Fall Fishing in Port Aransas, Redfish & Tarpon

Even though it may still feel like summer, the fishing the last few weeks around Port Aransas has been excellent.  Besides the regular schools of redfish showing up, the tarpon are hanging out around the jetties and the large bull redfish are being caught and released by a handful of the guides.  A couple of more notable catches were at the jetties.  Rene Lopez released one of the largest redfish that many of us has seen.  They did not weigh it, but conservatively estimated it’s weight greater than 40 pounds.  Check the picture and see for yourself.  Another fish story is one that got away.  There have been a handful of guides fishing for tarpon in the evenings and landing a few on each trip.  Well, Mitchell Collins hooked into a tarpon that when it jumped, it was every bit of 150 pounds and nearly jumped in a nearby boat.  Unfortunately it broke off, but I guarantee it is not the only one swimming around out there.  Last year, we were catching tarpon through the second week of October, so there is plenty of time to get out tarpon fishing.

There are still plenty of fish out deep too.  The boats that are not billfishing are targeting the shrimp boats for blackfin tuna, sharks, ling and mahi mahi.  Once the shrimp boat bite slows, they have been going after amberjack, kingfish and grouper.  As the weather slowly shifts into a new season, the larger boats start to look further out to the floaters for some overnight trips targeting billfish and yellowfin tuna, which is normally excellent all fall and winter.