New to Forum, new boat, kind of new to TX fishing.

**JP8** · #1 05-08-2012, 05:39 PM

Raised around the Cape Hatteras are in North Carolina where I grew up fishing daily. My aunt owns a seafood company and sheds cabs so I have used peelers for bait my whole life(fee bait). Never really did much fishing with lures but I have been reading and buying some over the last few months. I am in the USAF and have been living in San Antonio for over 6 years. The last six years I haven't really did much fishing down here in TX except from the beach. I bought a boat about a month ago; everyone told me it was to V for the bays and too small for the gulf. I only have about a year or so left here before I hopefully make it back to the east coast where the boat is more practical. In the mean time I am looking for some people to go out in the gulf with me on a flat day and hit up some rigs or platforms. I also plan on fishing baffin bay, port A, and the landcut area (friend has a floating cabin). I have owned a boat for a majority of my life but sold it when I joined. I have been doing plenty of reading over on TFF and what ever google brings up on TX fishing. I also have been trying to get my equipment together. Just picked up a couple Penn 4/0 for trolling and I am a fan of ugly sticks and Penn 550-750ssm/ssg. Looking forward to learning a lot from you guys and hopefully can get a crew to make a trip out fishing with me. My boat is great on gas btw. I was really stunned to see how good it does compared to my old boat. My biggest cost is towing the dang thing down from San Antonio to CC area.

**ossnap** · #2 05-08-2012, 05:46 PM

Welcome to 2cool. And gratz on the new sled.

**troutsupport** · #3 05-08-2012, 06:19 PM

Welcome aboard... glad you're here. have fun, holla with any questions.
t

**patwilson** · #4 05-08-2012, 06:26 PM

First off, thank you for your service! Welcome to 2cool....

**Number_Five** · #5 05-08-2012, 06:27 PM

Welcome in! There is a lot of good info on here, and now that you're a member you can search the forums with keywords. That will save you a ton of time when researching a subject.

I would be concerned running that boat in the Laguna, it just may have too much draft for most of the area other than the ICW and choice other spots. During the right times I think that boat can be perfect for short runs offshore, but the wind is NOT your friend when planning those trips. The gulf can get very angry when winds are blowing...very angry.

Do you know what your boat drafts...really drafts, not what's on paper? Once you know that you should be able to map trips all over the texas bays. There are shallow flats everywhere, but if you do research and maybe go with someone who knows an area, there are usually channels that are navigable.

Anyway...welcome again...and try that search function it's pretty cool!

Five

**PHINS** · #6 05-08-2012, 06:28 PM

Thank you for your service. Welcome aboard.

**JP8** · #7 05-08-2012, 07:39 PM

Thanks all! I found it will run in about 2-3 foot of water. My plan B was to get to some areas and get out and do some wade fishing to get in the shallows. I have heard that the gulf can get nasty pretty quick. I have been trying to figure out which inlet to go out of to get to the closet platform/rig. Packery or Port A and which was will be easier to get in and out of. I ran down the ICW a few weekends ago, I put over by snoopys pier area and went south from there for and fished a little with no luck.

**CDHknives** · #8 05-08-2012, 08:49 PM

I ran a similar hull for several years learning the local bays around Corpus.

I also beat myself shorter on several very educational trips offshore until I learned that 3 footers are a hard limit with a 21' boat.

There is a LOT of trout water you can run in that boat, and many of the flats are surprisingly accessible via well set up drifts and/or wade fishing. If you try to explore Baffin, be very conservative or know a good fiberglass repair shop, otherwise get in and go!

During the summer the wells in CC bay would be sweet from that rig.

**RUFcaptain** · #9 05-08-2012, 10:22 PM

That's a fine looking boat. I would have no issue going offshore, especially with a buddy boat. Just pick your days and have all the proper safety gear, like you would anyway.

**James@SeaKingBlue** · #10 05-08-2012, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Number_Five

Welcome in! There is a lot of good info on here, and now that you're a member you can search the forums with keywords. That will save you a ton of time when researching a subject.

I would be concerned running that boat in the Laguna, it just may have too much draft for most of the area other than the ICW and choice other spots. During the right times I think that boat can be perfect for short runs offshore, but the wind is NOT your friend when planning those trips. The gulf can get very angry when winds are blowing...very angry.

Do you know what your boat drafts...really drafts, not what's on paper? Once you know that you should be able to map trips all over the texas bays. There are shallow flats everywhere, but if you do research and maybe go with someone who knows an area, there are usually channels that are navigable.

Anyway...welcome again...and try that search function it's pretty cool!

Five

There is quite a bit of water in the Upper Laguna that his boat can run and get on plane in. Pretty much from Pure oil south is all 3-4 feet of water. There are a lot of shallow spots but pretty much the entire King Ranch Shoreline is deep enough including around bird island and even Rocky Slough. We had a deep vee when I moved down here and did just fine in the above mention areas. Look at a hot spots map and you should be good to go. He will have to take deep cuts or channels to get over the spoils on the ICW but once over them it's plenty deep. Yes that boat drafts probably 18 inches and needs two feet to get up but he should be fine.