So I need some serious advice. Please tell me if my idea is stupid, crazy, or just plain suicidal - need your help planning.

I am planning on a fishing trip with a buddy from school, starting Sunday, July 20th - Thurs. He was a bay boat, with bay experience, mostly in Rockport. But I am pretty much clueless with Bay fishing and navigating in salt water.

Gonna take some time off work and needed some adventure, so I was thinking of packing a backback and heading to port mansfield.

The "plan" is to leave Port Mansfield monday in the boat and make our way south, finding fishing spots along the way. The idea would be to stay in local towns from Port M to South Padre, living out of the backpack, staying in motels, and end up back in Port Mansfield on Thursday.

What towns/motels do you recomend? Aroyo City?
We need places where we can dock the boat over night and make it from there to the motel.

Fishing advice? where to fish, who to talk to?

Thanks in advance...

How much beer can you fit in a backpack?

Sounds like fun. Forget the backpack, everything in it will get wet. Get a big drybag instead. Also, you will need some shade. If the boat doesn't have a bimini top, bring a big beach umbrella. I think you would be more effective fishing a couple of days at a time at each port, then trailer the boat to the next port. You are going to spend a lot of your time burning gas getting from one port to the next and boats get real bad mileage.

We stayed at The El Pescador in Port M. Not the nicest place by far but got the job done. Boat slips for every room and they are right in the Channel. If you got out the channel go right on the intracoastal canal a placed called Benny's Hut or First House is pretty good.

If you go out the channel and to the left there is a reef. Both way per boat ride about 5-10 minutes.

Port Mansfield & SPI are only about 35 miles apart and Arroyo City is the only place in between. The vast majority of the water from PM toward Arroyo City is going to be flats. You can fish off the Intercoastal Canal but I wouldn't venture too far away from the IC unless you have a flats boat. You need to get a Top Spot or a Hook N Line map for sure. Around Green Island is a pretty good place to wade. There is a hole about 5' deep between the island and the channel. That may be beyond the comfort level of a first time wader. There is an old oil cut that runs thru some spoil dumps on the north side of Green Island. If you can find it you should be able to putt putt east into skinny water.

I wouldn't plan on staying anywhere this time of year without a reservation.

[This message has been edited by sunchaser (edited 7/8/2008 12:30p).]

I'd say a better bet than trying to stay at motels would be to camp out on the spoil islands.

Spoil Islands?

The El Pescador sounds good, any place with a boat slip will work for us.

As for getting to the flats, I thought of towing along a kayak, but I wasn't sure toting around a kayak would be good, considering the distance we plan to travel by boat- also I don't know how we could ascess them anyways without a flats boat.

Thanks for the other advice, keep it coming...

Also, I don't know why, but I don't have my CHL yet, but was planning on packing a pistol....advice?

Also, what kind of fishing can you expect from Arroyo city to South Padre?

Any recomendations on places to stay with a slip in S. Padre or Arroyo City?

Spoil islands are all the little man-made islands up and down the ICW that were created with the dredge material when the ICW and other channels were dug.

Go to Google Maps and do a satellite search for the area you want to be in and zoom in pretty tight along the ICW and you'll see plenty of them. You can easily beach your boat and pitch a tent on the islands. In fact, it's pretty common for people to camp on spoil islands over in Florida.

And with a boat like an El Pescador you should have little trouble running in shallow water. Plus, they've usually got a pretty large weight capacity so you could potentially carry your kayaks too. I would suggest stowing a bunch of your gear inside the 'yaks in dry bags and then strapping them in the cockpit to the console.

I think the El Pescador he was referring to was the rental place.

In fishing from Port Mansfield south you will be unable to fish 95% of it without a shallow draft boat and zero knowledge of the area.....until you get about half way between Three Islands and SPI. Then you can drift the island/east side nearly to the shore.

My bad.

I still think that running up & down the ICW in a conventional bay boat would be OK. They'd be able to camp on spoil islands and be able to anchor up and wade fish the flats along the ICW.

Absolutely....If you look at the Saucer/Hole opposite Peyton's Bay on the island side it is 5-6' deep behind the shacks. You just need a map to know where you are. Great place to drift in the heat of the day. With the wind blowing like it has been there is a lot of sand in the water....if you go charging out to the east willy nilly you can get stuck very quickly as depth is hard to determine.

If you are thinking about sleeping on the spoil banks...make sure you have long pants and shirts as well as some sort or repellant.

The good news is you won't see the oyster reefs like you have around Port A or the rocks around Baffin.

Sunchaser, where do you get a Top Spot Map or Hook N. Line Map?

Are there any other maps I could get in Dallas before I go down there?

Academy or WalMart

sunchaser,

I see you are coming around to my way of thinking.

quote:

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Port Mansfield & SPI are only about 35 miles apart and Arroyo City is the only place in between.

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http://www.texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?forum_id=34&topic_id=645879

[This message has been edited by cmg2004 (edited 7/10/2008 2:50p).]

Equipment advice for the above mentioned trip:

Reels:

Curado 200 - one

Castaic 200 SF - 2 of them

I will need (want) to buy 1 new rod, to work for the Castaic's and the Curado. Recomended rods for these?

For the trip described above and the reels I am bringing, what kind of line would you recomend I use this week? (I know there is a fishing line thread today, but fishing line should be related to what kind of reel you use, where you fish and what your fishing for.)

As always, thanks in advance

cmg....I made a mistake. I was thinking airboat miles. I cut thru Peyton's Bay and come out of the last gut near Woody's...then go thru the real skinny water east of Three Island's....saves about 3.85 miles.

aggie...I would use line I could cast. I never go above #8 which is probably on the light side. I would think 12-14 would be more than ample. I would suggest a fluorcarbon shock leader. I rarely see maps up in the DFW area but I would think nearly any fishing store on the coast would have them. Probably not in Port M. You will want "Lower Laguna Madre...Baffin Bay...Port Mansfield...Port Isabel."

Sorry I missed it earlier...I was fishing.



[This message has been edited by sunchaser (edited 7/16/2008 5:36p).]

Camping out down there is a great idea--even mosquitoes need to eat.

sunchaser- Bass Pro in Grapevine had a lower laguna madre - hook-n-line map - I got the last one

Have decided against the camping on this trip, great idea when it's not 100 degrees....