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Arroyo dock fishing
Post 07 Nov 2019, 18:46 • #1 
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Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19076
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
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We just got back from 4 days on Arroyo Colorado, we stayed in the Spencer Bell house (where we also stayed last year).
The cooler weather and big wind over Friday and Saturday was a big boon to the dock fishing under the lights, making it easy for everyone who tried to catch a limit.

I'll give you the tallies up front - I caught 4 limits, Lou caught 3 , Susie caught 1 and Dad caught 1.
We strictly stuck to our bag limits for calendar days, and everyone laid off in the evening if they had a limit from the early morning.
We kept a few injured 15-16" trout, but we were shooting for 17" minimum, and everybody's limit stringer included a 20-22" (male) schoolie spec.
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The most productive lure was Tsunami SS3 in blue back, with black back a close second. Got a few fish on Hogy's epoxy jigs, both 3/8 oz and 7/8 ox (which will literally cast halfway across the Arroyo). My dad grazed through everything in his tackle box, and probably got one fish on everything he tried, old-fashioned spec rigs, cocahoe, some curly-tail thing.
The bait shop across the street got one charge of shrimp while we were there, Susie caught her limit on shrimp, and Lou caught about one-quarter of his fish on shrimp.

When the going got tough, dead calm and spooky fish, next to live shrimp, the most productive lure was a spec rig (tandem) tied on 2-inch swim shad, with glow up front, and blue back in back.
Had to vary retrieves to find what make the fish strike, and also fish different depths to find where they were willing to strike.

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We brought home 104 vacuum-sealed fillets, split between 3 households - every single fish I filleted was a male.

The most productive way to fish was sunset to about 9pm, take a nap, and get back up about 2 or 3 am to hit it again. Often arriving to fish the wee hours, would find schoolies so thick under the light, would catch 4 to 5 fish in consecutive casts.

Oddly, we had a very-well secured stringer with five 18"-22" fish stolen from the dock Sunday night, between 9pm and 2am - can't imagine anyone committing a class B misdemeanor over a few fish - I'm pretty sure I know who did it, and that part is even stranger, and included a 2nd class B misdemeanor - another story for another time.
Also brought home 276 MB in photos, so won't give you the whole play by play for the week, but a few choice photos.

This is my stringer, arriving Thursday night and getting up Friday morning (17-21").
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and since you don't see too many photos of me
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Lou arrived Friday afternoon, and called my dad and me in from our only power boat foray to Green Island, where we caught 1 trout between us.
Saturday morning photo with mine and Lou's overnight limits.
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Aside from the glass core of the rockfish rods below, here's the Glass content - the one trout I caught at Green island was on the Lami Classic Glass and venerable Lew's BB-25SW

I filleted every fish, mostly after a good breakfast and before a morning nap.
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Susie flew into Harlingen Saturday - Lou and I weren't fishing Saturday night, and this is Susie's limit
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She caught all these on live shrimp, using the XUL rockfish rod, 4-lb test, and had so much fun, Lou went to the computer and bought her a matching rockfish rod on ebay.
Susie's stringer included this 20" schoolie (the hook grabber is exactly 15")
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My Dad turned 90 this year, and this is his stringer from early Sunday morning.
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Dad looks a little younger than usual in this photo. :hat

one more gratuitous pile of fish photo
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and one more gratuitous sunset
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Re: Arroyo dock fishing
Post 07 Nov 2019, 19:20 • #2 
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Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19076
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
when we originally planned this trip, there were going to be two other fishermen, who found they had priority plans.
The original plan was to take two kayaks both for mothership in the power boat to Rattlesnake Bay, and to fish the Arroyo lights - paddle out into the dark and cast back toward the lights.
Both Sunday and Monday calm evenings would have been great for kayak night fishing.
We had two empty bedrooms.
Couldn't justify hauling the extra boats with everyone coming able to fish off the dock - it also greatly simplified the packing.
Will save this plan for another trip.


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Re: Arroyo dock fishing
Post 07 Nov 2019, 20:48 • #3 
Master Guide
Joined: 04/20/17
Posts: 387
Location: Portland, OR
Thanks BD...I'd spend four days that way...I like the sound of using Susie's UL rig on those fish...love to be on the edge of being outgunned...

Sandman


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Re: Arroyo dock fishing
Post 07 Nov 2019, 21:08 • #4 
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Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19076
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
thanks bro, it's actually the XUL my daughter grew up dock fishing - Susie made it her own this trip, Lou fished it some, and I fished it one more day after they headed for home.
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In fact, I got a double on it (4-lb test) and the SS2 tandem spec rig, which I tied up on 25-lb Seaguar blue label to stand up to spec canines, since they could hook deep on the 2" lures
I netted the first fish, and lifted the 2nd fish on the heavy leader. Both fish were hooked in lip membrane, and came unhooked as soon as they hit the dock.
Unfortunately Tsunami discontinued the 2-inch lures last year, but I found a last closeout stash on ebay and loaded up. (Storm Wildeye shad is still available in 2", at twice the price)
That diminutive Tica Cetus SS500 is on its 10th year in the salt.

Lou found a 7'6" rockfish rod with identical specs to my Takamiya, made by Major Craft (good tackle) and sold on ebay from Japan.
The XUL rockfish rods will throw 0.4 g (1/64th oz) and protect 2-lb test.
He's going to match it for Susie with a Stradic FL1000, and she'll be set - they're planning to come back this winter and invite me.

You always have to fish specs light, because their mouth membrane tears out easy - they call them weakfish in the NE for this reason.

The dock fishing is not entirely fish in a barrel - it's only that way for short periods of time when everything is going just right for you - schoolies in close, aggressive feeding behavior, and wind to provide stealth cover for you.
It can be frustrating to see a hundred specs in the light slowly nipping bait and refusing everything and every-how you offer it - my dad spent a couple of days that way, at first wanting the fish to feed on his schedule - no, you have to fish on theirs (next morning he got up at 2:30a and limited).

As soon as you figure out their feeding pattern and begin getting strikes, they change it.
It's also harder to catch the smaller nursery trout that live under than lights than the larger traveling schoolies that move through the lights - seems like a paradox until you spend some time on the dock watching the fish sign.
There's no surer way to put them down (send them to the next light) than to cast constantly - a chair on the dock, a cigar, and flask of rum while pondering the fish sign and catching up on conversation with the guy or girl in the next chair, hugely improves success and catch rate - stand up and cast only when the sign is right.

At one specific time, I told Lou exactly what worked (then), countdown 6 seconds, medium retrieve, uneven rod snaps. Next cast, he caught a 20" trout. See?
Susie was a quick learner - she had never used a spinning reel before. I told her it was easier for women to learn to fish, because they treat fishing like music, while men more often treat it like aggression.
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Last edited by bulldog1935 on 13 Nov 2019, 10:32, edited 4 times in total.

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Re: Arroyo dock fishing
Post 07 Nov 2019, 21:17 • #5 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/12/16
Posts: 4093
Location: USA-CO
Great outing! Those are some very nice Specs, and fillets too. So special to share it with friends and your dad.


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Re: Arroyo dock fishing
Post 08 Nov 2019, 08:09 • #6 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 11/09/10
Posts: 1355
Location: US-CA
Outstanding,Ron!
Incidentally, you're better lookin' in person than in that first photo. :)


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Re: Arroyo dock fishing
Post 08 Nov 2019, 11:51 • #7 
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Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19076
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
I was squinting in the sun and had been up most of the night (not really, but I was dreading filleting a dozen fish)
ok, use your mental photoshop to substitute this guy
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Re: Arroyo dock fishing
Post 09 Nov 2019, 06:37 • #8 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 11/09/10
Posts: 1355
Location: US-CA
and Time marches on......


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Re: Arroyo dock fishing
Post 11 Nov 2019, 09:14 • #9 
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Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19076
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
had some awesome spec tacos last night - should have taken a photo of those :hat
My buddy Lou vacuum-sealed the small fillets just for me and tacos.

After the every-Sunday-morning bicycle sprint (I was first to the Alamodome after 7 fast miles in a tight lead group - everyone much younger than me) - oh yeah, stopped in Walmart for cat food. Decided to check produce for taco sundries, hot pico, limes, corn tortillas - they had a "Southwest" cabbage blend, which I found is perfect for fish tacos.

This is the freezer in the Arroyo house - Lou has my fillets segregated
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Re: Arroyo dock fishing
Post 13 Nov 2019, 08:57 • #10 
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Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19076
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
FFR thread didn't generate the interest questions and long discussion it did on TKF - and of course, that audience is closer to home, but a few more thoughts and photos to round it out.
First off, Arroyo City is the best rental buy on the TX coast, if not any coast. This place fishes well all winter, and in the off season, the rent is only $220/night - this is also when the far S. Texas weather is temperate - Nov-Mar.
Normally, the best snook fishing in Texas, but we came down with a significant cold front that put them down, but at the same time turned on the schoolie trout.
The tropical sun recovers quickly when fronts do push this far south - on the same latitude as Key West.
https://www.vrbo.com/499621?_branch_mat ... 8256099185
Exactly the kind of luxury to take women, and has beds for a crowd.
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there are 2 master bedrooms downstairs, the loft bedroom on the left has 3 beds, and upstairs behind me are a half-bath and 2 more bedrooms with 5 beds.

Brought the cat this trip, and gave her the fin strips from the fillets - kitty sushi
This is when she finally understood the purpose of dragging her away from her cozy home and hauling her in the truck for 5 hours.
She took over the loft bedroom at the back of the house, mostly sat on that window sill to watch the birds, and defended the stairs when anyone tried to climb into her bedroom.
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A few more views outside
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With the night-time fishing priority, while we could have made powerboat runs into Lower Laguna Madre, we were catching so many fish, it was easier during the day to cook a big meal, siesta, and tune tackle.
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Some things to keep in mind about Arroyo City. The nearest gas and groceries is Rio Hondo, a dozen miles away.
There is one very good restaurant, Chili Willies, with epic hamburgers, onion rings that copy Huts in Austin (these onion rings are a food group), and great fried fish.
We traveled once into San Benito for exceptional Mexican seafood at Blue Marlin.
There's famous Tex-Mex and BBQ in Harlingen.
A great brunch stop on the drive home is Pepe's Patio in Riviera and, of course Van's BBQ on the leg from Corpus to SA.

Compared to a trip to Corpus/ Port Aransas/ North Padre Island, this is all pretty remote, and counts as getting far away with a fishing priority.
Easy day trips are Port Mansfield to S. Padre, and on to Progresso or Reynosa if you want to visit a Mexico border town.
You can get some great guides, and a fly fishing guide I can strongly recommend is Capt. Eric Glass in Port Isabel (S. Padre).
I've mentioned before, next door south is Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge - all the roads are closed to vehicles because of the 23 ocelots that live there, but it's a great place to bicycle.
Spencer Bell essentially founded Arroyo City, and at the time he built this house, had a small lodge cabin on Green Island with excellent wading off the beach to sight-fish redfish - I think the Arroyo boat traffic finally outgrew him, and he's now in Colorado.
Next door to this house is the ferry to Dos Rios Rod & Gun Club - their lodge is the only buildings on the far side of the Arroyo. - they offer great duck hunting and exotic game.
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Last edited by bulldog1935 on 14 Nov 2019, 09:11, edited 4 times in total.

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Re: Arroyo dock fishing
Post 13 Nov 2019, 09:10 • #11 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/12/16
Posts: 4093
Location: USA-CO
Good company, good fishing, good eating, and good gear -- and a can of Rem-Oil -- all make for a great trip. Your reports bring back memories of Gulf fishing in the '60s and '70s. I am wondering about the dominance of 'Specs' in your catch. As I remember, we would catch Specs, Spanish Mackerel, Flounder, Redfish, etc. all on the same outing. Is it a matter of fish-specific lure, fly, and technique selection, dominance of Specs in that water, or something else?

Looked up Arroyo City map and see some long, rectangular, seemingly man-dug waters. Are those fresh-water reservoirs for the town?

Oh yes, you tease us with reports of killer burgers, fried fish, Mexican seafood, and Texas BBQ. As I sit here with a pot of coffee already down and a ravenous appetite, I crave more food photos to really put me over the edge!

Thanks again for a great report.


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Re: Arroyo dock fishing
Post 13 Nov 2019, 09:57 • #12 
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Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19076
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
10,000 years ago, Arroyo Colorado was the main channel of the Rio Grande - that main channel has moved 17 mi south. The natural Arroyo meanders from Mission City - they dredged a barge channel to Port Harlingen. The delta with the natural arroyo diverges from the ship channel right across from the house where we stayed, and the two meet again on opposite ends of Peyton Bay. One goal I haven't made yet is to kayak that leg - there are also great oxbows along the dredged channel.
Tomah, I'm guessing what you see on the map are impoundments on the arroyo, which there are quite a few - or possibly the barge basin and freight docks?

We never had an incoming tide strong enough to counter the freshwater outgoing flow, though I've seen it before, and last year hooked up a 30" snook when that was going on.
Smacks don't come up Lower Laguna Madre - the South Padre Jetties and Brazos Santiago Pass are hot for them, especially right now, also kings and tarpon (those day trips I was talking about).
My buddy Jim was in South Padre a few days before us and caught a baby tarpon.

I did get an 18" red prospecting the Arroyo a little deeper with a longer countdown, and caught a surprising number of croaker on the 2" Hogy's epoxy jig.
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We also got some massive ladyfish.
But we caught exactly what we were here for - a mess of specs.

Susie also cooked us a Perfect southern-fried meal of fillets from the ice-water bowl.
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as far as flounder, if we had been motivated for more power boat runs to LLM, would have caught them, and they'll be up the arroyo in force next month, along with black drum.
Sheepshead are also pretty common along the ICW, and they're a hoot on the flats because they want the deep water and run like a UPS truck.
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about that far-south Texas BBQ - they're famous for beef ribs, which of course includes the ribeye.

Day trips - from a boy's only trip 3 years ago, a day-trip to launch kayaks at the South Padre Convention Center - you can see the grass line in the water.
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and this shot of Green island from last year
We didn't have the prevailing SE this trip - constant NE, which complicates the power boat fishing, and we didn't need it.
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Last edited by bulldog1935 on 13 Nov 2019, 12:48, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Arroyo dock fishing
Post 13 Nov 2019, 09:58 • #13 
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Joined: 02/12/16
Posts: 4093
Location: USA-CO
Quote:
Tomah, I'm guessing what you see on the map are impoundments on the arroyo.


I think so. Looking closely, they're connected to the Arroyo and to each other by some very narrow channels for inlet, distribution, and outflow. Thanks for the explanation on those and the fishing.


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Re: Arroyo dock fishing
Post 13 Nov 2019, 13:02 • #14 
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Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19076
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
if you have an RV, could have a blast moving around down there in fall and winter. There's an RV park right on the South Padre Jetties and Brazos Santiago Pass - get up and catch a tarpon after breakfast.
Tomae County Park on the Arroyo has two great lighted fishing piers, excellent facilities and cheap rates.

ps - about the house, there's a nice screened back porch with tables, counters and sink, great for staging gear - guess you could fillet fish there on a cold day, but you'd want to clean it up nicely.
Last year, we had rods laying all over the chairs on the dock. This year, brought a cheap rod rack to keep the dock organized, also easy to carry a gang of rods at once.
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Re: Arroyo dock fishing
Post 14 Nov 2019, 08:57 • #15 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 11/09/10
Posts: 1355
Location: US-CA
Go ahead. Threaten us with a good time. :)


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Re: Arroyo dock fishing
Post 14 Nov 2019, 15:26 • #16 
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Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19076
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
:hat
I was swapping gmail with Lou after he received his new Rockfish rod from Japan - built by Major Craft, sold by an ebay vendor, and marked "Crostage Rockfish"
Gave him a little history on mine
Discovered rockfish rods just about 10 years ago perusing saltwater tackle on a Japan website with Google-Beta attempting very bad translation.
I had the model specs that I could piece together.
My girls had been fishing Zebco UL1 on 5' Eagle Claw Featherlite UL glass casting rod,
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and the Penn 4200SS on Falcon 5' UL graphite spinning rod, and fishing the same Mansfield Mauler bait rig you learned from me. It was kid-fishing that made me a dock-fishing weenie.
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I had already been using a very good broker in Japan to buy fly tackle - and even bicycle parts - and it was kind of funny, people were using me as a broker to broker transactions through the Japan broker for them...
When I knew I could trust the process was when I ordered an inshore S-glass fly rod custom-rolled from scratch, finally packaged by my broker and received long after paypal refund option was gone.
When I found the longer XUL salt-specific rods in Japan - rockfish rods - I knew instantly these would add both reach (cast distance) and fish-handling power to the way we dock fish. Though I was really thinking just for the little nursery trout with the girls' Fulton Beach Pier dock fishing ritual - dinner at Cap'n Benny's, bait shop, catch and release 60 nursery trout, ice cream.
Seven years ago I discovered on a summer Palm Harbor trip you could land big trout on these - I sight fished 22" and 23" specs over the submerged canal green lights on the 2" Wildeye shad.
That was another great VRBO house-rent trip with Steve's girls, who are the same age as Erin, and Nala's first traveling adventure
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The first one I imported to test was the 7'6" solid-glass tip, like Susie's
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Liked it so much, I went back and bought the 7'9" graphite tip that was just one fractional step-up in lines and lures.
It's kinda cool to get tackle with the Japan home-market quality-approval sticker - the lightning bolt
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These rods were made by Takamiya, and have the same kind of silly Japan home-market names that fall apart in transliteration
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the silly Japan names kinda grow on you after awhile.
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Major Craft that catalogs Susie's rod is a top-line tackle supplier exporting to US, and she should be delighted with the rod.
What makes these so cool is the tip protects the lightest copolymer - 2-lb test - the linear-graphite mid is fast for long casts, and the woven graphite butt layer gives fish-turning power.
Brilliant specialized salt rods that only the Japanese are crazy enough to build and market. They caught on in Europe, and many UK tackle stores are importing them now - and look at us, on the cutting edge of these rods being introduced to US inshore fishing.


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Re: Arroyo dock fishing
Post 15 Nov 2019, 20:52 • #17 
Guide
Joined: 09/22/14
Posts: 203
Location: Charlottesville-VA
Awesome! Great pics, obviously a good time was had by all.

Bob


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Re: Arroyo dock fishing
Post 16 Nov 2019, 07:15 • #18 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19076
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
thanks Bob, my dad posted on his VRBO review of the house after this trip, that he caught more fish than he can remember catching at once before.

When he first retired, late 80s, he and my mom would get a canal house or bay condo with a boat slip somewhere between Key Allegro and South Padre for the entire month of Oct or Nov - they did this for 10 years in a row.
He'd be out on his boat every morning with or without company, but extended family and friends did our best to keep him in fishing company.
He used to run his boat all the way from South Padre to fish Green Island - 17 mi. It's 5 miles from the Arroyo boat lift.
He's 90-y-o now and was threatening to do South Padre for a month again, if he had to do it alone, which is why we started doing this last year - 4 days instead of 30 - plus the few places that still rent monthly are 3-4 times what he paid back then.

While the night-time dock fishing is a diversion at most bay and canal houses, it's the main attraction in the Arroyo - it's amazing the numbers of fish that come in there at night.
Schoolie specs, btw travel 25 mi/day to find enough food.
The big females spread out in the bays and flats, while the males school together and travel.
Something else that makes the house location hot is that the natural arroyo and the barge channel converge right there and both bring in a lot of fish.

looking toward Laguna Madre (the house is 2 up from the empty spot where the channel diverges)........looking from Laguna Madre up the barge channel
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btw Tomah, I think the rectangular basins you saw on the map, and can see again in the photo just above, are irrigation drainage basins - tailwater from tile drainage - a place to drain the citrus fields in the flat delta, settle out sedement, provide aeration, and double as irrigation sumps - citrus is the primary crop there, with sugar cane second. From what I read, they're especially important in the tidal zone below Port Harlingen. I remember seeing brown tides coming out of the Arroyo in the early 90s, there was a fish kill in the 2005 drought, and they seem to have solved the problem.
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Re: Arroyo dock fishing
Post 16 Nov 2019, 08:15 • #19 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/12/16
Posts: 4093
Location: USA-CO
Thanks, Sir. Yes, in your photo I can see that they're not reservoirs, etc. They look more like rice paddies. Drainage control sounds about right.


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Re: Arroyo dock fishing
Post 17 Nov 2019, 10:24 • #20 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19076
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
bicycled with Lou this morning. He told me Susie loves her new XUL rockfish rod combo, and told Lou he may Never borrow it...


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