My wife and I are going to South Padre in June and one of my friends suggested I do some shore fishing while I'm there. I plan to try with my catstick becasue I can't afford a new setup just for that week. I've never fished saltwater so I have two questions.

1) Is there a good spot/peer to fish from?

2) What would I use for bait/lure?

Thanks.

I'm heading to Galveston sometime in the next few weeks, I plan to fish the jetties with some dead shrimp, or some fresh mullet if I can snag some.
Check the Saltwater section of this forum, lots of good info there.

I vacationed in padre last summer around that time. Before you cross the bridge over to the island, after the pink walmart you'll see a small bait shop on your right. I think its either pink or yellow. Not sure though. You can pick up fresh mullet and shrimp there. Not many places to get fresh bait on the island itself.

If you're going to use your catsick, i'd suggest sticking to the jetties. After you cross the bridge over to the island take a right and go down. you'll have to pay to get into the park but at the end of it you'll find a big jetty that you can fish from. We were catching rays, whiting, reds, and we even hooked into a 4 or 5 foot tarpon. Darn near spooled all of the line til luckily it broke off. Cool to see it jump out of the water though. We were fishing after 4 or 5 that day.

If you want to fish the surf, you'll have to go left after the bridge, pass all the buildings, and head all the way up until you see nothing but beach, turn into one of beaches and try and cast pass the 2nd bar at least. You'll need some really heavy weights otherwise your bait will come right back in. Better to fish from the jetties if you're using a catrod. We had some big surf rods and some wieghts with copper rods comming out of them but the waves were still able to bring them back in. Big waves out there. Fun as hek for boogie boarding though.

When you're done fishing, make sure to rinse the hek out of the rod and reel cuz the salt will start to corrode the the gears. Unless you're using a saltwater reel that is. Lost a reel because we didnt rinse it out good enough. Hope this helps. Good luck and tight lines.

in june the surf can be good

And judging by the photo in your sig, you mean there is also ton of sharks at that time of the year too?

June is the start of shark season.. They roll in thick.

Yeah..but thats from the boat cut at Bolivar.