[Fishhead56]

Sabine Pass is a great place to put out from.

Sabine Lake, Spec. trout, flounder

Sabine Jetties, Red drum, Black Drum to 40 lb, Sting Ray to 200lb Spec.Trout and Spanish Mac.

5 to 20 miles, regular mix of Texas Gulf coastal fish, From the platforms when the waters green, Red drum, King mac, Shark, Tarpon. LIng, The start of different snapper speices. bottom and free line bait fishing.

20 to 50 King, Ling, Snapper, Amber Jack, Barracuda, Maybe a Sail or grouper and start getting some Dophin on the weed lines. Bottom, free line bait and trolling @ platforms.

50 - 80 miles starts the blue water bite with water depths 150 to 300'
Red snapper, ling, AJ, Hammer Head shark, Mixed Gruoper, Dolphin, Wahoo, Sails, Blackfin from the platforms and Shrimp boats. Deep drop and trolling.

Beyond 80 the platform deep drop fishing can be insane for monster grouper. AJ's. as this is getting closer to the shelf.

On the shelf and beyond the platforms need to be floating\suspended because of the depth. And these become the focus for YFT, Wahoo and MR. Billfish.


As any where different fish, different areas at different times of the year.

For example right now a night targeting Bull Reds and Tarpon @ 5 to 20 miles

just for sport,

Later Dec, to March, AJ's, BFT, Groupers for meat.

If you got a boat to fish out of bring it down it would be worth you time.
If you got a car with out AC leave it behind it won't be worth nothing

 

[Fishhead56]

I googled Stetson Bank after I wrote the below heres one of several diving related links. Same place ??
Stetson Bank Trip - August 96

3030.
Did you mean Stetson Rock?
@ 75' it follows the outline I posted above.
Kings, Snapper, Grouper.
I've drift\jigged ,drift bottom fished and trolled the area
at different times of the year with success.

Here's some sample reports from Galveston by others.

Reports from Galveston for Stetson Rock

June time report,
Several wrecks and old coral outcroppings in 75' to 80' of water were fished. We were fishing Spanish Sardines fished at or near the bottom over a wreck in 75' of water and with in roughly 30 minutes, 39 sow red snapper from 14 to 21 pounds had been decked
March time report,
The first stop was at Stetson Rock which is about 72 miles to the SE. The 75 ft. deep water gave up 63 kingfish to a really nice 41 pounds by the time they left.

The Herald Bank also sits between Galveston and Sabine pass. It is also a well known area.

Although the natural bottom is pretty flat and bland in our area out to 100 miles.
It has been said this area might have the Best, Most, Greatest, (pick one) gathering of accidental artfical reefs in the world provided by our local energy industry.

Great days of fishing have been made for me from the Sabine Jetties
simply driven by sea conditions and fuel capacitiy. From Sabine heading towards the West Cameron blocks (areas set up and named by the oil guys)
There is always another platform on the horizon to check. Many of the platforms will have floating tye off bouy's the size of a small bus close by
that I try to troll (dolphin, wahoo) prior to setting up on a platform.
Now also their are wrecks, rocks, surmerged pilings and platform legs to be found and fished in the area also. But that would be another discovery phase of fishing our Texas and La. waters.

An area that I've yet to explore are a bunch of abandoned, sunken platforms moved to the High Island Block areas starting 70 miles from Galveston, these are part of the Texas reef program.

The moving targets that produce Tuna, Wahoo, Dolphin are the anchored Shrimp boats and weed lines. These are summer time possibilities and best
when the blue water comes within reach of ones boat.

So to try to answer the 2nd part of your question. I've personnely have never hooked a Tuna from over bottom structure in the Gulf. The closest in for me have been from behind deep water shrimpers. Yes even YFT, but that was father down the coast.

What area of the east coast are you x-fering from?

Later

Kevin

 

[Fishhead56]

The shortest route to the shelf will be from the ports in the coastal bend area of TX. or from Grand Isle - Venice LA.

From Sabine Pass it's a trip.

 

[Fishhead56]

Plenty of time here in Kuwait to surf the web until I get back to Galveston.
So I have learned that YFT have been sited by divers @ Stetson bank. Report was July of 99
Kev.

"Over night, we moved approximately 40 miles towards shore to our next site, Stetson Bank."

Breakfast (eggs, bagels, pastries)

Dive 5: 76 feet, 34 minutes

This was a much better site. The bottom depth ranged from 60 to 66 feet. There is a wall drop off that plunges to 400 feet. Much different bottom compistion. Large rocky upcroppings hide a larger number of crustaceans (shrip, crab and lobsters). Also, much larger number of big fish (5-6 barracuda, jacks, yellow fin tuna, and a few grouper). A couple of dive pairs encountered a good size tuna.

2:00 surface interval

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