Salutations!

I will be moving back to texas and plan on getting a boat I can take offshore and to the lake.

From my research, it appears that blue water is often 80-100 miles off shore in Texas. Moreover, a boat less than 30 feet is difficult to take that far, mostly because you have to carrry so much fuel. So I'm leaning towards a smaller boat.

If i were to get a 24-26 footer, what species would I be looking at being able to catch? From what I can tell, Kingfish, shark, bonita, jack crevalle, and bottom fish. How far offshore do I need to go to catch these?

Are dolphin, wahoo, or tuna a possibility?

Finally, are there any books out there specific to Texas offshore fishing? If so I'd love to buy them.

thanks,

Scop

There's blue water closer in than that during much of the year - say approximately 40 miles. Most 24-26 foot boats can get you to that range with ease.

In summer & fall you can get dorado, wahoo, tuna etc - best way is to find the shrimp boats out of Port A.

Thanks Zeek!

I'm trying to read as much as possible and get back and give it a go.

I've seen blue water as close in as 25 to 30 miles. My boat is a 20' deep v and it seemed to do allright.

Me and a friend of mine use to run a 20' CC Mako from Jupiter inlet Florida to Walkers Cay Bahamas crossing the Bermuda Triangle. There were a few times I thought we would not make it across....... Of course we were young and dumb.

Hey scop! Great board name and welcome!

This link is a recent discussion -just cruise past the name calling posts LOL- about boat size and capabilities on making it ~100 miles offshore.

I think you'll find some very helpful information:
Can My 24' Boat Make It to Boom Vang?

Boom Vang is a floater-type oil rig where tuna fishing happens!

Thanks rag man! Great thread.

Now if I can just get the heck out of memphis!

The blue water comes up pretty close to Freeport, we'd often put in there instead of Galveston.

Scop,

Great handle...

First, the distance to blue water from land, all other factors being equal such as weather, etc., is shorter as you move down the coastline....Freeport offers much better access to blue water than Galveston, but Aransas is even better than Freeport. Look at a map of the water depths of the Gulf and you can see why that is the case...deeper water closer to the coast as you go south of Galveston.


Regarding your question on "Kingfish, shark, bonita, jack crevalle, and bottom fish". Sharks, and big ones, are more readily available near shore...they follow the bait. If you were to fish within 5 miles of the beach off Galveston in summer, you would be covered up with all the sharks and jacks you care to catch. Kingfish are different in that they rarely venture into those waters in numbers, but they can be caught near shore. I've experienced my best kingfishing 10 to 20 miles off Freeport behind shrimp boats in summer....absolutely fantastic fishing, as good as it gets. You will also find numerous bonito in those waters as well as dolphinfish, spanish, and cero mackrel....lots of Ling, big ones,...or you might be familiar with them as Cobia. A great eating and catching fish.

I'm not into bottom fishing so I'll leave that to others to address.

Dolphin are best caught in that same zone of water around water changes, weed lines, and/or any floating object in the water....regardless of how small that object is, it probably has dolphin under it in summer.

Wahoo and tuna...those guys were always beyond my own boats capability and range(never had anything over 25 feet). If you want those, you are going to have to go a long ways out in the Gulf and have access to a very expensive boat and be able to pay very large gas bills. If those are not important to you, go for it.

Tremendous fishing is available on reasonable boats within 15 miles of Freeport, even within sight of land. Sailfish are rare but I have seen them in those waters. Tarpon are not at all rare, and in fact are very catchable in a zone of water about 4 to 7 miles out of both Galveston and Freeport.

Good luck and enjoy some the greatest fishing to be found anywhere!!

How do yall fish for all these diff. fish yall are talking about? Do you just use bait and vertical fish like you do for snapper and whatever bites bites? Or are you actually targeting a specific species? My cousin lives down in league city and I have a 24' fishmaster so we are trying to get into it. But not without doing lots of research. Any info would be helpful.

You can catch kingfish on the trolls, drifting flat lines, or vertical. Just depends on how they are feeding.
I ahve had hte most luck with sharks on drift lines with bloody chunk bait. SOme species are closer into shore, within 10 miles. Others are more likely caught farther out.
Jack Crevalles are caught all of over the place. I have caught a few in the bay and many at the first set of rigs...
Hope that helps a little.

Bernie, if you do any amount of live bait fishing for stripers, blue cat or largemouth, then you know most everything you need to in order to find & catch multiple species offshore ... however, remember to use steel leaders for those sharp-toothed critters.

Awesome. I appreciate the replies. Zeek, you hit the nail on the head. That is about the only kind of fishing I do....stripers, sandies and catfish. Thanks again.

Bernie,

The easiest way to catch Kings and Lings is to tie up to an oil rig. Lings are very curious fish, so have a pole ready with a sardine/pin fish/shrimp on it. Right after you tie up, knock the side of your boat a few times and keep a good eye on the water. A lot of times if they are there, they will come right up to your boat. You can drop your bait pretty much on their head (sight fishing the gulf). Then hang on!

With the kings, tie on a king fish rig (trip trebles on wire leader) and bait it with a ribbon fish. Let it drift behind the boat without a weight. Take some smaller rigs and fish the bottom for the snapper while you wait for a hit.

The other option is to troll. I have down riggers on my boat and when I am tired of being tied up to the rig, or someone ties up right next to my lines, I take out the down riggers. I troll at the slowest speed my boat will go. I put either a ribbon fish or a live mullet on one down rigger and drop it down to about 20 feet from the bottom. I do the same for the other down rigger, only I put it about 40 feet from the surface. Then I have two top water rigs, with ribbon fish. When trolling like this, I catch Kings, lings, bonito, shark, and sometimes dolphin.

The other option is to look for a shrimp boat that is culling and drift behind it. Even if it is not culling, if you have enough chum, you can get the fish churned up again.

Hope this helps