Texas Gulf Coast

[llama]

Just bought a 'new' used 210. It will be delivered at the end of the month. I plan on towing it to the Tx coast this fall where I spend the winter. I have very little experience with offshore fishing, and one (winter)season of bay fishing. None of it out of a boat other than a kayak.
I was am a committed flyfisherman but after several weeks of not catching fish, I switched to conventional tackle and my success rate improved dramatically! Now that I have the boat I want to rig gear up with the right tackle. I have no equipment. for offshore fishing and don't really know what to start with. I'm not even sure of the target species of fish in the offshore areas around Port Aransas in the winter.I assume there will be bottom fishing and fishing around oil rigs and maybe trolling. I guess what I'm looking for, is advice on what kind of fish I will be looking for, methods to catch them and equipment needed. What are the rods and reels tackle that I MUST have,SHOULD have REALLY NICE to have. I don't want to buy a bunch of stuff I'll never use. My original intention was to buy a bay boat for shallow water fishing but the more I thought about it the more I wanted to learn and particpate in offshore fishing too.Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

[MolarBoater]

Brother, I hear ya.

I bought a Bay 190 to start saltwater flyfishing but find myself heading offshore for trolling lately. I started kayak fishing in lakes and have found it to be more productive than fishing out of a boat...in fresh water. Gonna start back flyfishing more this year in the salt.....but...I have learned this.

Use conventional tackle to find and catch fish....flyfish when you want to play with them or you have caught your limit!

Start with a speckle trout spin cast rod and reel with 10lb clear line. Use DOA plastic shrimp, cut bait, live shrimp on a "popper" bobber, etc.
You can add 10" of 30lb ss wire leader and use it to catch spanish mackrel right off the beach, or sheephead using sandfleas or clams/muscles off the jetties. Everything eats shrimp.

Troll close in till you get the hang of any inlets and passes and get comfortable with your gps and vhf radio. Troll 2 lines until you want more.

Start there with 20-30lb line trolling reels with softer tipped 6' rods. You can use these for kings, dolphin and spanish as well as reds or anything else.

I would start with a box of frozen cigar minnows and a king leader set up or use any of the variety of lures like BillyBait, C&H chuggers and skirts. I like Mahi colors or white or silver flash. Also try the Mann's Stretch 30's lures in various colors. The Gulf is full of toothy fish so keep a bit of wire on the end.

For bottom fishing, a 4/0 to 6/0 size reel will handle most, the new Torque series of reels that handle braid are real popular right now....although the braid may cost you as much as the reel!

Get you a few subscriptions to SPORT FISHING MAG, SALTWATER SPORTSMAN AND FLORIDA SPORTSMAN and you will be armed and tackled to the max soon. Fl Sportsman has a good and inexpensive DVD series on bottom fishing and trolling on their website. Also pick up their book on tackle and rigging.


I like Trilene Big Game line and respool yearly and cheaply. I use PENN as that is what I grew up with and all the old salts used and have plenty of parts and upgrades availble. You can get rod and reel combos cheaply at BoatersWorld.com as well as other places. Avet reels have had my attention lately though. Just like your fly rod and reel.....you can spend thousands on a set up or $100, they both will catch fish and both must be maintained properly.

Think about how you need to anchor off a reef and fish back onto it and maybe buy an inexpensive drift anchor or two and enjoy them vs trolling motors. Offshore is nice and comfortable June thru Sept so you got plenty of time to research what you want. Everyone does things a little different, only you can decide what works for you.

PS and talk with the guys at the bait and tackle shop just like flyfishing, it can save you lots of trial and error time.

Good Luck,
Molar

[jjnichols]

Noticed you are talking about the coastal bend and am looking at a 19 bay to fish that area. Not many Triumphs in that area it seems. This boat is an 02 model and I just saw a 2 month old post that I had not seen that mentioned cracks in the hull. Do you know anything about this or has anyone else heard of this. I know triumph has a lifetime hull guarantee, but is it transferrable and how good are they to honor it?
Help, anyone! I am about to make a deal for this boat or not.
Thanks for any reply!

[MolarBoater]

I've had 2 cracks...if you get one in a bow concavity they automatically reinforce the other side now. Triumph also upgraded the scuppers and added a bow support at no charge. The first time, Triumph picked up my boat at my house and fixed it at the factory due to the dealer not experienced in the fix. I am waiting to pick my boat up next week for the 2nd crack. Hopefully the dealer has learned.

Don't sweat a crack too much. You just get a few gallons of water in the inner hull but absolutley no change in floatation or performance....of course you can seal it with Rule until winter, which is what I did. If this were fiberglass, well, you'd be in big trouble.

Cracks are not common and are easy to repair by a Master dealer.

I wouldn't loose too much sleep over the issue.

[llama]

Thanks for that advice . Unfortunately I don't get to fish saltwater until December through February. I live in Montana and work like a dog May through Oct then head south. Tired of 20 below and blizzards. We stay in Port Aransas through Feb so was looking for more advice about fishing in the winter there. Looks like goos info on the tackle. I really agree with the concept of using conventional tackle to find the fish the try flyfishing for them.

[k9reno]

Molar is it just me? It seems that all the posts on the 190 bay that talk of problems, particularly cracks are the 2002 model year. Am I just not paying attention or are the 02's jinxed.

[MolarBoater]

Man, I love Montana. Got to fish the Gallatin last month and it was like spring in Dixie!

k9reno, I have posted alot on MY cracks, many threads over several years. Mine kinda documents the transformation of how Triumph accepts a "serious" lifetime warranty issue and how their procedures for repair has "evolved" over time. Sometimes I feel I should keep it to myself but this site is only as strong as the unrestricted "good, bad and ugly" reports that we share but not focusing on the bad or ugly too much!

As for specific models, you might ask Dick since they probably have a hand in many factory warranty repairs, especially in the early years. We are a skewed sampling of owners or the Bay 190 owners are just H-LL on boats!

[llama]

I spent many many days fishing the Gallatin when I lived in Bozeman. It's a great stream and absolutely one of the prettiest places I've ever seen. Most of the fishing in the movie 'A River Runs Through It' was filmed on the Gallatin.
I live on the upper Missouri now. Shoulda gone fishing today but wife has me digging holes for new trees that we ordered. HAPPY EASTER

[Fishin' DC's]

IIama,
First of all, congratulations on your 210. You'll love it. I've had one since 2004 and it still makes my heart go pitter-patter when you throttle up and head out. I was in Corpus Christi for a few years, unfortunately that was before I got back into fishing, so I don't have any local help for you except to check on any local fishing forum that you can read up on the advice of fisherman in your area. People generally are willing to share how-to's, but not necessarily the where-at's (such as GPS spots).

Getting to your original question, the equipment you need will depend on what you're primarily fishing for. For my setup over here on the east side of the gulf, for bottom fishing I use Penn 4/0's spooled with 80lb camo monofiliament line, 7/0 kahle hook, 6 oz-8 oz egg sinker. For trolling, I use an old Penn GT level-wind on a beef stick rod spooled with 65 lb. spider wire braid, with 80 lb fluoro leader. For trolling, I hook up a Mann's Stretch 25 for depths of 25-35 ft and a Stretch 30 for depths of 45-60 ft. They're killers on grouper and kings. I have a couple of Abu Garcia Ambassador reels spooled with 35 lb spider wire braid with 30 lb fluoro leader. Put a 4 in. drone or clark spoon and you're ready for some spanish mack action. Keep a medium weight spinning rod handy ready to hook up a live pinfish to toss at a cobia.

There's a laundry list of must-haves that are too numerous to recall, but I'd recommend you cover the Coast Guard requirements first: Type I life preservers for everybody on board, fire extinguisher, sound device (air horn). Also GPS, bottom machine, vhf, backup handheld gps, epirb (that you hope you never use), a strong pair of bolt cutters for removing hooks embedded in hand or other body parts from the Stretch baits previously mentioned (personal experience 3 times), FLOAT PLAN left with somebody who will call and report if you don't check in, empty bucket (a/k/a plastic throne), ball bat for subduing uncooperative fishes, buoy markers (cheap ones work fine).

Best of luck and go catch 'em up.

[llama]

Thanks, Fishin DC. I am pretty excited about the new boat. Unfortunatly I won't get to ply with it unti fall. Afriend was going to tow it to MT for me but decided that he didn't want the hassle. Oh well... Anyway, it looks like I stick to my original plan and have it shipped to Corpus Christi.
It looks like the tackle selection is not that difficult. As far as the must have items, I was refering to tackle. I already have a fishfinder/gps and a vhf radio picked out and I own a hand held gps now. What is an epirb? Terrific advice on the bolt cutters. Have 8 type 1pfd's What's the plastic bucket for? What about a gaff? Will a porta potty fit in the console? I'm sure I'll have a hundred more questions before I'm all said and done. I'll try not to be a nusiance