Does anyone know what this is on pelican island? there is a road to go in, I went in and no one at all in there, no signs at all anywhere, dirt road was smooth all the way, went all the way around it to the top let corner and fished on the X, and came from the road from seawolf side, caught some very healthy fat whiting, sandys, and HUGE Gafftop, not sure what this land is for or if we can even go in, I mean no signs anywhere saying private property, keep out or anything.

Land does not have to be posted or saying it is private property; you must have landowner permission in order to enter or access it, otherwise, if it is not, you would be trespassing if it is not listed as public fishing or hunting lands.

Always, before entering, find out who owns the property, then contact them to see if you can get permission to access it. You can find out at the County Tax Appraisal office who owns the property in question and then go from there.

Pelican Island is used by the US Army Corp of Engineers as dredge spoil placement area and is definately private property.

I actually lived on Pelican Island for a few years (while attending Texas A&M Galveston). That big flat area (that appears all cracked when your driving by it) is just solid mud underneath. It is a dredge material deposit, and that mostly CORPS land. I have fished all over that entire island, and I can tell you that the only public fishing place is down by Seawolf. You were driving on CORPS land, and south of you along the shore is TAMUG's land where they do a lot of soil/erosion/marsh experiments and testing.

There are fun diving trails all over that COPRS land, BUT I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU STAY OUT. As someone who has spent quite a bit of time back there (in my younger naive days); let me put it this way- there are lots of people who use those trails. Some are fishermen, some are off roading, some are having bonfire and drinking parties. But many of the people back there are, how to say this delicately... pursuing other recreational activities, ones that they would desire to hide from public view.... catch my drift.

I can tell you that it is not a safe place to be, in many different ways. And I can 100% assure that that the local authorities know exactly what goes on back there. IThey do have difficulty getting back in there without being spotted- and that is one reason why there are so many dirt trails going all over the place, escape routes.

The very last time I was ever down there we were coming around a corner in my jeep trying to sneak around and go fishing, and a 4x4 tacoma came sliding around at about 50mph and we both just about rolled over avoiding each other. We ended up in the ditch wondering what just happened, until about 5 seconds later the Sheriff came flying around the corner as well. After a very thorough vehicle search and one of the most eye-opening warnings I have ever received in my life, we left. And we took his "advice" and never went back.

There are plenty of much safer places to catch the same fish. The fishing really isn't that different back there. Interestingly enough there are some wild pigs back there in that corps land (or at least there were before Ike, haven't been back there 2004).