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Port Aransas

Paco

By Paco
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BigDHornfan
BigDHornfan

The boy had a blast on the fishing trip and we hauled about 80 lbs of Blackfin and Snapper out. About 30 lbs of tuna steaks and 15 lbs of snapper filets at the end of the day.

BigDHornfan
BigDHornfan

Whole boat limited out on snapper in 45 min this morning.

Ag with kids
Ag with kids

Ok...so you want us to get rid of people and now you're complaining about methods????

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texasdago

texasdago 7589

Posted
Posted

Welp... went for a long weekend.  Beach was great when the weather was cooperating which was about 30% of the time.  Finding places to eat to go is a bit of a pain in the ass, largely because the web pages were designed in 1997 and some restaurants surprisingly don't have web pages.  You have a mix of "I'm following the Covid rules" to "come into my place and no one wears masks".  Not surprising.  Really do like the new construction going up in town... lots of great little rentals.  Will eventually go back... not in the high season but not in the dead of winter either.

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utee94

utee94 15878

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Hate said:


Agreed. The Tex-ou weekend is perfect. I’ll be there next year. I already can’t wait, at least for the beach if not the game.

I loved being there for that weekend, but COVID willing I'd still rather be in Dallas for the game.

 

 

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zman13

zman13 180

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, horn4life said:

I wonder how the licensing works on the Hardknocks "UT Bevo Burger Angus Sliders?" 😉

 

They really should have named it the "UT Bevo 40 Acres Showband Hook'em Burger Angus Sliders"  to cover all the copyrights at once.

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Ag with kids

Ag with kids 581

Posted
Posted
On 1/9/2021 at 5:47 PM, zman13 said:

The IGA in North Padre is now open. 

Also a sports bar, HardKnocks, opened in the same shopping center. 

I wish I was retired so I could never leave this island againxD. The IGA is awesome!!!

 

Haven't been to the HardKnocks here yet, but have been to the one on southside.  It's a good legit sports bar.

I'll go tomorrow and take pics...for...informational purposes only, of course.

 

On 1/10/2021 at 8:28 PM, zman13 said:

They really should have named it the "UT Bevo 40 Acres Showband Hook'em Burger Angus Sliders"  to cover all the copyrights at once.

They learned that ShaggyBevo was fucking NOGO...

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Ag with kids

Ag with kids 581

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, zman13 said:

That does seem a little high. I guess they are counting on being the only "sports bar" in North Padre. 

The 2 Mexican places on the island offer free chips and salsa (as all good Mexican restaurants do).  But, they suck for watching sports or hanging out and drinking (I guess La Palma is in the lower end of "ok").

No one else gives you free chips and salsa on the island that I know of.

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zman13

zman13 180

Posted
Posted
On 1/11/2021 at 9:48 PM, Ag with kids said:

I wish I was retired so I could never leave this island againxD. The IGA is awesome!!!

 

Haven't been to the HardKnocks here yet, but have been to the one on southside.  It's a good legit sports bar.

I'll go tomorrow and take pics...for...informational purposes only, of course.

 

They learned that ShaggyBevo was fucking NOGO...

Drove by HardKnocks last night. It was about 70% full, which is pretty impressive for a Thursday night without football. I guess there's been an unmet sports bar need on the island!

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Ag with kids

Ag with kids 581

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, zman13 said:

Drove by HardKnocks last night. It was about 70% full, which is pretty impressive for a Thursday night without football. I guess there's been an unmet sports bar need on the island!

There is...

When I moved here in Aug of 2018 I realized I had never been on the island during football season.  So, the weekend before the first game, I literally went to every single place on the island that had beer and TVs to figure out where I'd go for games...

The top 2 were Costa Sur and the Boathouse.  So, I generally rotated between those two. 

But...another thing that comes with a good sports bar is a lot of hot waitresses and I've heard that HK has those.

I'll probably go check on HK tomorrow before hitting the beach.

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Orange&White

Orange&White 5554

Posted
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Decided on a whim at lunch yesterday to head down for one night. Staying at Port Royal.

Gigittys is officially gone. Hope they reopen somewhere else.

The wharf are is coming along nicely.

Went to Salty Dog and there wasn’t one person in the entire building wearing a mask.

Blackened black drum with lobster sauce is still my favorite meal on this island.

Probably going to check out of the room and sit by the pool for a few hours and then grab dinner at some place I’d never seen called Mac Daddies before heading back to Austin.

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Ag with kids

Ag with kids 581

Posted
Posted
On 1/16/2021 at 12:47 PM, Orange&White said:


Decided on a whim at lunch yesterday to head down for one night. Staying at Port Royal.

Gigittys is officially gone. Hope they reopen somewhere else.

The wharf are is coming along nicely.

Went to Salty Dog and there wasn’t one person in the entire building wearing a mask.

Blackened black drum with lobster sauce is still my favorite meal on this island.

Probably going to check out of the room and sit by the pool for a few hours and then grab dinner at some place I’d never seen called Mac Daddies before heading back to Austin.

I had to go to the DMV this week so I headed to the one in Port A (the one in Corpus is a cluster f&%).  They were physically tearing down the Giggity's building at the time.  Sad times...

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justhookit

justhookit 4191

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Ag with kids said:

I had to go to the DMV this week so I headed to the one in Port A (the one in Corpus is a cluster f&%).  They were physically tearing down the Giggity's building at the time.  Sad times...

yeah that strip of buildings being gone is weird. Just wait till Shorty’s is gone in 2 years. And Bernie’s.  They moved a lot of the Giggitys menu out to Kody’s. Grumbles - the old Fishermen’s Wharf - opened this week. Huge restauarant and it’s pretty damn good.

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Sundodger

Sundodger 66

Posted
Posted (edited)
43 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

Been here since Tuesday and haven’t seen any dead fish. Where did you see them?

Malaquite Beach, Padre Island Natl. Seashore.   Every two feet along the tide line was a dead foot long fish.  That was on Sunday.

 

 

 

Edited by Sundodger
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justhookit

justhookit 4191

Posted
Posted (edited)

Yeah the freeze was a massive fish kill.

1 hour ago, HenryJames said:

Been here since Tuesday and haven’t seen any dead fish. Where did you see them?

You going to any of the bars? Was at the Gaff and Shortys briefly this evening until the basketball game started.

Edited by justhookit
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horn4life

horn4life 3813

Posted
Posted

Yeah Port A, is quickly going to be Kemah...  Wish from a real estate standpoint I already had a toe hold.  Should have bought a destroyed Pelican Condo for $65K and eaten the $25K+ in HOA fees after the storm.

The changes just in covid time sort of freaked me out with the number of people on the beaches in my normally "just enough people" October.  I'll always come back again and again.  Booked the next two Octobers a few weeks ago, praying that in person school allows me to again enjoy surf fishing without some dumb ass 50 feet to one side or the other.  Super happy Irie's is back.

I look at the Seagull cam most every day, and then the malaquite cam... Love Austin, but the coast is always calling me...

 

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Ag with kids

Ag with kids 581

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, Sundodger said:

Malaquite Beach, Padre Island Natl. Seashore.   Every two feet along the tide line was a dead foot long fish.  That was on Sunday.

 

 

 

The freeze on N Padre was BAD.  The canals are STILL full of dead fish and that's after they've literally had vacuum trucks pulling tons of them out of the water.  The stench in some places is heinous.

Luckily, we only had a few dead ones in our canal...

The water is just really shallow and the freeze was REALLY long (it was below freezing for at least 48 hrs).  Go look at all the palm trees - a large number of them will have to be removed because they're dead.

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Ag with kids

Ag with kids 581

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, justhookit said:

yeah that strip of buildings being gone is weird. Just wait till Shorty’s is gone in 2 years. And Bernie’s.  They moved a lot of the Giggitys menu out to Kody’s. Grumbles - the old Fishermen’s Wharf - opened this week. Huge restauarant and it’s pretty damn good.

Do you know exactly when they're shutting down Shorty's?  It's really going to suck when it's gone.

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horn4life

horn4life 3813

Posted
Posted (edited)

When I was last there it sounded like the new owners wanted to keep Shorty's around for "flavor?" But that was October and the general thinking of the locals I was talking to was that if Edwin let his wife negotiate with the new outfit there was a good chance it would survive.  If Edwin was the negotiator it seemed like the odds diminished dramatically.  

I also thought Edwin was going to try and put together a chicken shack in Port A?  Or maybe he was just thinking about it when we were talking.

spacer.pngProbably not one fucking dead hardhead in all of that...  

I wonder if the new water bridge might provide a better possibility for some of those fish to make it into the deeper water of Packery Channel?  Or did the overall water temp just plummet to the point that access from the canals to even deeper water would have saved some?

ALSO - Are the empty areas in the fish map some sort of bubblers or pumps?  

Edited by horn4life
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texashorne

texashorne 1178

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33 minutes ago, horn4life said:

When I was last there it sounded like the new owners wanted to keep Shorty's around for "flavor?" But that was October and the general thinking of the locals I was talking to was that if Edwin let his wife negotiate with the new outfit there was a good chance it would survive.  If Edwin was the negotiator it seemed like the odds diminished dramatically.  

I also thought Edwin was going to try and put together a chicken shack in Port A?  Or maybe he was just thinking about it when we were talking.

spacer.pngProbably not one fucking dead hardhead in all of that...  

I wonder if the new water bridge might provide a better possibility for some of those fish to make it into the deeper water of Packery Channel?  Or did the overall water temp just plummet to the point that access from the canals to even deeper water would have saved some?

ALSO - Are the empty areas in the fish map some sort of bubblers or pumps?  

I was just going to say.. hopefully that's all hardheads.. Horrible for the ecosystem..

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Ag with kids

Ag with kids 581

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, horn4life said:

When I was last there it sounded like the new owners wanted to keep Shorty's around for "flavor?" But that was October and the general thinking of the locals I was talking to was that if Edwin let his wife negotiate with the new outfit there was a good chance it would survive.  If Edwin was the negotiator it seemed like the odds diminished dramatically.  

I also thought Edwin was going to try and put together a chicken shack in Port A?  Or maybe he was just thinking about it when we were talking.

spacer.pngProbably not one fucking dead hardhead in all of that...  

I wonder if the new water bridge might provide a better possibility for some of those fish to make it into the deeper water of Packery Channel?  Or did the overall water temp just plummet to the point that access from the canals to even deeper water would have saved some?

ALSO - Are the empty areas in the fish map some sort of bubblers or pumps?  

Considering how many fish it killed in the Gulf, I doubt anything could have helped this...

And I think they're some kind of pump.  I never was 100% sure.

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horn4life

horn4life 3813

Posted
Posted
35 minutes ago, Ag with kids said:

Considering how many fish it killed in the Gulf, I doubt anything could have helped this...

And I think they're some kind of pump.  I never was 100% sure.

That's sort of what I figured, the worst pic I saw was this one... lots of keeper reds belly up. This is Pringle Lake in Port O'Conner. Basically like Port A's Shamrock cove as far as location. It's gonna take a while to recover I would think.  Plus they had to be extra fishing pressure in the last year with covid.

spacer.png

 

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Orange&White

Orange&White 5554

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Posted

Does anyone know what Port A looks like for Spring Break these days?

Back in the stone age when I was in High School, we would ride our dinosaurs down there and the beach would be wall-to-wall people getting shitfaced for several miles down the beach. I was actually waiting in line for the ferry to leave the day the riot broke out back in 88. There would be two lanes of traffic going both direction and either side flanked by parked cars and drunken revelers. 

I would guess it is not quite the same as it used to be, but really have no idea.

We are heading down next week for 5 days. Staying a private house so we won't have to deal with a bunch of drunk kids in a hotel. 

Just curious what to expect on the beaches.

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Steamboat1874

Steamboat1874 4152

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I just read there are still a bunch of restrictions on the beach. The ones that stood out were loud music will not be allowed and there is an alcohol curfew at 6PM on the beach.

If you are younger than 30 it might be okay but if you are not that young you would be an idiot to go during spring break. 

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justhookit

justhookit 4191

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Orange&White said:

Does anyone know what Port A looks like for Spring Break these days?

Back in the stone age when I was in High School, we would ride our dinosaurs down there and the beach would be wall-to-wall people getting shitfaced for several miles down the beach. I was actually waiting in line for the ferry to leave the day the riot broke out back in 88. There would be two lanes of traffic going both direction and either side flanked by parked cars and drunken revelers. 

I would guess it is not quite the same as it used to be, but really have no idea.

We are heading down next week for 5 days. Staying a private house so we won't have to deal with a bunch of drunk kids in a hotel. 

Just curious what to expect on the beaches.

The last 10 years or so it’s been mostly 20-30 something year old trash from San Antonio and Corpus trying to relive their high school glory days. The college kids have completely stopped coming and not a lot of high school kids either except the ones that have family property here. Who knows this year. 
Do not go to the stretch of beach between 1A and the golf course (1A is where the pylons end and you can drive all the way to the water).

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Orange&White

Orange&White 5554

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, justhookit said:

The last 10 years or so it’s been mostly 20-30 something year old trash from San Antonio and Corpus trying to relive their high school glory days. The college kids have completely stopped coming and not a lot of high school kids either except the ones that have family property here. Who knows this year. 
Do not go to the stretch of beach between 1A and the golf course (1A is where the pylons end and you can drive all the way to the water).

Thanks for the info. I think we should be able to safely avoid most of the bullshit.

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horn4life

horn4life 3813

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Posted

Just got back from long weekend in Port A. I did not put much effort into fishing, but saw a nice red pulled in Saturday morning off the beach, which will cause a hair more effort next trip.  Overall island is getting back to normal. And yes mask wearing in many places is clearly not a concern.  Of course my wife overheard the following conversation. " Well I got it, and it wasn't that bad. My wife got it, and she still doesn't have her smell or taste.  I will not get the vaccine, because Pfizer invented covid..."

So yep... back to normal!  But brain power and coastal communities ANYWHERE, are not highly linked from my life experiences.  The good news is I got to see some live music that was great!  Shorty's had it's 75th Anniversary Party, I saw some corpus buddies at a picnic table and sat with them for a quick drink while the wife and friends were waiting at Virginia's to be seated.  So I saw and caught a few minutes of Ty Deitz, who I actually liked a lot (after hearing a lot about him) before going over to Virginia's to grab a little lunch.  I will say that my opinion of Virginia's has improved dramatically.  Before about the only things I would order was the Fish Sandwich and the obligatory order of Smoked Tuna dip.  This go round with 6 different meals and a couple apps all the food was pretty darn good.  

Highlight was seeing most of the set of Ruben V and Jimmy Spacek with the East Side Horns.  I talked a moment to Ruben V and apparently I was there the last time he and his cohorts played Shorty's so I guess the cycle of life is back on track.  The wife and I met some nice folks, that I am sure we will see again, as our time in Port A increases  each year now it seems.  Only thing weird was the weather, with lots of midday fog banks rolling in on Thursday and Friday, before front rolled through Saturday morning.  About the only thing I did not do that I contemplated was to go down and drive PINS to see how much last year's storm pushed back the dunes, as I want to take my Trailer down there and spend a few nights camping on the beach.  But that's sort of a different subject.

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