When I planned this trip with my buddies, it was dreamed from power boat runs from S. Padre 20 years ago. It was a totally successful trip, but more of a paddling adventure than kayak fishing adventure. One thing I knew that would work, and did.
Our fishing shack had a great lighted dock, fish cleaning board and sink - dock fishing was the highlight of this trip.

The shack itself was a couple of trailers with an enclosed dog-run, a huge enclosed deck, and that great fishing dock. Bring your own kitchen stuff, towels. Good beds and bedding were the only thing provided, and lots of room for staging and laying out gear. Don't bring your wife or mother here, but this is an absolutely perfect fishing shack. Of course, it's a 5-hour drive from SA, we loaded our stores at the Raymondville HEB, and our arriving meal of grilled brats and spinach salad hit the spot.

For several days' enjoyment, our score was miles of paddling, countless tourist trout, 15 keeper trout, and one keeper snook. I'll admit I took all but 3 of the keeper trout, mostly because I stuck with it - I was the guy who automatically got up at 430 am to fish the hour before first light. If it helps, every trout we filleted was a male, without killing a single female.

First night we went to work with live shrimp fished below a Mansfield mauler - no weight, 4' leader, 1/0 Kahle hook. The prevailing S wind let us chunk this light rig to the edge of the light. We were good guys, we released countless 14-1/2" specs, and I'm not accusing, but most people fishing for meat would put them on the stringer. With 4 absolutely legal fish from the stringer to fillets, my buddies were already happy with the trip at the end of the first evening - we had a meal floating in ice. I was fishing my 7'9" Japanese XUL salt rod with 3-lb test, so every fish was a blast, regardless of size.

I got up in the dark the next morning with a stinky pink Trout Support lure on a bay rod, and had a ball until first light. One buddy wasn't far behind me, chunking chicken on a chain, and between us, we took every nursery trout on the arroyo for a walk. Tobin deserves a lot of cudos for this lure. It's fun to fish, just about any retrieve draws action, and if there's a fish anywhere around when your cast hits the water, they will impale themselves on it. The next day on Rattlesnake Bay, I would miss my trout of the trip - she grabbed the lure as soon as it hit the water, charged hard and even turned, but I never quite got the hook set. Started the first morning with a good meal - my famous salmon omelettes, with the pre-flaked Nova salmon, and Mateo's Hatch salsa.

OK, Rattlesnake Bay- SSE wind, 15 kts - certainly the place to be for that wind and an all-day rising tide. The 1.4 mi paddle from the county park to the Intercoastal is a greater distance than you remember. An adventure going out, a chore coming home, even with a sailing wind. This seagull stole the heron's mullet, and the fight was pretty cool.

There is no wading in Rattlesnake Bay - the bottom everywhere is quicksand. I really expected to find redfish here, and even more surprising because each of us saw a dozen stingrays.

Each of us caught tourist trout (13-14"), I missed my big sow of the trip, and Steve drifted over a 30" trout. The water here was too skinny for his mirage drive, so he had to revert to paddle.



My 16' Tarpon, and our last breather on Horse Island before the long paddle home.

We called it right, leaving the flat at 3pm - we just beat sundown loading the boats. We arrived dead-dog tired, but it felt really good to stand up, even if that meant loading boats.

We would be too tired to cook our fillets, and left them floating in ice water (they just get better left in ice water for several days, anyway - washes out all the blood and bile).
So we hit Chili Willies in Arroyo City for burgers. This place is great, not just great burgers, but epic onion rings that compare to Hut's in Austin.
I suspect their fried fish would also be completely free of grease.
We bought another pint of shrimp in town and didn't quite fish through it - my buddies petered out just as the schoolie specs were coming to explore our light. Each Lou and Steve put a trout on the stringer and went to bed. Lou caught a fine, meaty 17" trout on the UL Penn I loaned him. I stuck with a bone diamond Trout Support, had great fun, and ended up with a few more to fillet before racking out.

Next morning - yes, I got up and caught some fish - it was time to regroup. The front was coming stronger than the early predictions, so our original plan to fish the east wind to Green Island would be a mistake. Over Steve's great eggs migas breakfast, we had to pick a place for easy paddle into the light north wind before the big blow would hit at 2pm. We chose to drive our kayaks to the S. Padre convention center
(and knew we could have a following feast at S. Padre Brewing Co.)
Low tide on the rise, and threat of rain, which never got us.

We paddled to the flat north of the boat channel, got out to wade and, no surprise, caught tourist trout. I did put a fly rod together, but when Steve called out chicken on a chain was getting a bite every few seconds, I put it down for the bait rod.

The weather was looking good, the N wind picking up, so we paddled a bit farther up the island, and set our drift socks to hit the point just above our launch at the Bay Access. It was beautiful.

Truly beautiful.


And yes, more tourist trout - again Tobin's chicken on a chain is a perfect dog-walking lure on the shallow grass.

Heading back in, Steve was happy to pedal his Mirage drive.

The feast at S. Padre Brewing Co. met our expectation, and we arrived back in Arroyo City in light rain, big blow, and feeling really good.
Later that evening, between cold-fishing stretches, we sauteed a few of our fillets for truly great fish tacos with fresh chopped pico de gallo and avocados.

Fishing the light bait rig into the beating N wind would be out of the question, so we picked up some spec rigs to compliment our Trout Support lures, and fished our big bay rods. The rain would end, but the cold blow remained. We donned our weather layers, and alternated short stretches chunking lures, and sipping rum in the enclosed deck. Alternating lures, too, so we kept presenting something different to the hoards of fish drawn to our light.
The Trout Support lure would cast Into the teeth of the 20-25 kt N wind and still reach the edge of the light, and we could get half that far with a spec rig. Something else to mention about Tobin's lure. You can squeeze a little Procure shrimp gel into the hook slot - if you were being eaten by a spec, what would you do? - yes, exactly that.

In the cold air and highly oxygenated water, any size spec belies its size, putting a great bend in the bay rods.

Yes, I loved this, too, and for my buddies, the highlight of the trip was watching me catch a double on the spec rig - a tourist trout in front, and a just-slot-limit snook in the rear. Not a great fish photo, but a great fish and yes, I'm happy as a kid.
I put on my paddling gloves to fillet it. It was tender to fillet, and got two beautiful pieces of meat.


My highlight of the trip was getting up the last morning, while my buddies slept in. I woke up to schoolies under our light. Again, it was a blast to fish Trout Support bone diamond on a weighted swimbait hook under the light. My favorite retrieve was a crawling pump, feeling the smaller trout trying to eat it a half-dozen bites before the lure reached my view at the dock. Then at the dock, 4 or 5 schoolies would make their arcing shot at the lure right under my view. Yeah, the 20" got off, along with several classmates, but I filleted the last two nice fish of the trip.

Maybe not the best kayak destination, but I can recommend an Arroyo cabin for a great landing and excellent dock fishing at night. Other short drive options to launch a kayak from here would be either Port Mansfield or South Bay. We could have caught a lot more fish if we had stayed up all night and waited for the schoolies to swing by. Nary a complaint, because we had a grand time. I took home a meal for my folks, and each of my buddies took home a meal to their wives, who will then let them out again next time.

For every trout we put on the stringer, we caught and released 20, and a great outing with great friends.

The last morning we had coffee and packed out, and headed toward San Benito looking for a tacqueria. If you're driving in S. Texas and see a tacqueria with many cars, don't pass it - that's where you want to eat. Ours was Blue Marlin restaurant in San Benito, where we had a fine breakfast, and later on the drive caught our favorite meat sandwich at Van's BBQ in Oakville.

Awesome trip and write up, didn't want it to end, thanks for sharing!

Looks like good eating and a great trip. Nicely written

learned that from my Rockport guide buddy Tim, whom I taught to fly fish, and he taught Steve and I so much more.
When I was working contract in the 90s, and he didn't have a fare but called with a report on the day's fish he found, I'd be with him in his boat the next day. He could run a shallow water skiff across the big bay and into the skinniest water on the barrier island lakes like no one else I have ever seen - weather, blow, tide - none of it mattered. He also knew 100 sq mi of water, every possible route and cut for those tough conditions.
His ice chest in the garage was always ice water, and always had fillets floating - he never touched them before the 3rd day.
Tim took out Phil Shook frequently, and from his articles, there was a photo of Tim poling his Majek with Phil making a crouching cast on the bow pulpit that made articles in FR&R (Apr '94) and Texas Parks & Wildlife. Also my buddy Steve and his Aquaterra Kahuna was the first published photo of salt water kayak fishing in the same articles.

As far as lower Laguna Madre from S. Padre to the Arroyo, in the 80s and 90s, my folks would rent properties (with boat slip) at S. Padre for the month of Oct or Nov and haul my dad's bay boat from their retirement home in Tennessee for the month. Any time I was on deck, I was captain. Steve and Tim each made runs with me to S. Padre.
Funny, now my folks are back in Texas, the boat hasn't been wet in years. But my dad is also 88 now - for all those S. Padre trips, he was my current decade.
(this was his last-weekend-September birthday trip to Estes about 10 years ago with Steve, Whit, Ewell and me, launching kayaks at Allyn's lake on San Jose Is.).


Then there's my buddy Whit, who can take the freshest spec fillets (or smacks), sun cook them in fresh-squeezed lime juice, and turn them into the best ceviche you ever tried.

here's his recipe


Thanks again, friends.

thanks again guys - it was a great trip and adventure

You'll be hearing more from this trio in the spring - closer to home, Aransas Pass and Estes.
This was Lou's first TX coast fishing, first kayak paddling, though he's a former yankee now naturalized with a lifetime of canoeing and outdoor adventures. He's so naturalized, he's fluent in Spanish, which bought us a lot of grace in (far) S. Texas. (to put this in perspective, we live in s. Texas, but this is 5 hours farther south)
Lou's also a natural fisherman, which I can relate.
My buddy Steve is boat rich, running out of places to put boats, and recently bought that Hobie. So when we arrived back in town, we loaded Steve's old 14' Emotion Fisherman onto Lou's truck - a gift for Lou to get ready for the spring (and he's hard after it).

Here's the Fisherman on an Aransas trip about 8 or so years ago.

salmon omelets first until the salmon runs out - the omegas are great for both wind and sun




After a couple of days of digging in the tortilla chip bag for chips and salsa to zorb the day's end beer, the bottom of the chip bag is then perfect for migas, along with the leftovers from chopping pico - no waste, no want.

they are, bro.
Specs have canines, and they climb up the back of their prey with their canines to inflict as much damage as they can before eating them.
During the few days, I didn't have a single lure lose its tail, but my buddy had one with the tail bitten off.

The only place we get blues, they come to the platforms offshore. We'll catch them on a fly rod, then use them for cut-bait for the big snapper below