Anyone been fishing at the jetties after this past cold front??

I got a report yesterday from my famely that lives on the island. The flounder have realy turned on over the past three or four days.

After the next Cold Front, they should be in full swing. It looks like next Friday and Saturday, the low temps will be in the 40's...
Wish I could go!

Forecast for Aransas Pass, TX (78336)

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High /
Low (�F) Precip. %
Tonight
Nov 20 Scattered T-Storms 70� 50 %
Sun
Nov 21 Scattered T-Storms 84�/71� 40 %
Mon
Nov 22 Isolated T-Storms 83�/68� 30 %
Tue
Nov 23 Scattered T-Storms 80�/55� 30 %
Wed
Nov 24 Mostly Sunny 68�/46� 20 %
Thu
Nov 25 Sunny 66�/49� 0 %
Fri
Nov 26 Partly Cloudy 74�/60� 0 %
Sat
Nov 27 Partly Cloudy 78�/58� 0 %
Sun
Nov 28 Partly Cloudy 76�/58� 20 %
Mon
Nov 29 Partly Cloudy 76�/56� 0 %

At Port Aransas, fishing from the south jetty, I saw hardly any fish being caught the whole weekend. Did see three decent size redfish that one guy said he caught between 7 and 9 Sat AM halfway out the jetty (on frozen baitfish), but it seemed that neither he nor anyone else that I could see caught anything after that. I did see a few (very few) flounder caught, a sheephead and a whiting. Lots of empty buckets coming back off the jetty.

I caught a 22" redfish in the surf -- fishing from the surfside of the jetty not too far from the beach. On the channel side, I got one bite -- think from a redfish, but the line got caught in the rocks, and I had to break it off. (Sometimes, one can let some slack line spool off the reel, and the fish will swim out of the rocks and then one can bring it in. I've seen that work before, but when I tried it, I did feel the fish start fighting again, but when I started reeling again, the line was still caught in the rocks, and I could not get that trick to work again.)

Both the redfish I caught (surfside) and the bite I got (channel side) came from fresh, cut up piggy perch. The frozen mullet I had didn't seem to work, nor did the live black saltys I had hauled out in a bucket.

While trying to fish for piggy perch (to use for cut bait for redfish) using a small spinning outfit, small hook and pieces of shrimp, I did catch a variety of of small fish, including a vermillion snapper or red snapper (threw it back not being sure if it was legal), a small dogfish and another ugly brown fish I could not identify. I also caught three mangrove snappers just big enough to keep -- about 9" each. Cut one up for bait and brought the other two back. It was really hard to catch piggy perch -- usually they're easy to catch.

Saturday was windy, and there was some current in the channel, though not too strong. Sunday there was not much wind and practically no current. There were big swells on the ocean side both days, crashing on the jetty, and occasionally splashing over and wetting people.

Sunday afternoon, a game warden came out checking everybody's licenses and catches. I mean everybody's. I had my rods and reels in my hand carrying them back for the drive home and I had to stop and wait for him to get finished checking two other people and he checked my license, and even went through my creel. Fortunately the two mangrove snappers I had with me were legal. (The redfish was from Saturday and was already in the cooler.)

I saw no rain there the whole weekend. I think I made a good choice of going to Port Aransas and not to Galveston. But about 60 miles to the north of Port A, the heaviest rain in TX was roaring down -- ALL WEEKEND, at Victoria. Campo, near there, is flooded with more rain on the way.

I hit a little rain driving south from Dallas/Ft Worth, starting in Austin, and I drove through a few showers. But driving back Sunday night I hit a lot of rain, on and off -- sometimes sprinkles, sometimes showers and a torrential downpours, though those would clear up suddenly as I continued driving. I guess that's Texas.

There are still a few big reds at the jetties. Caught this guy on the surf side on crab Saturday (11-27).

pretty red!

Nice fish Phillip....did you bring the crab from Austin or get them down there? How did you rig it up? Depending on weather, I'm thinking of going this coming weekend...give me some pointers. I'm thinking of doing the surf thing and fishing for some pompano also - going down past Bob Hall and then back to PA for some maybe flounder.

I bought the crabs before the UT game, put them in small bucket with wet newspaper at the bottom, and put that in an ice chest. 3 of them lived over 24 hours in there. But anyways, I always bring a section of PVC pipe and jam it in the rocks. I was using a homemade leader with a 4 oz. spider weight and a 14/0 circle hook. I rig the leaders so that the fish has to pull the weight free, thus hookin' himself, you miss hardly any runs this way. As for hooking the crab, first I pop the carapace off, then break the crab in half, tear of the claws, and hook through one of the leg segments, and out from another. Or if it is a small crab, you tear off the claws, and hook through the leg segments, or just through the middle of it. Either way, if you hook it right, you should have to put some force into it, but the hook won't move. As for surf fishing for pompano, just a simple drop loop rig with a small hook and bits of shrimp on it. Hope this helps!

-Phil

I've heard they sell crabs at Fiesta Market (I think that's right)....bottom tier on I-35 close to downtown?? If not there, where did you get them? Thanks for the info...I'll post after the trip if it's worth going. Just talked to the folks at Marker 37 where the new pier is on ICW @ JFK causway and might try that Friday nite after I get some fishbites @ Roy's. Thanks again for the "Poop". Tight Lines!!

Yeah I got them at that Fiesta.

Hope you had nearly as good a Thanksgiving holiday as I had. Drove to Port Aransas, TX (near Corpus Christi) for the 4 day Thanksgiving weekend. Fished 2 1/2 days.

Caught 4 redfish over that time -- one 39 inches and one 42.5", 28 lb -- bigger than the 37" that was my previous largest -- plus one 30" and one 27". Released all 4; call me crazy, but they were just too beautiful to keep all of them. Kept one 24 incher that someone named Walt gave me. it was gut-hooked, but was also eatin' size. It's filleted and in the freezer along with my 22"-er (also gut-hooked) from previous weekend.

I caught the first, a 39 incher, on the surf side of the S. Jetty Thanksgiving night, about 200 ft from shore, on a 9', $40 fiberglass rod/reel combo I got at a local supermarket called "HEB". They're all over the place in south Texas, and there's one that sells frozen bait in Aransas Pass, which is the little town one passes through to get to Port Aransas driving over the causeway to the ferry. I don't know whether the mono on it was 20 lb or 30 -- might have been 40, not sure. But it sure brought in that big one OK.

The second monster I caught with 50 lb mono backed by Stren Super Braid. I needed it with that one; it fought much harder, because it
was hooked in the stomach, not the mouth (at least when I landed him). Was hooked right between the two small pectoral fins on its stomach, so it could get full force swimming away from me; I could not turn its head. It was stripping that 50 lb braided line out like crazy, in long spurts, even after I tightened the drag down as much as I dared. After landing it, I had to struggle with pliers to get the hook out -- that was the perfect spot to snag it on the stomach, if I had to get it that way. Maybe it first got hooked in the mouth but got loose from that, and while fighting hooked itself in the stomach on the other hook. If I did just lucky-snag it in the stomach, it was because of TOO's suggestion:

TOO told me a new way to set up the rigs, hooks and sinkers so that I don't lose them by getting the line snagged in the rocks. First part of this technique is to use a breakaway weight, a type of weight similar to the usual spider-weight, but this one has wires that can flip backward and release from rocks. Look it up on www.BreakawayUSA.com -- Pics at:
(http://www.breakawayusa.com/pages/sinkers.htm)

The second part is to use a slip float with a stop-thingy to keep it from sliding too far up the line. I either tied a knot in the mono line to stop the slide-bobber at the depth I wanted or tied on a 30 to 40 ft shock mono leader and let that knot stop the slip bobber. On the channel side, I set this about for about 30 to 40 feet depth, and on the surf side -- even at the end of the jetty, I'd tie the knot at about 8 ft. After casting out and letting the sinker sink to the
bottom, I would reel up the line so that it was fairly tight, but even though the float was no longer on the surface, it kept the line out of
the rocks. Worked. I got back my rigs on over 95% my casts.

Bait used was either cut up piggy perch (easy to catch using small hooks and small chunks of shrimp cast with a light spinning rig right
near the jetty rocks) or finger mullet (frozen, fresh-dead or live work), but best I found was cut up chunks of the 12" mullet, which I
was able to buy frozen from Port A Outfitters in Port Aransas.

I think I got lucky, catching those huge redfish right at what is supposed to be the end of the time the big ones come in from the ocean
depths to spawn.

I have to thank Walt's friends (names unknown at this point), who helped me catch the 42" one. I was at the end of the jetty, and one of them went out onto one of those low, algea covered, slick rocks to get it, using my net. I was able to time my pulls with the wave action so that I was actually able to bring it up onto the second rock, but then it slipped between two rocks. Poor guy risked his life to help me get that fish. Thanks. (Walt is a tournament bass fisher who watches the TFF but so far is not a registered poster. Hope you register and start posting, Walt.)


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39" red drum caught at Port Aransas south jetty on surf side, about 200 ft from shore. (Bait: cut up fresh piggy perch):

[url= http://"http://www.myfishingpictures.com/?p=41732&c=556&z=1"] [/url]

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42.5 inch, 28 lb. red drum caught at end of south jetty Sat night. One of the guys who risked his life to help haul it from the channel over the slick rocks is helping me hold it up. (Bait: cut up frozen 12-inch mullet from Port A Outfitters):

[url= http://"http://www.myfishingpictures.com/?p=41733&c=556&z=1"] [/url]

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This is a 37" red drum caught back in early October from the Port Aransas south jetty. (Bait: cut up fresh piggy perch):

[url= http://"http://www.myfishingpictures.com/?p=41727&c=556&z=1"] [/url]

All fish shown here were released in good shape.

Sounds like you were really on the fish. Only had one red for the day, but it was a 44 incher. I was only down half a day too. From what I've gathered, the run was set back a little while from the unusually warm weather.

Hey, that 44 incher sounds great. Was that from the city pier next to the ferry? I heard someone got one that size there Friday night. Also somebody got one that size near the end of the jetty Saturday. I'm going back down this weekend and trying to beat my 42.5" incher from last weekend. Looks like the air temps will be mild enought and hopefully the rain will be sporadic and the winds not too strong. Think I'll fish from the end of the jetty again, if the winds and waves are not too rough. It can get pretty intimidating out there.

That might have been me on the South Jetty near the end.