Want to make the 3 hour drive this summer to take the 9 year old fishing on the coast this summer.

Please let me know your favorite spots and fishing setups (baits/rigs/etc...)

Hang out at the jetties all day? Packery, corpus jetty?

You both will be miserable fishing at any of those locations all day during the summer.

This time of year you're better off fishing lighted piers at night.

As long as the waves aren't too demanding, another option will be to wade fish the surf. Again, you'd be hard pressed to do that all day.

Like the lighted pier off the bridge in the bay?

Bob Hall
Fresh dead shrimp on a double drop rig with a pyramid weight.

Eagle Claw Double Drop Blue Wire Leaders 10-pack

There are many from Rockport to Flour Bluff. Some are free, others are pay.

https://www.caller.com/story/sports/outdoors/2018/03/02/texas-best-fishing-spots-corpus-christi-beach-and-pier-fishing-spots/372453002/

Here's another

https://www.caller.com/story/sports/outdoors/2018/03/16/top-spots-pier-fishing-corpus-christi-aransas-pass-rockport-where-bank-fish-no-boat-fishing/420676002/

I would take him to the Station Street pier. It was totally rebuilt after Hurricane Harvey. It is very nice, lighted and has been popular since it opened.

I would suggest wade fishing in the surf at Port A. Others will maybe disagree, but squid rings on a red circle hook and a 1/4 oz egg weight work fantastic in August for whiting. Just be careful of the surf depth/undertow and use whatever you consider a disposable reel and you can have a lot of fun. My son and a bunch of his friends and the dads all did this when my son turned 10. You can catch a lot of whiting if you hit them right, my son caught over 20 on consecutive casts using the same piece of squid. We've caught a lot of different things in the surf besides whiting, like redfish, trout, skipjacks, the occasional hardhead, and even once caught a little tarpon.

Mustang Island State Park jetty. Usually not too crowded cause you have to pay the park entrance fee.

You can come from the north side of fish pass and not pay the state park fee

Bobhall pier is no more, there's no pier.

Beach fishing is all dependent on conditions and usually tough without the right equipment. You can catch hardheads and whiting all day long with spider weights and fish bites. I'd try a pier on the bay side

Back side of port a has a new pier on port street to fishing the ICW. Also fished the flats area behind the ferry landing as well and the concrete walls on port st. Easy access.

Before the old pier was blown away, the locals would free line shrimp next to the pilings for mangrove snapper.

Packery Jetty north AT DAWN is a reasonable choice. Leave by 9 am

Here is the surf fishing bible:
https://texags.com/forums/34/topics/2857318
Might need a 4x4 to be able to do it right and move until you find a bite. Without 4x4 I couldn't even get onto PINS first weekend of June and every other beach I checked was too crowded to fish very well, ended up in a small opening off access rd 3. I didn't try Mustang Island SP, need to next time. Probably doable if you are just going to fish early and leave/switch to beaching when the crowds show up though, I was on my kayak for the morning fish.

I mostly Kayak fish and dabble in some surf fishing, but if a bit of shallow wading is acceptable, I normally see people fishing near the launch points. Bird Island Basin (NW of the small parking lot loop, not the campground), Kates Hole/Corpus Pass Launch Point, north side of Fish Pass **, Wilsons Cut. There is also the JFK Causeway access road between Red Dot and Snoopys, I've never actually fished there but man the water looked good the last time I drove through.
** This "road" in particular can get real hairy with rain or high tides. If you are going on any of these roads though, be aware of the time and strength of the tides. Current google satellite looks like it was taken at a low tide, for example the last time I was at Wilsons Cut the channel where the boat ramp pin is was 3' deep.

As for methods, my favorite is a weedless spoon in the < 3' flats. Also, toss a Carolina rig with a hunk of fresh cut mullet into a sandy spot in some grass. Don't soak the mullet before you cast it out, you want all those oils on there to attract the fish. A paddle tail shad or trout assassin at a drop off, anything under a popping cork would probably work here as well.

Other than that, I will say that if you do end up pier fishing get a hand full of two ring crab nets at Academy and some chicken necks from HEB.

I assume you are talking about the pier at Charley's Pasture. It is not totally completed. People have been walking past the closed signs so they are now issuing no mercy fines.

People did the same thing on the Station Street pier. It had a 6' tall chain link fence across Station street. They would squeeze kids thru the gaps at the corners....get coolers and tents over the top. About the time they started setting up onto the pier the police would show up.

Surf is a mess right now with a cold water upwelling - cold chocolate milk.

Surf fishing has been off for about three weeks. Hopefully that will change soon. I'd consider trying to find a guide for a half day trip. Land cut has been great but it's a boat ride.

Galveston beach cams.