds until you and they starting suggesting I was stupid for wanting to fish for Jacks, much less that they are, in fact, edible, as any YouTube search will easily prove - so get over yourself, Tex.

Now you know why I had and have no interest, whatsoever, of fishing with you, for cost or for free - but my efforts at being a gentleman about it, are over.

Zen Master, your incredible awesomeness has completely outclassed us. We mere mortals could never hope to ascend to your level of sophistication. Might I suggest that you abandon this hopeless endeavor of yours, and move on to an audience of individuals who are more capable of meeting your standards of character? I believe you’d be happier there. We’d be happier for you, too.

Jim,

Thank you for all of your kind fishing advice!

I hope that you and your family have a wonderful Holiday Season and that you catch boat-loads of fish.

Kind regards!

This is where it went off the rails...lol! Retarded.

Typically, I would ignore a post so uninformed, but the insults over Jacks started in another thread and migrated to this one, and I never inquired of anyone what their thoughts were about Jacks - I said I liked fishing for them and the put downs started.

Now find something else to be bothered by.

Probably primarily throws a spinning rod…..lol. This is Texas.

There is some good fishing all over the country. In MN if I was eating Walleye would be the target. Fishing for fun it’s Smallmouth.

Sorry pards, you slung the first shovel of dirt. Then proceeded to inform us as to how ignorant we all are, and if we weren't such classless heathens we'd be enlightened like you to the ways of the world.

And then act surprised when your clueless opinion is squished.

Try not to gloss-over the inference this time...

That exchange right there said everything there is to say about you - a know-it-all that thinks that anyone that doesn't do what he says is beneath him - and that exchange is why I rejected your fishing offers.

Done with the grade school BS.

Sorry to hurt your feelings.

I'm quessing he's (she's? it's?) a liberal politician. He / she / it denigrates, rationalizes, and whines exactly like one of those...........

I'm so sorry......... I was blinded by the brilliance of your presence, and I was unable to see anything in the mirror. I'll try again when you're gone........

Here's a little free advice: When you first started slinging snide remarks, folks let it slide. But you kept it up, and folks figured out you're a slow learner, so they tried to help you figure it out. But rather than correcting the problem, you exacerbated it. You could have just let it go; instead, like my idiot first wife (and my entitled grandson, when he was four years old), you had to try to get in the last word and play the victim. What you've done is burn any shot you may have had at credibility with these folks. They know when they're being insulted by a fool, and believe me; you aren't smart enough to deceive them. So just sit down, shut up, and wait for folks to forget what a tool you are. The harder you try to fool them, the longer it will take for them to forget. People like Pat Goff have contributed more to this forum than you could ever hope to, even with your inflated ego. The only person here who worships you seems to be you. Grow up and learn from that.

Maybe he should just head over to 2Cool, they seem to welcome this particular social disorder.

Hey, leave 2cool alone. We don't need it over here either.

Since there isn’t a saltwater trash fish group on BBC 2 cool might be the spot for an opinionated pilgrim. A

I don’t know why everyone is getting bent out of shape on a little back and forth between Jack eaters and non-eaters. Just little sparing on the net.

What else do you do when you’re sitting at home with a blown motor and you’re boatless bank trash?

The sparing got going when we’re told if we were somewhere north and east we wouldn’t be such ignorant heathens.

But if you take anything personal on the internet you need help.