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Aransas Bay

Nestled behind St. Joseph Island, the Aransas Bay system includes the waters of Copano, Redfish, St. Charles and South bays, each with noteworthy fishing opportunities.

In Aransas Bay proper, wade fishermen can target shallow shorelines and numerous shallow back lakes behind St. Joseph Island, as well as many oyster reefs and wells in the bay's deeper waters.

Corpus Bay

Both South Bay and Redfish Bay are known for their large areas of shallow, grass flats ideal for drift fishing and wading, while sheltered Copano Bay is known for its wealth of oyster reefs.

The Corpus Bay system also features numerous fish-attracting reefs in its small ``back bay'' of Nueces Bay. As the deepest of Coastal Bend bays, the bowl-shaped Corpus Christi Bay is better known for its ring of shallow shorelines.

Of these, the most popular are the shallow coves and flats behind Mustang Island. East Flats and Shamrock Cove, for example, are names in the news when the fishing action gets hot.

The mainland side of the bay, however, can also boast shallow beaches where the fish are known to roam. These include the beaches along the city's Ocean Drive, the Nueces Bay Causeway, the Portland shoreline and the beaches of the spoil islands between Ingleside and Aransas Pass.

Upper Laguna Madre

If the waters of Aransas and Corpus Christi Bay are locally esteemed, the waters of the Upper Laguna Madre have earned world-wide recognition in fishing circles.

As one of only two hypersaline bays in the world, the lagoon primarily consists of a vast sprawl of shallow, grassy flats behind Padre Island, the largest barrier island in the northern hemisphere.

The barrier island shelters such well-known fishing grounds as the Graveyard, the Meadows and the Yarborough Pass area. On the mainland side of the lagoon are miles and miles of shallows bearing the easily recognizable name of King Ranch Shoreline.

Baffin Bay

While the lagoon flats are noteworthy, the adjacent Baffin Bay is simply famous for its so-called "rocks."

These boulder-sized and coral-like constructions of ancient marine worms are magnets for speckled trout, especially trophy-sized specimens that attract attention on a national scale.

No other waters produce larger numbers of big trout than the hypersaline environs of the lagoon and Baffin Bay.

There's also information on fishing from the shore or surf, in a boat or from a charter vessel.