we are going to stay at a bay house in june at kemah. there is a pier with lights on it. what would be the best way to catch fish off it? what bait or artificals should we try?

For bait I would buy shrimp or blue crab, every time we have fished down there and went out with a guide that was what we used.

Plenty of places right there to buy some.

Hey neighbor, you might toss in your cast net... Kinda like down at Ivie!

I am no expert, I fish a couple times year in the salt, so keep this in mind.
For lights and bait there are many folks who free line shrimp and a few who fish with finger mullet. Any cut bait or crabs on bottom. On the bottom good chance hard heads wear you out but don't know til ya give it a go.

I don't fish bait it's just a preference. http://www.baadmarinesupply.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=228 these guys in 1 3/4 and 2 inch length. They come tandem rigged and can be picked up at any academy towards the coast. The yellow and white/glow both work. I have caught thousands of small speck and sand trout under the lights with these. Occasionally I have found a light that produced some keepers. People catch under lights with a number of different kinds of speck rigs. When I am lucky I have found lights with good size trout and fishing in the dark with mirror lures that rattle (like rattle traps for bass) did well but I am well out of my depth now.

As long as the water isn't muddy or real shallow you can prolly catch small (dinks) trout there or maybe some good ones.

Good luck and post a report