This is my 1st winter (full time now) here in the Seadrift/POC area. I am cursed with two fairly capable boats - one for jetties - 50 mi. off... weather & seas permitting. And a very abused flats rig.

I prefer to go offshore as long as there is some hope of justifying the fuel. BUT... many of the folks I've met say there is nothing worth catching in the near shore waters once winter sets in.

Past experience tells me the Gulf can get pretty tranquil once the weather patterns stabilize in late Dec - early March... My obsevations of clear skies and flat`ish seas that last from a couple of days here or there to a solid week have given me "the want to's" really bad in times past...

BUT THE $64k QUESTION IS: Will I catch anything other than a bad cold and odd stares at the ramp??? What baits might work best out there???
And will structures (rigs/wrecks) be more important than depth/water temp???

Any - sincere - thoughts would be appreciated... I (somwhat)know what to expect from the bay systems in the area but I am no expert by anyones accounting... YET?
Many thanks...

Well, first of all your experience is telling you wrong. During the winter months, our seas get the roughest her in texas. A steady flow of northerns and fronts pushes large swells towards our beaches all winter. Believe me, Im a surfer and count on these fronts to give us waves because it is usually flat all summer unless there is a hurricane or tropical storm. Just because there are some calm days after fronts when the wind does not blow, do not think that the seas lay flat. Though not as big as during the actually storm, they will be big enough for your boat to be in trouble. Now, summer times are when we have those extended periods of flatness in the gulf. Many days, you can take bay boats out for 50 miles with any danger. Also, the late winter/early spring is my favorite time to catch trout in the bays. During this time you wont usually limmit out, but youll get some real big ones.

There are a lot of people that do pretty good on �state water snapper� during the winter. I�ve only tried it a couple of times with so-so results. The real action during the winter is way out there. Tuna and Wahoo fishing gets really good during the winter but it takes one heck of a boat to get out there.