The north jetty on San Jose Island near Port Aransas is one of the most popular and productive angling features on the Texas coast. There are four stone and concrete spur dikes on the channel side of the jetty. Designed to support the main jetty like anchors, these rough, rocky structures with sloping sides also serve as gathering places for seatrout, redfish, and other marine predators waiting to ambush baitfish. Veteran Port Aransas guide Smokey Gaines advises flycasters to look for places around the rocks where the current eddies because of a curve in the jetty. This creates a natural gathering place for predator fish. He notes that the "jetty pros" with conventional tackle target these structures and depressions, as do veteran guides fishing the rocks from boats. In the spring months around these jetties, you often can spot pods of redfish milling around the edges of the rocks.
Most anglers turn right when they arrive at the north jetty shuttleboat pier and head toward the surf. But it also pays on some days to turn left and fish the rocks at the base of the jetty on the channel side. Trout weighing 3 pounds or more hang in holes around these rocks and can be taken on Clousers and Deceivers. During the summer months, ladyfish or "skipjack" usually are easy to spot around these jetties as they chase baitfish and attract the attention of diving birds. They can provide exciting action for flyrodders in the shallow surf at the base of the jetty and will readily take streamer patterns like the Lefty's Deceiver in almost any combination of white, yellow, red, and chartreuse bucktails. The north jetty can be reached via a shuttle boat that departs from Woody's Sports Center in Port Aransas.
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