Corpusfishing.com

[crab_n_fisher]

From 1985-86, my friends and I walked the city ditch from Holly Road, outside of Shannon Elementary and Tom Brown Junior High, until we were miles away from the city to this swampy, lake-like atmosphere! No longer were we netting for poly-wogs or guppies, but for real fish!.....It was heaven for us pre-teen Tom Sawyer-like boys! ...... I used to daydream about all this private fishing, far from "civilization," way out in the middle of nowhere....I guess we hiked maybe 10 miles each way, carrying a Boy Scout backpack full of food and canteens of water!..... Anyone know what I'm talking about?


Near Bonner Street, off of Holly and Everhardt (sp?), there were big swamps at one time.... My brothers, way back in the early 1970s, would catch monster catfish and snapping turtles!

[Big John]

Yeah, most of the southside of Corpus used to be swamp land. That's why an occasional house or car falls into a giant hole that comes out of nowhere after a heavy rain. Its also a major cause of all those water outages.

It also make for fantastic farmland, so much of it was converted.

Most was built by simply moving dirt from dry areas and filling in the small ponds and swamps! The major problem is that there never has been a diversion of the water table in that area. When it rains heavily, the water shows right back up and tries to go where it has ggone for thousands and thousands of years. Overtime, the water pushes through and eventually displaces enough dirt that a sinkhole forms. Sometimes under the roads or house foundations. Eventually enough dirt is removed that the manmade structure on top cannot support the weight underneath.

This problem will only get worse overtime. Eventually all that dirt used to build up the lower areas will wash out.

My dad and grandpa used to tell me stories growing up of BIG tarpon caught all over, snook common to catch in the summer, and even catching (and releasing because they didn't like the taste) sawfish. Pretty much hard not to catch fish any given day. But people didn't understand use what you keep, release the rest type of conservationism. They kept everything. So our waters were severally overfished. By the 70's, the fish populations were decimated.

Growing up, I never caught a tarpon. Never even seen a snook caught.

Used to catch at least one decent size flounder as a kid, no matter where I wentf fishing. Rarely caught a redfish, but trout were thick, just over the keeper size of 12 or 13 inches then.

It gradually changed to where reds are everywhere now, a speck of legal size is hard to find many days but there are alot more out there. You may catch 100 schoolies, and no keeper specks, so there will be plenty of keepers and big trout very soon, but I can't remember the last time I caught a flounder.

Now tarpon are much more frequently being caught, snook too. I finally jumped one in the surf last summer. The speck population has exploded (hence all the schoolies) and reds are easy pickings.

Soon, all the conservation laws that started really taking effect in the 80's and tightening in the 90's will really pay off, as well as the inflows of fresh water and nutrients fron Packery.

I see a day not 5 years out, when the tarpon population starts making a real comeback in the bays, snook become a more common occurence, a number of monster specks will be around, and reds remain thick. Myabe we will be lucky enough to make what my grandpa used to call a "roundtripper" catching a flounder, red, speck, tarpon, and snook all in one day again in the next 5 to 10 years.

That will be a great day!
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[bobaloo1]

Been fishing CC since about 1957....no reds then but monster flounder and trout everywhere - now it's flip-flopped. Snook at Humble Channel swing bridge, tarpon in CC Bay and huge shark on piers was common. It's getting harder and harder to fish now without a crowd and boat show. I almost hate to catch a good fish....gotta' beat the potlickers off with an ugly stick (I work for Shakespeare so forgive the plug). Still, I love Port A and the beach and go NOWHERE else in TX as CC is still the best!!

[Bud]

I remember when SPID did not exist, and you had to drive out Lexington to get to the Bluff. Everything south of there was pretty much farm land.

I remember Gene Looper and Walter Furley's idiotic and hilarious news and program promos on Channel 10.

I remember the drunken Charlie St. John weather on Channel 3, and his calling the town "Caarpus Christi."

We need to get Poppadunn on here. He grew up in Corpus, and fished it hard in the 40s and 50s. He can vouch for spending the afternoon after school jumping tarpon off the T head.

[topwater119]

I am not personally old enough to have good stories like that, but my father does have some pretty amazing fishing stories from back in the day. I just hope someday us young guns can experince some great fishing like the good ole days. We just all have to remember that one person can not make a diffrence but we all together can make a big diffrence.

[mastergunner]

Fish numbers will really jump when we have no access to any beach in a couple of years.
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Mastergunner, supporter of hardheads for state fish of Texas

[Capt Mike Singleterry]

To add a little to Bud and bobaloo1.....

Bob Hall pier was wooden and had 3 "T"....the 9mile hole didn't exist, it was called the Graveyard and was not accessible by boat...(you had to drive in via the beach)....you needed to wait on the swing bridges at the Humble and Intralcoastal to get to the beach....there was a dollar charge
to come on the causeway at Flour Bluff...PINS didn't exist, a trip down the beach started at Bob Hall Pier and was very exciting because you needed to drive around cows most of the way down, but around 40 miles down you could stop at Mr. & Mrs Chapels for a cup of coffee. Dead shrimp was .35 a lb. and live shrimp was .03 ea. Bait boxes were wooden and soft plastics were Curt Worms.....and gas was .26 a gallon (LOL)
That was a long time ago but I can say I still miss it....

Mike

[rabbit]

Especially the 26 cents a gallon
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Fishing and Kayaking its a rough life but somebody has to do it.

[Bud]

And remember when you used to buy shrimp by the quart instead of by the piece?

You could easily see the wreck of the Nicaragua.

The wreck of the Lydia Ann behind St. Joseph was also easy to find.

Mrs. Pete's was a great place for breakfast in Port Aransas.

[Capt Mike Singleterry]

Hey Bud, at the least we were here to have enjoyed it. Boy I do miss
Mrs. Pete's hamburgers after a long day on the North Jetty..

Mike

[jbonorden]

I can remember being able to drive over to Ransom Island and fish the hole from the back side of the Island. All the old building ruins were operating. It was a wild place at night.

Causway to Port A was single lane and had turn outs for oncoming traffic. Ferry used to cost $1. Tarpon rolled in Conn Brown harbor. Snook off the carbon Black docks and in south bay by the mangroves. Harbor Island used to be flounder heaven for the waders. We even had massive croker runs in the fall and Robert's point was the place to catch them. This was when commercial fisherman were still using rod and reel . It was fun. No limits. You kept what you wanted to clean.

[cckayaker]

We grew up in Flour Bluff and my brother and I were 8 and 7 we would ride our bikes to Red Coburns Marina and push up shrimp for him for a penny a piece. Two or three hundred shrimp later he would give us our 2-3 $ and we would head across the street to Carribean and Laguna Shores to 7-11 for all the candy and soda it would buy. Every Saturday and Sunday mornings. I am now 43 and brother is in Cal. and 42. I still see Red around the bluff and drink coffee with him occassionally at Whataburger and talk about the "Times" we always kept our buckets around the corner and used reds nets to push our own up too, lol. After candy and sodas we would fish at the end pf the point (entrance to the canals) all day. Mom would have to come looking for us at dark. Alwaus new where to find us though.

[sugarbabe]

cckayaker; your mom remembers those days well, and misses them

[BaitBoy]

Whatever happened to Mrs. Pete's? Best and biggest greasy-bunned burgers I've ever had in my life. One was a huge meal. Oh, and you could catch oodles of huge eating sized croakers just about any time. Haven't caught one of those in a loooonnnng time.

[Bluffer]

I remember the old swing bridge at the ICW well. Before they built the current (tall) bridge over the ICW they have now whenever a barge would come down the ICW the traffic got stopped to allow the barge traffic thru & it would really backed up.
We used to look to see if a barge was coming down the icw as we were on the causeway & was a real drag race to beat it to the bridge!
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-STAY THIRSTY MY FRIENDS!-