By Tobin Strickland
Mention the town of Freeport, Texas, and fishing together in the same sentence and it seems to draw a confused look from most of the Gulf Coast sport-fishing community. Many would think you are fishing in an industrial canal or the Intra Coastal Waterway and not a pristine thriving estuary. Freeport, Texas’ extensive redfish, flounder, and speckled trout fishery is cloaked behind the veil of twisted steel condenser units and industrial flares of the petrochemical plants that utilize Freeport’s deepwater port as home base.
The abundant marsh system generally extends from Bastrop Bayou and the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge, southwest across the Brazos and San Bernard Rivers and into the San Bernard Nation Wildlife Refuge. The area consist a large expanse of low-lying cord grass and black rush marsh dotted with tidal ponds and historic river meanders. A shallow draft boat is essential for fishing the many miles of marsh ponds.
Many marsh areas of the gulf coast have little if any oyster reef due to relatively low salinities and the lack of hard substrate for oyster spat to form on. In the Freeport marsh, freshwater flows, from both the San Bernard and the Brazos River, mix in very close proximity to the Gulf inlets creating a moderate salinity level and a perfect environment to foster oyster reef. Ecological diversity is typically already high in salt marsh. Add oyster reef to this scenario and it’s ecological production values go through the roof. What does all that mean for fishing? It means there is a lot of food and cover to grow fish to healthy adults and protect them from predators, which yields a higher population of healthy, heavy fish.
Redfish are abundant in the shallow marsh from late spring through November, and will inhabit many of the marsh ponds and washouts between ponds. Current flows and movement of shrimp, shad, and mullet are the primary keys to locating pods of redfish within each marsh system. According to Captain Joey Barnett of GnettFishing.com, redfish are being caught on Berkley Ripple Mullet in black or glow with chartreuse tail and Swimming Mullet in chartreuse or pearl on 1/8th ounce BaadMarineSupply.com ‘Knotty Hooker’ Jigheads. Barnet uses the same baits on 1/16th ounce jig-heads for flounder. The heavier jig-head can be thrown for the redfish because the lure is worked much faster through the water column. Look for signs of moving pods of redfish, mud-boils, wakes, and pushes to put you on the fish. In the absence of that, fish the scattered oyster reefs with current being swept past them. With the reefs in the area, the BaadMarineSupply.com Spinner Bait combined with a Berkley Swimming Mullet is hard to beat.
Flounder location will vary based on seasonality. In the summer months the flounder will spread far and wide in the marsh and feed on juvenile menhaden, shad, and unlucky crabs. Feeder channels into, and out of, the marsh ponds with current, or on the edge of the current, are prime areas for hooking into the tasty flat fish. Summer fishing trips in the Freeport area typically yield several flounder as a bonus. Freeport’s Flounder are abundant and reside in close proximity to the redfish in the marsh.
Speckled Trout action can also be phenomenal in Freeport when the winds of spring finally subside allowing anglers to fish the beachfront with either live bait or artificial. Tidal Surge Split Tail Mullet fished with on the 1/8th oz Knotty Hooker jig-head work great in the surf. Barnet is using Plum Chartreuse and Black Chartreuse Split Tail Mullet in the surf catching limits, and near limits of speckled trout, keying in on active bait and any bird activity. One of the keys of finding fish in the surf is finding areas where the bars pinch the first gut up against the beach. This forces the water that was flowing down the first gut to break over the first bar and spill out into the second and third gut, typically taking with it baitfish. The predator fish will wait in the second bar at this location for unsuspecting baitfish to be swept over their waiting ambush locations.
If you are looking for a ‘Texas Slam’, Freeport is one location that you could possibly catch a limit of all three in one day. Barnet was also featured in the TroutSupport.com DVD’s and spoke extensively on how to locate redfish in shallow marsh areas.
For more information go to www.troutsupport.com
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