Fishing the Texas Coast

We had driven nearly 40 miles of deserted beach before daylight. With winds calm, the waters of the surf were emerald green and the waves were gently rolling onto the beach. Fifty miles north of us was Corpus Christi. There, the crowds of summer fishermen fight for their honey hole. But we were all alone. Nobody but us and our hope for an action packed adventure.

As darkness faded to light we saw baitfish fleeing for their lives, jumping out of the water to avoid the inevitable. Schools of jackfish were like a pack of wolves that enjoyed a feeding frenzy.

I grabbed a topwater plug and within 2 seconds of landing, it was eaten. Twenty minutes later the 25-pound fish was beached. By now the school had moved on. So did I, until I ran into more baitfish trying to escape. But this time, a 28” redfish latched on to my lure.

By mid-morning we had landed over 20 fish, all on topwater lures and not seen another human. We decided to head north and fish our way back to civilization. A couple more stops proved successful. We visited with a park ranger who patrols the seashore looking for nesting turtles. So far today, he hadn’t seen any.

We concluded our trip around 3:00 pm having landed a combination of nearly 3 dozen jackfish, reds, trout and shark. We even saw tarpon rolling just out of reach of our casts. We saw all kinds of trash and treasures on the beach including coconuts and an abandoned Jet Ski body. But we didn’t see another fisherman.

If you are looking for a place where fishing pressure is light, look no further than the Texas Coast.