Where to go

Corpus Christi Bay
Corpus Christi Bay offers some of the deepest bay waters in the area. Many anglers find success around the bay’s natural gas wells, along its shores, particularly around the southern portion of the bay near Shamrock Island and the JFK Causeway. The Shamrock Cove/Shamrock Island area is on the back side of Mustang Island near the mouth of Corpus Christi Bay. This is a favorite spot for waders, year-round. The northern part of Corpus Christi Bay is also good for wading around Indian Point and the Portland shoreline.

Nueces Bay
On the west side of the Portland Causeway is Nueces Bay, which holds numerous oyster reefs, ideal structure for trout, reds and drum. Many boaters unfamiliar with structure in the bay, hesitate to venture into the back of Nueces Bay. They prefer drifting near the causeway or going as far as the power lines that stretch over the water between Corpus Christi and Portland.

Laguna Madre
Below Corpus Christi, the Laguna Madre is perhaps the most famed fishing waters of the Coastal Bend, next to Baffin Bay. Both areas are vast bodies of water, with the lagoon considered the safer of the two because of Baffin's treacherous underwater rock formations. However, many boaters have found the submerged spoils hidden on the lagoon’s shallow flats the hard way, by running aground.

Baffin Bay
Anglers who would rather avoid the long boat ride from either Bird Island Basin within Padre Island National Seashore, Bluff’s Landing Marina in Flour Bluff or from the marinas under the JFK Causeway, may prefer launching into Baffin Bay at Kaufer-Hubert Park in Riviera, about an hour’s drive south of Corpus Christi.