After over 20 years, I got back in to saltwater fishing. Well, my first time fishing the gulf ever. Like to get some pointers for Padre Island, Port Aransas area. Looking for baits that work well and spots, riggings and line weight.

I know there are plenty of Texans around here that fish down at Port A quiet often and I hope to get their advise.

Thanks in advance.

Good Morning Kaiman!  Glad to hear you are back fishing.  Know how it is to drop out for a while.  The good thing is many of the old techniques still work great.  Probably, the most impressive thing in the last few years has been the popularity of the "popping cork" used with live bait or artificials.  Of course, there has been some great improvement in rods & reels left to everyone's choice.  One of my favorite reels is the Shimano Baitrunner in both inshore and offshore editions.  Have you had a chance to check on the BP oil damage?  If you have or anyone reading this, drop a post and let us all know firsthand how it is affecting the fishing.  Again, WELCOME BACK AND GOOD FISHING!  Uncle Tom

Forgot to mention when I was telling you about some of the newer things for inshore that tickles me is some of the names of different color grubs and plastics people are using.  If you need to know about Reds, other than standard things like gold spoons and shrimp is most plastics come in "ELECTRIC CHICKEN"--took me a year to find some only to discover I was already using them just not the fancy name--mostly chartreuse and pink or thereabouts.  Good luck!  Uncle Tom  A close friend of mine use to say I'll fish with anything as long as it is chartreuse!

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