# Rockport 1/24. A report, some advice, and a commercial



## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

Wind - popping pretty good from NNE
Water level - stupidly low
Water color - pretty clear, but not bathtub clear
Water temperature - I don't know... freaking cold
Wind Chill - very

So my friend who wants to learn to fish bought some expensive Simms waders at Tackle Town, and I took him out for a walk-in wade yesterday (Tuesday) morning. The forecast was not very accurate, and conditions were poor for the spot I selected. He caught his first trout on artificial, but that's about the only good thing to report. The one keeper was enough to make him want to go back, so it wasn't a total bust.

Today I had just a little seam in my schedule at around 3:00, and I went back to the exact same place as yesterday. The water had cleared quite a bit from the previous day, and the sun came out and warmed it up a bit. About my third cast, I caught a little pinch-tail keeper, which I released. A few casts later another. Slowly I dialed in on the retrieve/action that was working, and went on a run of nine fish in ten casts. With the situation I had today, I had to cast quartering into the wind to get the fall and retrieve speed that I needed. Any other cast/retrieve combo made fishing pretty slow. Get it right, and they were all over it. The fish were all running 14" to about 16". Not exciting, but aggressive and fun to catch. I caught somehwere in the neighborhood of 15 fish there. I strung four of the bigger ones, and I have no doubt that I could have stood there and caught those fish until my arms got tired.

There is a spot down the shoreline that I've had my eye on. I've never seen anyone fish there, and I've had an idea it might hold some bigger fish on these warming days like today. I decided to leave one spot on my stringer and walk down to it. Long story short, the fish were there, and were considerably bigger than what I was catching in the first place. The smaller fish were in the 19" neighborhood, and they ranged up to around 23". The action wasn't as fast. These fish were spread out over a mud flat in about 3.5' of water. (If there was any shell at all, it was just a fluke.) I caught more than half of them on the first twitch of the rod. I think they were attracted to the plop of the bait hitting the water, turned to that area, and slammed the first thing they saw move. You can see from the picture that the one fish is much heftier than the four from the first spot.

Which brings me to the advice. Lots of people say never to leave fish to find fish. But if you're trying to learn an area, you have to be willing to scout. And sometimes you have to accept that you have a choice between a lot of smaller fish, or catching a few bigger ones, and there's nothing wrong with either choice. I would have been perfectly happy bringing home five of the smaller fish to eat. But today I really wanted to try and take stock of the post-freeze(s) fish behavior. Doing that meant walking away from a sure thing, and I could just as easily have spent the rest of the wade casting and reeling. It was worth it to me to learn more about an area that is new to me. I caught either seven or eight fish in the second spot, and walked out around 4:30. If that sounds like a lot of fish in a short time, it is.

Which brings me to the commercial. The fishing is really good here since the storm. Rockport needs tourists, and many of you need to catch some fish. It's a natural fit. The Inn At Fulton Harbor (Fulton Inn) is open now, and better than it was before Harvey. There are enough restaurants and watering holes open to keep you from getting bored (or dry). Tackle Town has everything you need, and lots of stuff that you just want. And there are fish to be caught. Lots of 'em. There's no excuse for not coming down and catching some.


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## Haynie21T (Jun 9, 2017)

Now all we have to do is find the guy with the red reel! Nice catch and report PocJetty.


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## blackjack runner (Feb 24, 2015)

Great report as always. Appreciate and enjoy your fishing wisdom of Rockport. 
Have the water levels changed any? 
Heard multiple reports of lower than normal levels. Seems about right going from an extremely high levels early fall to new extreme lows late winter.
I used to always scout spots late winter due to clear but low water but heard this is a new low.


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## Moochy (Sep 13, 2014)

There?s one thing missing in your report, ?Today?s Choice of Stringer?. Lol.
I?m starting to really miss Fishing down there since I started working back in San Antonio so thank you for continuing with the great reports.


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## Moochy (Sep 13, 2014)

I don?t know where all of those question marks came from.


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## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

StabbinFlatties said:


> There?s one thing missing in your report, ?Today?s Choice of Stringer?. Lol.
> I?m starting to really miss Fishing down there since I started working back in San Antonio so thank you for continuing with the great reports.


No stringer - I just slid them down into my waders. :biggrin:


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## chad (Sep 7, 2006)

Thanks for the report.


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

Nice report. Glad to hear the fish are still doing good after the freeze.

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## SaltwaterSlick (Jun 11, 2012)

Thank you once again for a great report and VERY valuable insights on the "mental" strategy of how to catch fish and more of 'em! Well done sir.


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## Aggieangler (May 28, 2004)

Great report! I am glad to hear that the fish in Rockport have rebounded some with less pressure after the hurricane. That may be the only positive impact from an event that really hit a lot of folks hard. I am not trying to make light of their situation at all, by saying this.

We went through town about a month ago and spent as much money as we could at the time, in hopes of helping out the local businesses. Lord knows Tackletown got a decent bite out of my wallet that day!!! 

Stay on em...and tight lines!


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## Big Bay (May 14, 2013)

Awesome report and good haul boss!! Itâ€™s always fun catching fish in a new area


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## huntfish2011 (Jun 16, 2011)

Thanks for the report. The report's have been kind of scarce since this last freeze. What type of bottom were you fishing at the first stop?


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## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

blackjack runner said:


> Great report as always. Appreciate and enjoy your fishing wisdom of Rockport.
> Have the water levels changed any?
> Heard multiple reports of lower than normal levels. Seems about right going from an extremely high levels early fall to new extreme lows late winter.
> I used to always scout spots late winter due to clear but low water but heard this is a new low.


I've only lived here full time for about four years. It's gotten lower this winter than I've seen during those four years.

It's probably worth mentioning this, since there have been some disagreement about how low the water has been:

Some nights when I'm floundering, and the water level is way down, I know that if my boat could float just 2-3 inches shallower, I could get 60 feet closer to shore. These flats drop off very, very gradually. So there might be 20 yards of water being covered by a few inches of water. So if you come out one morning, and the water level has dropped 3", it can expose a whole lot of mud. If you've never seen that much mud exposed in that area, you know that it's the lowest you've seen.

The point is this: it may be "only" three inches lower than other winter tides, but three inches can be a LOT in terms of how much mud it exposes. Six inches lower can make a familiar shoreline look like someplace you've never been before. So the people saying it's the lowest they've ever seen are right. I think other people read those comments and get the wrong idea. Nobody is saying that the bays are emptied out - there is just a lot of stuff exposed that we've never seen dry before.



huntfish2011 said:


> Thanks for the report. The report's have been kind of scarce since this last freeze. What type of bottom were you fishing at the first stop?


Heavy shell, transitioning to mud/shell. The fish were mostly along that seam.


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## EIGHTSKATE (Feb 19, 2016)

Great report as usual. 
Also so true about needing folks to come stay.


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## TxMav (Feb 6, 2015)

pocjetty said:


> I've only lived here full time for about four years. It's gotten lower this winter than I've seen during those four years.
> 
> It's probably worth mentioning this, since there have been some disagreement about how low the water has been:
> 
> ...


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## barronj (Sep 30, 2013)

great report, glad your friend got hooked! Take him out again.

When you moved spots, did you exit the water and walk down the shoreline or did you slog/shuffle your way to the new area?


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## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

barronj said:


> great report, glad your friend got hooked! Take him out again.
> 
> When you moved spots, did you exit the water and walk down the shoreline or did you slog/shuffle your way to the new area?


In between. I walked to ankle deep water and double-timed it. If I had waded and cast the whole way, I wouldn't have had enough time. This may sound dumb, but if I had caught a bigger fish or two on the way, I might never have made it to the spot I wanted to check out. It was less about catching fish that day, and more about expanding my range. I'm obviously not the first person to fish there, but it doesn't seem to be fished very often. Some weekend when people are crawling all over the usual spots, I may go down there and "fish where they ain't".


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## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

So I took my friend back to the same spot today, and he's picking it up pretty quickly. It wasn't as hot as yesterday afternoon, but enough to keep him coming back for more. The two smaller fish are close to 17", but the bigger one is a nice fish. I'm trying not to beat him up too much, until he gets hooked, so I didn't stay to grind out a limit.


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## barronj (Sep 30, 2013)

Doing your part for the local economy. Next time pick him up for some time on the water he'll have bags of soft plastics sticking out of every pocket.


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## KennerG (May 14, 2013)

I guess that is why you did not answer your cell phone this morning when l called. Keep up the catching and the good reports.


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## TxRedman (Oct 22, 2013)

Great reports! I second how strong the fishing has been in the Rockport area. If Iâ€™m catching fish itâ€™s gotta be good  if youâ€™ve been thinking about going, get out there itâ€™s awesome!

I got to catch my first fish from my boat since it came out of Cove Harbor after the storm and it sure was nice .

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## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

KennerG said:


> I guess that is why you did not answer your cell phone this morning when l called. Keep up the catching and the good reports.


Dangit! I know who this has to be, even though I never knew what name you posted under. (Since that was your 12th post ever. ) I'm sorry I missed your call. I just checked my phone - there's your number. I don't know how I missed it.

So you saw me post fish pictures, and decided to humble me a little bit? Every time I go with you guys, you out-fish me about 5 to 1. Next time I may just leave my rod at home and bring my camera so I can be the photographer, while you two reel in all the fish. That's what happens anyway - the only difference would be the pictures!


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## Txredfish (Oct 27, 2010)

Great report. Keep them coming. You are right on. Fishing (and a little catching) has been great in the Rockport area.


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## mwatson71 (Feb 23, 2016)

Great to hear Rockport is getting back after the storm. We rented a house there for Thanksgiving 2016 and had an absolutely wonderful time fishing and shopping in the historical district. I have wanted to go back since (we are in Houston) and your post has inspired me to do so sooner rather than later.


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## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

mwatson71 said:


> Great to hear Rockport is getting back after the storm. We rented a house there for Thanksgiving 2016 and had an absolutely wonderful time fishing and shopping in the historical district. I have wanted to go back since (we are in Houston) and your post has inspired me to do so sooner rather than later.


You made my day. My week! We took a hit here - it was like that storm had eyes and we had a bulls eye painted on us. People have worked hard to get things back up and running, and there is more than enough here to make for a good stay. The fish are definitely doing all they can to help out.


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## Maverickdude (Aug 8, 2014)

pocjetty said:


> Dangit! I know who this has to be, even though I never knew what name you posted under. (Since that was your 12th post ever. ) I'm sorry I missed your call. I just checked my phone - there's your number. I don't know how I missed it.
> 
> So you saw me post fish pictures, and decided to humble me a little bit? Every time I go with you guys, you out-fish me about 5 to 1. Next time I may just leave my rod at home and bring my camera so I can be the photographer, while you two reel in all the fish. That's what happens anyway - the only difference would be the pictures!


It was great to see you on Saturday, too bad the rain ran us off the water.


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