finally gonna get down to my favorite fishing place. Gonna be staying at the luxurious "Balboa Courts" with a couple of other fellas. We will have a 16ft. polar kraft boat with I think a 40 horse motor. I know you guys get tired of doing this...but puuuuuleeeeeezzz!.....how about some good spots within a fairly short trip from the hotel. One of our group is 85 years old and I don't think we'll want to get too terribly far from camp for his sake. Then again...he probably won't go out everytime we do. Any and all hints appreciated. I would also enjoy meeting any of you guys down that way on those days. let me know.

Hey Ducky...I will be going with 3 other folks out of Rockport on Sat the 15th wish I could tell you some spots, but my expertise is in freshwater, Good Luck to you and the guys and I will be in a Kenner myself if you want to say "Hello"....and maybe they can help you out...some reds and trout were caught today despite the yucky weather....

Hey Deb. The polar kraft is brand spankin new, but I haven't seen it yet so I can't describe. Maybe we'll run into yall, Good luck regardless. hope the weather cooperates.

Hey Davy, thanks for the info on the boat, wish I had more info on the one I will be in, but I dont...talked with the guy last evening after his trip and managed some reds and trout like I mentioned despite the misty cool weather, hope our weather is alittle better this coming weekend. I dont mind it on a lake but at the coast for some reason it can make the trip misberable. Be sure to take your cold weather and rain gear and some waterproof boats. Sometimes crossing the bay can be rough and wet. I am going on a meat run this time, heres hoping the fish will cooperate. Hope we run into ya

I remember a thanksgiving weekend 7 or 8 years ago that was just miserable. Couldn't fish for more than about 5 minutes before you would hang it up. It was so cold...I saw a sheepshead wearin' thermals and ear muffs. Funny thing tho was how nice the weather turned the morning we had to leave....why does it do that?

Just got back from Rockport, and the weather was miserable (like it always is this time of year when we head down).

Unfortunately, the captain (friend of my father's) wouldn't listen to me from the get-go. I told him to head to the Estes Flats and Fish the channel edges in front of them...but, instead, We fished Allen's Bite(sp?) for a few hours, and not a thing! We then went to the back side of mud island, and on the way our engine locked up so we were stranded, so decided to drop anchor and make the best of it. We caught a lot of small trout, and one that went in the box at 19". We had to call the boat rental place, and had to get towed across aransas bay (damn rental boats), which took 2 hours.

Once we had our broke down rental replaced with a working one, We fished less then 3 miles from Balboa courts, near the estes flats. With the recent cold front, the fish are moving deep and just coming shallow to feed, and head deep again. (trout at least)

We fished the edge of the Intracoastal and caught a ton of specks (most were 13-14", but about 15 keepers between 3 guys), and a few redfish (only one keeper, 24"). They were all on live shrimp fished about 2.5ft under a popping cork in 3-4ft of water. The fish were sitting on the edges, in line with the channel markers in the intracoastal. I've done a lot better, and a lot worse! However, I was content considering the weather (55*, 20mph winds, drizzling). We didn't go 3minutes without a fish once we started fishing the Intracoastal.

If I were you, I'd go and launch your boat at Palm Harbor, and just head straight out of the marina and to your right. (Launching at Palm Harbor will prevent you from having to make a run across Aransas Bay, which had 1-4ft waves in it this weekend (ROUGH!))
Fish the channel side of the small islands, about 50yds off of the islands. Anchor so that you can cast parallel with the islands...worked for us!

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