My dad and I are looking to head down to the Port Aransas area to do some fishing. We had a good friend who was an offshore guide that we fished with for years, but passed away about 3 years ago and haven't been since.

Does anyone have any recommendations? We have our own gear, but are fine with someone who wants us to use theirs. It will just be the two of us (or possibly 1 or 2 more people if we need more people to split the cost).

We don't want to spend a ton of money and really don't have any idea how much offshore runs are going for anymore (I think 3 years ago we paid $250 a person?).

TIA

A six hours offshore trip for four is going to be from $1000 to 1500 or so......all day bay is going to be $500 or so for two.

it sounds like the pricing has changed much then...b/c we did a 6 hour with 5 people and it was $250 each(confirmed with my dad)

that being said....

any recommendations on guides?


[This message has been edited by rdag04 (edited 7/29/2008 9:30a).]

Offshore fishing is so seasonal it is a crapshot as far as guides and equipment. I would hate to recommend as I have no first hand knowledge with any of them.

This might be a place to start...I have had guest fish with El Gato(Butch Findley) and that worked out fine but it was bay fishing...he does both.

http://www.portaransas.org/Flash.asp

keep in mind that NOAA just reduced the 2008 snapper season to August 5th. That means you are going to spend a bunch of money and you wont be able to target snapper which is often the most sought after food fish on offshore trips.

I might really consider a bay trip if you only have a couple of people to go. Hell, for the cost of offshore trips now, you could do a saturday and a sunday half day bay trip.

I didn't know about August 5th being the end of season!

I'll let my dad know...we enjoy trolling for the big fish but we always count on the snapper to limit out on those trips.

maybe we will do the bay trip

[This message has been edited by rdag04 (edited 7/29/2008 3:44p).]

I'm going offshore out of Port Aransas tomorrow (Thursday). I didn't set the trip up, so right now I don't know the name of the boat/charter. When I get back I'll give a report. Maybe that will help you out.

thanks Ag65

Try highbidcharters.com. Booked them a couple of years ago and did real well.

This guy looks professional:

Fourteen of us are going out with Deep Sea Charters on the 70 foot Pelican tomorrow (Thursday) morning. We're supposed to be at the dock in Port Aransas before 5:15 a.m.

I don't have a digital camera with me, so all I'll be able to give when I return is a written report. Hopefully, it will be a positive one.

The guy who set the trip up drove to Port Aransas yesterday afternoon to see what the boats were bringing in. He said the boats that went out on the 10 hour trips caught plenty of fish. The boats that went on the shorter trips, 5 hours I'm guessing, caught fish but not as many in proportion to the longer trips. He said the people he talked to at the docks said that had been the trend since the hurricane last week.

This report is a combination of personal observation and word of mouth, so take it for what it's worth.

Get one of those $8 disposable cameras. Then any place that develops film can put the pics on a CD and you can share them here.

Not having a digital camera is no excuse, young man.

I'm going to be in a time crunch when we get back tomorrow evening because I have a class from TAMU that meets at 6:00 online. I'm then flying out on Friday morning, getting in the car with the family after I drive home, and then driving to Lubbock to a wedding. On Saturday, we're driving from Lubbock to Ruidoso for a week of vacation. So, I won't have time to get pictures developed for your viewing pleasure.

You'll just have to take my word on the fish report.

You are aware of the strict "Pics or STFU" policy around here, right?

14 guys and not one has a friggin' digital camera?!?!?! wtf??!?

Gueldner is a good guide out of Port Aransas.

Yes, digital cameras were there when we returned to the dock, but I had to haul butt back to Corpus Christi so I could attend an online class from TAMU, so I didn't get any of the photos. The staff at Deep Sea Headquarters took pictures of our catch, so I'm assuming they will post them on their web site. The trip was today, July 31, and we were on the Pelican. When I get the pictures from my friends who took them, I will post them.

Here's the report:

We limited out on red snapper in about 45 minutes. We made four drifts by an oil well/platform and were done with the snappers for the day. They were all big nice fish, but no real sows/monsters.

We caught a bunch of vermillion snapper. It was nice to add these fish to the ice chests, but it was kind of like catching crappie using a pool cue for a rod.

We caught one nice amberjack, two bar jack (I think that's what they called them), three Atlantic sharp nosed shark, one big black tip shark, spanish mackerel, kingfish/mackerel, one ling that was too small to keep, and another black tipped shark that was 6 ft. plus, late in the day. The deck hand and captain told the guy who caught the biggest shark we couldn't keep him because each boat was only allowed to keep one big shark. This was a boat full of West Texas boys, so we didn't know if they were speaking the truth or not.

All in all it was a fun trip, but the going was pretty rough on the way out. The only drawback I saw was we didn't really get into the kingfish like I had in the past out of Port Aransas. On my previous trips though I was in a smaller more agile boat, and we would get right up by the shrimp boats while they were culling their catch, and the king and shark fishing was outstanding. We didn't even drift by a shrimp boat until late in the afternoon, and all of the crew was asleep and we got zero bites.

I would recommend using one of the bigger boats out of Deep Sea Headquarters if you have a large group that wanted to go out for a retreat or bachelor party.