Cancelled a trip to Venice (Memorial Weekend) today. Changing plans now we are going to Port Mansfield.

I am not familiar with PM and am looking for some guidance.
I am a pretty good fisherman but unfamiliar with the area.

What kind of hazards are in the area?
Running north what are the hazards, same for running South toward SP?

Any help would be appreciated

It's shallow. Really shallow....

Do you have a boat? If it's anything but a super shallow tunnel design, you'll be limited to the intercoastal and east cut. You can sorta circle around and get into the saucer, but that's about it.

Even then, you can always be aware and stake out and wade.

I have a 20' Gulf Coast with tunnel and Jack Plate.

Is the area mostly sand or Oyster reefs?
I have read about some rocks being in the area?

Just trying to gather as much knowledge as possible.

I frequent Port Aransas and am very familiar with that area. How does it compare to Port Mansfield?

Thank for the help!!!!

You should be ok, you'll know what you're running in.

Nearly all sand/grass except on the north side of the east cut, bazzilion oysters there. As far as rocks...no worries.

I run south down intercoastal until I come to houses on spoilbank. Turn east and run till my boat stops and fish out. You will catch all you want.

Cant go wrong there. The east cut flat area is another consistent producer. I like to fish the color change going North also. Look for the bait and get out and wade it, you cant go wrong. We normally spend the first day finding the fish and then the next few hammering them. Also, the water is very clear down there most of the time. If you find some that is not dont be afraid to fish it. At times it holds a lot more fish than that pretty water does. Good luck. My favorite place in all of Texas to fish is Port Mansfield. Not too much to worry about as far as hazards. Just pay attention to whats in front of you and you will be ok.

Thanks guys for the advise. I just got my Fish-N-Map in the mail today. Time to study the area. Memorial weekend just around the corner.

Again thanks for the HELP!!!

Also, dont forget it is only 5 trout in PM.

3 reds
5 trout
15 smacks

then Tarpon

I hope it will all come together as planned

Good luck and let us know how it goes over Memorial weekend.

First trip to Port Mansfield was succesful.

We left Fort Worth Friday morning and arrived around 2:30. We checked in and launched the boat.
After getting things situated we started fishing around 3:30.

We started the fishing trip by fishing the north side of east cut on the inside (bay side). We ran up inside the grass beds into about 1 ft water. The wind was blowing from the east southeast around 15-20 mph. We set up to drift and throw some artificials. Using a Red/white Zare Spooks we picked up one keeper red (26") and one spec trout(24"). We fixed both for dinner (fish tacos).

Day two (Saturday)
Winds west southwest light switching to south 10-15.

Headed to jetties around 7:30 after getting bait. Helped stranded boater with family. Towed them back to Port Manfield. Seems they were stranded all night long.

Decided to target trout. We ran north to the westside bar grassbeds and started the drift. We started by throwing red/white trout killers along with some topwater baits. We made 6-7 drifts though the area (ploting the path on the graph) making any ajustments for wind to help keep us in the grass area. We had our limit (20 keepers) within 2-3 hours we the took a break for lunch.

Approx 70 trout caught, mostly undersized 13" - 14 3/4".

Evening day 2 (Saturday) target redfish

Wind from the south approx 20-25 mph.

Ran south to marker 175 turned left ran about 1-1/2 miles and ancored down. We decided to throw cut mullet on this outing. Had some crab action for the first 20-30 minutes, then the action began Redfish hooked up oversized we got this fish all the way to the boat then it made another run and went under the boat and broke off. Second hookup shortly after. This one was mine, hook was set and fish made run to the left then back to the right taking drag, then PULLED HOOK About ten minutes later a third hookup (27 1/4") this one was boated and we decided to call it a night (6:30). On the way in from the redfish we stopped to help another standed boater (grandfather, son and grandson) there battery was dead. We towed them out to the icw and used one of my trolling motor batteries to get them going. We followed them into Port Mansfield and retreived the battery after they loaded up.

Day three (Sunday)
Winds from the southeast 10-15 mph

Target Trout
Headed north and begain fishing west of Butchers Island grassbeds. This time throwing a popping cork with Red/white trout killers below. We caught a whole lot of under sizes 12" - 14-3/4" with 10 keepers (largest 26-1/2") then took a break for lunch.

Evening (Sunday)
Winds from southeast 20-25 mph

Target Redfish
Headed to the east cut marker 15/16 to fish a cut that I had read about in Lakes and Bays magazine. The area looked promising but no success. We made the move over to the north side of east cut on the inside (bay side). We ran up inside the grass beds and anchored down, cut mullet was on the menu for this evening (no success). It was getting close to sunset so we pulled anchor and began the drift throwing some topwaters (no success).

Day 4 (Monday)
Target trout

Wind light and variable
Headed out north to the westside bar grassbeds and started the drift. We had approx 2-1/2 hours to fish before we had to head home. Only picked up three keepers (largest 18"). The bite was really beginning when we had to leave. The last 10 minutes we caught approx 20.

We even change one of the guy's name to "trout"

Arrived home around 10:00 pm.

Never made out to the jetties.

Overall trip was a success the next trip down we plan to do more to the south of Port Mansfield.

Forgot to mention the 26" blacktip shark that was caught on Sunday morning first shark on my boat!!!