First off let me thank-you for giving us some advice regarding fishing around the Portland/Corpus area!!!

I have been reading reports & they talk about Free-lined shrimp. Is this just a hook on a leader & no weight??

Also what is a mauler rig??

As you can tell we need some advice on how to rig up.

It has been a long time since we have fished at the coast.

My wife fly fishes now, what are some good flies to use??

Thanks again for all your help
Jim & Nan

Well I am no TOO but here it goes.

I freeline shrimp with no weight and only a snap swival and a circle hook. (i dont really use a leader but you could) You have to use a light line to be able to cast far but this works all the time for me wade fishing. I also freeline mullet and mud minnows (hell anything I can catch in the cast net) and sometime when freelining mullet that are really large I pull there heads off.

I have no idea what the Mauler rig is.

Mauler Rig...aka Mansfield Mauler is normally a flourescent orange slip cork rigged on a short piece of wire with beads above and below. The mainline is tied to the top of the wire and your leader is tied to the bottom of the wire. Usually fished with live shrimp, croakers, or plastics, cast, pop, retrieve slack, pause, pop, retr........you get the idea.

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FishBait Charters
Casey Cox
214.536.6674

GF, I free-line shrimp using a 20-25# leader, usually 20 Berkley Vanish or Big Game. I tie it with a blood knot or a new knot that I've been trying, the Gryp-Knot. Academy has the little do-dad in the Fly-fishing section, it's called the Tie Fast Knot Tyer. Shows how to tie it and makes tying leaders simplier. Did good last week for me......freelining is w/o a wieght, just a leader and a hook. I use #4,#2 and #1 Eagle Claw Kahle hoooks for shrimp depending on the size of the shrimp. If I'm using croaker, piggies, etc, I use 3/0-5/0 depending on the bait size...try to throw with the wind or at least 1/4ing with the wind. You can throw a free-lined shrimp a long way with a spinning reel with the wind......BF is correct about the mauler, Academy and Wal-mart have some type of mauler, there are different "brands" now a days, most folks use a 24" leader and tie a jighead and a soft plastic or live bait as BF said..... as for Fly fishing I suggest you talk to Captain Sally Moffit at (361)729-9095, www.captainsally.com also Lefty Ray Chapa,(210) 543-1865, www.leftyray.com, they can help you out a whole lot more than I could.....good luck, hope you do well.