It seems this is the season for whiting.
This fun-to-catch species is running extremely well this time of year, and anglers of all ages are catching them from the headboats operating out of the Port Isabel/South Padre Island area.
In fact, each of the two or three daily trips is producing solid strings of this often-undervalued fish. Many fishing enthusiasts said they would prefer a whiting fish fry over other fish, and it’s often easier because they are easy to catch and don’t have a limit.
This past week was as good as it can be. A family from the Dallas area came to the Island in hopes of fishing in Gulf waters but the trip offshore was canceled because of the weather. Nevertheless, they fished two days for whiting and went home with plenty of fillets. They also caught a huge black drum on their second trip.
“We usually go fishing out of Port Aransas,” said Rick Rodriguez as he fished with his two sons-in-law, Ryan Osteen and Franklin De Luna, on Friday, May 15. “This time we decided to come to South Padre Island.”
A Brownsville native, Rodriguez said he moved to Dallas a while back and works for a business that supplies food products to area stores. He said he has gone fishing for red snapper several times and was looking for his first trip down south. He and his party were somehow disappointed at the cancelation, but said it was better to be safer than sorrier. Osteen, on the other hand, was having a blast catching one whiting after another.
“This is fun,” he said. “I got me quite a few.”
Of the three in the trio, Osteen caught the most — about 10 whiting.
According to deck hands from at least two head boats, anglers caught more than 100 whiting on two of the three daily trips.
