Texas Road Trip Planner: Fishing Rockport, Fulton, Aransas Pass

Texas Road Trip Planning Guide

Fishing Rockport, Fulton, and Sabine Pass

Good shore fishing and crabbing is available at Lighthouse Lakes Park. Will you be bringing a canoe or kayak on your trip? Lighthouse Lakes Park has the longest kayaking trail in Texas.

Lighthouse Lakes Park offers kayaking, fishing, birding, and nature watching. Six (6) miles south of Aransas Pass along the Aransas Channel on the Redfish Bay Causeway (SH 361).

Cove Harbor Marina is a popular place for fishermen to launch. They have four boat ramps. Non-ethanol gas is available on the dock. There is a deli. Snacks and fishing supplies are available. 6a – 5p. 121 Cove Harbor North in Rockport. (361) 790-5438. CoveHarborMarina.com

Are you looking for a one stop fishing resource? Try South Bay Marina. They have bait (live shrimp, croaker, mud minnows, piggy perch, and mullet), rental kayaks, small Carolina skiffs with 15 horse power motors, and a lighted fishing pier. They can also set you up with guided fishing trips. (361) 758-6900. PortAransasAdventures.com. 1950 East Highway 361 Port Aransas.

Mom’s Bait Shop Rockport. Usually open by 5:30 AM, Mom’s Bait Shop is popular for live bait. Do you need some table shrimp and crabs to stuff all the flounder you catch? Mom’s Bait Shop can help with that also.

302 Navigation Circle in Rockport. (361) 729-0173.

Fulton Harbor Bait and Seafood. Check out their Facebook page for a daily updated report of fishing conditions, barometric pressure, moon phase, wind speed, projected wave size, and tides. They offer live shrimp, crabs, mud minnows, croaker, piggy perch, ribbon fish, sea lice, and more. Repeat customers comment on the friendliness of the owner and staff. Cash only. 250 Deforest Loop in Fulton near the popular Charlotte Plummer restaurant. (361) 790-9709.

Port Aransas Jetties. The Port A jetties, like most of the area, are alive with marine life. The challenge is figuring out to catch it. When we downsized our approach, we were able to catch a number of smaller fish including Lookdown Fish, small tropical fish, and lady fish. Using an eight ounce lady fish head, I was able to almost immediately get the attention of a decent sized shark, but it blew up my line almost immediately. Other fishermen caught large speckled trout up to 26 inches and some Spanish Mackerel. There are lots and lots of sea turtles along the jetties.

Locals have a delicacy that was new to me, fried trout and redfish egg sacs.

If you have a boat that can run a little farther, there are lots of red snapper and kingfish in the Rockport / Fulton / Aransas Pass area.

We paid $20 a quart for shrimp, which seems to be the going rate on the Texas Gulf Coast. Locals swear by croaker, but we didn’t catch anything on them.

What is different about the Rockport / Port Aransas Pass coast than the Beaumont / Port Arthur Coast?

There are hundreds of tiny bright colored beach cottages – pinks, light blues, yellows. Kite surfing is popular. On Rockport Beach, they skimmed as closely as fifteen feet in front of us. The tourism industry is much more developed and integrated into each of the small communities: Rockport, Fulton, Aransas Pass, Port Aransas. You’ll be away from the East Texas pine trees. There are lots of old, stately coastal oaks.