Loading up the new used boat and headed to Port O'Connor to meet my sons in a couple of weeks. New water to me as Rockport is my old stomping ground. Been three years since I've been in the salt and looking forward to it despite the hot weather. Hoping the wind lays down for us and weather cooperates. Son has been making a few trips to Port O'Connor and says we need to try it. Any recommendations on where to wade or drift are appreciated. Also, looking for any recommendations on places to eat or have a cold beer.

That's my home water! Fishing's terrible don't waste your time.

Best meal in town IMO is Josey's - cook your own catch. Take trout or red filets after cleaning, have them cook them for you w onions and peppers. Served w typical Tex mex sides. So good.

I've been going down there fishing and hunting for 25 years. Met an Aggie named John at Academy in Houston when I was buying a new rod and reel with a gift card. I was going to buy a new Ambassador 5500 and Ugly Stick combo since that was what I had grown up fishing with. He saw my ring and stopped and talked me into a green Curado with an All Star PRM combo. Game Changer!!! He invited me to go fishing down in Seadrift in his Majek RFL. Espiritu Santo bay blew me away! You should have seen it back then! So few boats and so many fish. You're going to have to launch crackhead early these days.
John and I have been fishing and hunting buddies ever since we met. Both of us have a knack for catching saltwater fish. We have fished all over: St. Thomas, Everglades, Boca Paila, Cabo, etc and have had so many epic days inshore, offshore, nearshore. Grand Slams! John had a weekend cottage down in Seadrift so we have fished there consistently and often over the years.
John sold the cottage and built a beautiful house down there about five years ago. He drives a Shoalwater cat these days and is on the water a lot, od course. Work and family obligations have kept me close to home lately, but I'll call and ask him. You're going to have to PM me though. BTW, what boat are you driving?

Thanks for the responses...we'll be in a Majek Extreme 20'....one old man and two young bucks.....looking forward to spending time with the boys after a long pause between trips...be there on the 15th through 17th...

Google earth just updated for Port O'Connor area, so you're in luck. Imagery is a couple months old.

It isn't on Gmaps yet, so you have to use earth.google.com or the desktop app.

Lots of shallow areas to look at. I would make sure you're up to date with TowboatUSA or other that services the area.

Unfortunately the freeze a couple years ago killed everything but the hard heads, lady fish, and stingrays. It's a real cesspool down there now.

As far as best meals goes though, go to Marty's Landing/Mama's Kitchen. It's a tackle shop with a kitchen. Best hamburgers/pizza in town. Sharkies is a close second.

On a 2nd edit: I'm kiddin about the fish. If y'all will be soaking bait, just look for where there's guts/channels going from shallower water to deeper. Fish the corners, bends, and where they neck down on a outgoing tide. If you want to get in some big fish, head to the jetties. Look for birds working early in the morning and fish boiling. It will most likely be jacks but pound for pound they're the funnest fish out there.
I haven't been down since spring but I'd imagine the kings are also showing up in the jetties by now. Drift with big live baits or troll with big diving lures.

Couple of places in Port Lavaca that I have enjoyed eating at: Texas Traditions and Los Rios.

I fished with a guide in POC. We tore up the reds and specs out near the jetty. Then he took us to another spot where the tide was running through a small inlet and we absolutely killed it on the sheepshead. Probably the best salt trip of my life. It was my 40 year old nephews first saltwater trip and he got spoiled. He thought they would all be that way.

Did you say sheepshead?

<-- my son with nice flounder from a POC cut on a Norton Bull Minnow

If you like CFS, get the Steak Fingers at Cathy's. Everytime I am in POC, I do. Also, their all you can eat fried shrimp is great. Loco Gringo BBQ has really good cafe breakfast for a rainy Sunday morning.

Word of warning about Josies....if you do the cook what you catch, it takes a while, and also, any bones you miss you will be eating. They don't take time to go through and get them out or anything. No biggie to some, just wanted to let you know.

In Seadrift, get the Enchiladas Al Carbon at La Terrazza mexican food. It is outstanding!

Bubbas in Seadrift can be hit or miss. We have had issues with their buffet from time to time on Sunday and folks getting sick. We have also had lots of great made to order meals there too, so I am not sure what happened.

I also second above recommendation for Texas Traditions in Port Lavaca. They have a variety of about 20 or so fresh baked pies and cakes per day.

Should be fish biting this time of year when you find tide movement in the guts and drains. I haven't been much this year or I could provide better info. POC/Seadrift is my happy place.

Loaded up on goatheads!!! Stack em deep!

TRIDENT said:

---

I've been going down there fishing and hunting for 25 years. Met an Aggie named John at Academy in Houston when I was buying a new rod and reel with a gift card. I was going to buy a new Ambassador 5500 and Ugly Stick combo since that was what I had grown up fishing with. He saw my ring and stopped and talked me into a green Curado with an All Star PRM combo. Game Changer!!! He invited me to go fishing down in Seadrift in his Majek RFL. Espiritu Santo bay blew me away! You should have seen it back then! So few boats and so many fish. You're going to have to launch crackhead early these days.
John and I have been fishing and hunting buddies ever since we met. Both of us have a knack for catching saltwater fish. We have fished all over: St. Thomas, Everglades, Boca Paila, Cabo, etc and have had so many epic days inshore, offshore, nearshore. Grand Slams! John had a weekend cottage down in Seadrift so we have fished there consistently and often over the years.
John sold the cottage and built a beautiful house down there about five years ago. He drives a Shoalwater cat these days and is on the water a lot, od course. Work and family obligations have kept me close to home lately, but I'll call and ask him. You're going to have to PM me though. BTW, what boat are you driving?

---

Is John looking for any more new friends?

I love POC but I do everything in my power to fish there during the week. It's just too damn busy on the weekend and every other slappy with a boat thinks nothing of burning across an 8" deep flat at WOT just because their tunnel-hull boat will run stupid shallow.

There's tons of good water to fish but like Trident said, you've got to get out there early to find fish that haven't been spooked off the flats.

I haven't been down in a couple years though- for y'all who fish there more regularly, has Fish Pond returned to what it was before Harvey? When Harvey blew open Sunday beach all that sand and silt washed into Fish Pond, killed a bunch of grass and turned what was normally an awesome, gin-clear flat into a mudhole.

I didn't fish fishpond much before Harvey, but have been in there 8 or 10 times since. It is gin clear some days and the fishing in there can still be nuts at times. I have really enjoyed wading the pass at Sunday Beach many times when water is moving. Each time a new major storm hits the middle coast, we are anxious to get over there in the pass and see what has changed. We are actually looking at getting a shallower running boat since we love that area so much these days. Lots of great water near there if you can get skinny enough,

Fish pond was great when the J-hook got opened up during Harvey but it's since filled back in and from I'm hearing the fishing isn't as great. The access to the surf really helped the fish numbers, I think. Tricky to get in there now and you better have a boat that will run in 6" of water.

Yeah... I would run the creek from light house cove to Fish Pond these days... For most people, getting in from the Sunday beach side is going to be pretty dicey

Aggieangler93 said:

---

Loaded up on goatheads!!! Stack em deep!

---

1. Red Snapper
2. Sheepshead



3.All the others.


Guys spend all day chasin Reds and Trout around when the best eating of em all is scrapping barnacles off a rock somewhere.

Caliber said:

---

Yeah... I would run the creek from light house cove to Fish Pond these days... For most people, getting in from the Sunday beach side is going to be pretty dicey

---

Yea I usually go through the 2nd oilfield cut on a good high tide.

Caliber said:

---

Yeah... I would run the creek from light house cove to Fish Pond these days... For most people, getting in from the Sunday beach side is going to be pretty dicey

---

Holy crap!

I hadn't seen the recent images or been down there recently but that's way more plugged up at Sunday Beach than I've ever seen it. Pre-Harvey I could get my old Panga Marine 18 that needed a good foot or more to run into Fish Pond and Sunday Beach without issue. Just hug the channel on the J-Hook side because there was a really shallow flat on the west side by Mule Slough and then I could pole around Fish Pond without issue.

Now I've got a tunnel hull Sabine Versatile and can run a lot skinnier than I'm comfortable with I MIGHT be able to get into Fish Pond from the east. Now I'd probably have to come in that bayou from the north off Mule or from the west through Lighthouse.

And now it looks like channel between J-Hook and the stuff to the west is a lot bigger and deeper.

And for the OP-

unless something has changed, if you launch from Charlie's and want to run the cut into the bay- make sure you stick to the W/SW side of the channel. It shoals up really fast to the E/NE side.

Basically, hug your right side going out and your left coming back in.

Without looking at my GPS that's basically how I go. I couldn't draw an exact path with my finger but you get the point.

OP, don't attempt that in your boat though. An extreme wouldn't make it. Just a pic for this conversation.

Maddens!!!!!

The worst thing about POC is that it's not far away enough from Houston.

ETA Pringle, Boggy and wading the mouth of the pass…

On clear calm days in the last year when I was down, we have been able to run into Sunday beach cut from the outside when we could see the cut well. Then once we got in, we could idle the deep water in the middle of the cut and wind our way around into fishpond. We did get out and push off one side we had to nose up onto to spin, since my buddy has a boat with no V. I will agree that it runs in about 6 inches easy. It's an 18 foot shallow sport.

We also used to take a deeper running hull far up into J hook and then hike the flat about a half mile to get to the cut in the past, but that channel was changed drastically with the storm that went into Corpus/Baffin about 2 years ago? I can't recall the name of that one. It's the one that really dumped sand into J Hook. We were fishing there about 2 weeks before it and able to get to within 4 or 500 yards when jacked up and on plane following the deepest part of the J.

Port O'Connor trip follow up: Fished late Friday afternoon after waiting out some weather, all day Saturday and Sunday morning. Fished Sunday Beach all three days, spent time in J-Hook, Lighthouse Cove (I think that is what my son called it), made a run to Powder Horn and a couple of stops in between all of these spots. One thing we did which was an amazing sigh was make the early morning run to the area before the pass to the gulf to look for the schooling jacks and reds. Wow what calf scramble that was...never seen anything like it. Boat on top of boat waiting and chasing. I had to laugh at the scene. One of my sons hooked up and we chased the hooked fish all over the bay. He hooked up on this fish with a medium light action rod with 12 lb mono, What a pursuit we were on in an effort to not get spooled or break it off. Well after maybe 20 minutes if not more, the fish tires and we see color at the boat. Within a few feet of being able to land the fish a shark hits the fish. Good news is the son landed the fish and put the remains of a bull red in the boat.

Other highlights included a 25 inch trout (my personal best), a surprising flounder bite at a spot in the Sunday Beach area, watched a black tip feeding in the Lighthouse area, Numerous undersized reds, several in the slot, a few keeper trout and several undersized. Couple gators, one sunning in Sunday beach and another taking a dip near shore in Powderhorn.

Put in at Froggys everyday, ate at the steakhouse near there and Cathy's . Enjoyed both places. This was my first time at POC and was very thankful that one of my sons has been on this water frequently. Nothing can replace the time with my two sons. They wore me out and each has learned to love the outdoors and respect it. Also while we caught many fish, we cleaned just two fish for my son to take home to enjoy with his family.

Thank you for the recommendations you provided. Clear skies and tight lines to you all.

In laws have a place in POC and my father in law has been going there for 40+ years. He swears the fishing has drastically changed since Harvey. Not only are they not where they used to be, there just aren't as many. He always half jokingly, half seriously says…ain't no fish in POC anymore.

We went last weekend. Started at the big jetties and it was crowded. Stayed for about 30min but didn't get anything so headed out. Plan was to head down to Pringle but about 1/2-3/4 the way there, he lost 95% of his steering. I was legit helping him steer by pushing or pulling on the motor as we idled back up the ICW to his slip by Froggies.

We fished on the ICW that night and got more hard heads than I care to see in a life time, but we needed to get rid of our bait and my kid was wanting to still fish.

On the food side of things, everything mentioned above is good but new place I tried this past weekend was La Loncheria Morenita. Tiny little building next to The Office Bar, across from Cathy's.

Damn good breakfast tacos. For sure will be back.

We Just got back last night, we put 210 miles on my Boston whaler going out of Galveston via Kemah to 125 ft deep water about 75-80 miles out.. loaded up with snapper and a few other fish…. That trip is not for the faint hearted … 12 hours in a boat and it was hot as hell…. I wish POC had a nice dry stack for bigger boats .. unfortunately they don't have these types of facilities .. POC caters to shallow water trout and reds fishing which is usually pretty good … you can fish the jetties for reds and sheepshead

Thought I should share a few photos of two great young men and their successful trip with the old man.

TarponChaser said:

---

I love POC but I do everything in my power to fish there during the week. It's just too damn busy on the weekend and every other slappy with a boat thinks nothing of burning across an 8" deep flat at WOT just because their tunnel-hull boat will run stupid shallow.

There's tons of good water to fish but like Trident said, you've got to get out there early to find fish that haven't been spooked off the flats.

I haven't been down in a couple years though- for y'all who fish there more regularly, has Fish Pond returned to what it was before Harvey? When Harvey blew open Sunday beach all that sand and silt washed into Fish Pond, killed a bunch of grass and turned what was normally an awesome, gin-clear flat into a mudhole.

---

If you haven't fished there in years and you thought it was busy back then, lol. you definitely aren't going to want to see it now.

Regarding fishpond, I'm 99.9% sure you can't access fishpond from the J-hook anymore or from light house cove. you've got to go through mule slough to get in there. Although the last time I was over there was back in February.

MrJonMan said:

---

In laws have a place in POC and my father in law has been going there for 40+ years. He swears the fishing has drastically changed since Harvey. Not only are they not where they used to be, there just aren't as many. He always half jokingly, half seriously says…ain't no fish in POC anymore.

We went last weekend. Started at the big jetties and it was crowded. Stayed for about 30min but didn't get anything so headed out. Plan was to head down to Pringle but about 1/2-3/4 the way there, he lost 95% of his steering. I was legit helping him steer by pushing or pulling on the motor as we idled back up the ICW to his slip by Froggies.

We fished on the ICW that night and got more hard heads than I care to see in a life time, but we needed to get rid of our bait and my kid was wanting to still fish.

On the food side of things, everything mentioned above is good but new place I tried this past weekend was La Loncheria Morenita. Tiny little building next to The Office Bar, across from Cathy's.

Damn good breakfast tacos. For sure will be back.

---

I haven't noticed a change in the fishing or fish since Harvey. It has changed since Covid. Covid had so many boats and people down there, it significantly changed the fish patterns. It's night and day between now and pre-covid.

Wow those are huge! Awesome pics

We ran all the way into J hook as far as we could go. With tides this low, it was about 1/2 mile wade to get to where Sunday cut was 1 year ago. There wasn't a trickle from the surf getting through but some had recently. We then hiked/waded 1/2 mile back into fish pond. No bites but saw tons of stingrays. Saw one guy land a rat red farther towards that back lake behind the cut. Waded 1/2 mile back to boat. I was bummed that area had silted in so much.

The weather held us off most of Friday. I guess we should have gone to big jetties. My buddy would have liked the bull reds there. I usually find em easy enough. Still much better than dealing with a sick relative in hospital, which is what I left and came back to. He's 1 of my favorite fishing partners too.

Starting going to POC as a kid in the 80s - dad bought a house there when I was in high school (mid to late 80s) and me and my friends (some of whom also had houses there) kind of grew up down there. It was a different place and time back then... Many great adventures...some even involved catching fish.

MAS444 said:

---

Starting going to POC as a kid in the 80s - dad bought a house there when I was in high school (mid to late 80s) and me and my friends (some of whom also had houses there) kind of grew up down there. It was a different place and time back then... Many great adventures...some even involved catching fish.

---

Same for me. I think my first trip was likely in 1979. It was definitely a smaller place then. On a rainy morning, there would be a 2 foot thick smoke layer in the ceiling at Strykers Cafe from all the fisherman unable to go out and fish. I am really glad most places nowadays in the US have made ordinances against people smoking where you can eat. One thing I hate about Hurricane Junction today, is that the smokers at the bar don't have some sort of smoke vaccuum system in place above them and it blows all over the food tables.

Oh well, it's still a great place to go. Crowds suck on holidays so I try to avoid those times. Had steak fingers at Cathy's this last weekend and they were off the hook as usual! One of the best waitresses we have ever had down there too. She took care of anything we needed quick-like, with a smile.