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Accessing the intracoastal from Sea Isle?

1,216 Views | 11 Replies | Last: 1 yr ago by JSKolache
Teslag
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AG
I will be staying a house in Sea Isle on Galveston Island over new years and will have my boat with me. It's a 20' blue wave pure bay was hoping to run from Sea Isle to the intracoastal but don't know the area. I've heard horror stories of west bay and would simply just cross the damn thing safely. I have a garmin echo map with the latest chart update subscription for the area but not sure how accurate those are.
bloom
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If you are on Facebook, join one of the Sea Isle neighborhood groups. They are private, but if you can show you have an address there, even a rental, they will let you join. Some of the fishermen on there will definitely help you out.
trip98
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or you could go to troutsupport.com and buy his reef recon map. Dude spent countless hours mapping all of galveston bay and marked the reefs.
west bay isn't that bad. if you get near the pass it can be b/c the sand bars move a lot due to current.
Aggieangler93
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trip98 said:

or you could go to troutsupport.com and buy his reef recon map. Dude spent countless hours mapping all of galveston bay and marked the reefs.
west bay isn't that bad. if you get near the pass it can be b/c the sand bars move a lot due to current.
I second this. High quality product put out by Troutsupport. But you will have to have a GPS platform that is supported.
Class of '93 - proud Dad of a '22 grad and a '26 student!
schmellba99
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Assuming you are running one of the dredge cuts out of Sea Isle, it's a straight shot across the bay to the ICW. That part of the bay doesn't have much in terms of reefs and the depth ranges from 4' to 8'.

Your boat drafts - what, 10", 12" and planes probably at 6"?

There are some reefs west of Alligator Point at Chocolate that are above the waterline, but that's about it in that area. Your Garmin maps will be plenty good. Start going east towards the Causeway and there are a lot more reefs and islands to navigate. But West Bay proper is clear and runs about 6' depth on average.

https://usa.fishermap.org/depth-map/galveston-bay-texas/
K_P
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Download google earth pro (free version) to a destkop

Use the "scroll back in time" feature to look at the big cold front last year when all the water was pushed out of the bay
Charismatic Megafauna
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AG
Yeah the troutsupport data is well worth it but my dad has that same boat (pure bay 2000) and we run from sea isle across to the icw all the time. Most of what you have to worry about is on the sea isle side (geotubes, etc) but the channel out of sea isle will dump you well beyond any of that. Then just run straight across, tending a little west then as you get close to the spoil islands and see the channel markers on the bay side is where you need to be cautious because there are spoil piles on the bay side of that channel. Follow someone through if you can, i don't think there are any pvc markers for low points, but if the tide isn't real low you should be fine. Then once you're in the channel you're home free, run west to the cut over into the icw
alittleright
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Yes it is pretty easy to do. First make sure you get a key to the marina if you are renting the house. There is only a private boat ramp that requires a key. When you head out of sea Isle go across the bay. It's a little to the north but there are markers there for the channel that runs from the ICW to West Bay. Depending on where you want to go in the ICW there is a marked entrance down by chocolate bayou or there is channel up at greens cut.
alittleright
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schmellba99 said:

Assuming you are running one of the dredge cuts out of Sea Isle, it's a straight shot across the bay to the ICW. That part of the bay doesn't have much in terms of reefs and the depth ranges from 4' to 8'.

Your boat drafts - what, 10", 12" and planes probably at 6"?

There are some reefs west of Alligator Point at Chocolate that are above the waterline, but that's about it in that area. Your Garmin maps will be plenty good. Start going east towards the Causeway and there are a lot more reefs and islands to navigate. But West Bay proper is clear and runs about 6' depth on average.

https://usa.fishermap.org/depth-map/galveston-bay-texas/
Agreed however it gets pretty shallow near both north and south shorelines. Also if you are planning to go down near SLP either go slow or follow a boat with similar draft.. The Garmin map is fairly accurate unless its really low tide.
Maybe Next Year
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Everyone pretty much covered it. I did it this summer in a similar boat. Channel had 3ft of water, and dumps you out into 6'-8'. ICW is directly across.
TarponChaser
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From Sea Isle to the ICW, once you get out of the canals just bear N/NW at maybe 290-300 degrees and there is nothing S/SW of the pin I dropped here at Alligator Point and getting into the ICW.

https://goo.gl/maps/awX65L641imYcqEHA
JSKolache
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If you have a beer or three at the West End Marina bar, you'll bee there all night, never leave. That place is old school glorious.
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