Party boats navigate to success miles offshore
When facing a salty quest, vessels-for-hire and customers are hooked on an adventure for the long haul.
And reports from some Gulf Coast party boats are saying action is good.
Parties are bringing in hundreds of pounds of numerous species. At the Sea Ranch Marina in South Padre Island, Austin Camacho reported the party boat, Osprey, brought in 15- to 20-pound kings caught on ribbon fish. A few 25- to 30-pound amberjacks also have been brought over the rails on their recent 8-hour trips. “We are also catching vermillion, mangrove and lane snapper on squid,” Camancho said.
Some of the anglers are using jigs to catch red snapper in the state waters. “We do a 10- to 12-hour snapper trip on Wednesdays,” he said.” We head north and fish the rock piles. Most of the fish are between seven and 15 pounds.”Their biggest catch as of late is a 6-foot blacktip shark. Their Bay King boat also is fishing in the bay and reported good catches of sand trout, and one- to two-pound whiting on shrimp and squid off the bottom. A few black and red drum also are being hooked.
“The seas have been a bit rough with the northers that are blowing through,” Camacho said. “But after they calm down it’s not bad.”
Up the coast in Port Aransas, Trisha Henderson at the Fisherman’s Wharf reported good offshore fishing as well. “The seas were a bit rough last week,” she said. “But in 10- to 14-foot seas we really caught a lot of good snapper up to five pounds in the state waters.”
Over the holidays the blue water was very close to the beach, the seas were calm and many people took advantage of the conditions.
I have been putting 20 to 30 people on our boats and today, Capt. Marvin Horner on the Scat Cat is coming in with 500 pounds of fish,” she said.
Mainly king, shark and a few black-fin tuna have been caught recently. “The kings are averaging about 10 pounds and we are having to go out 20 to 30 miles to get them. Our biggest fish was a 120-pound blacktip shark.”
In the Galveston area, Vicky Arnold with Williams Party Boats, reported they have not been able to get out in the gulf lately due to weather. “We do have a tuna trip scheduled for Jan 13-14,” she said. “If the weather is good the 36-hour trip will go out about 150 miles.”
Seawater temperatures:
NOAA buoy, Station 42035, 22NM East of Galveston – 58.8 degrees.
NOAA buoy, Station 42020, 50NM Southeast of Corpus Christi, TX – 72 degrees.
NOAA buoy, Station 42019, 60 NM South of Freeport, TX – 68.7 degrees.
Contact the boats at:
Williams Party Boats (Galveston) 409-762-8808
Fisherman’s Wharf (Port Aransas) 800-605-5448
Sea Ranch Marina (South Padre) 956-761-6655
