Surf producing from Sabine to Port O’Connor

By Robert Sloan For Lone Star outdoor newS

On a green tide, the surf has been giving up impressive numbers of trout and redfish. Live baits like croaker and shrimp have been good, as have a variety of artificial lures.

Some of the best fishing has been on the east side of the Port O’Connor jetties and east toward Matagorda, according to guide Ron Arlitt, whose clients were able to take advantage of particularly calm winds during a recent POC jaunt.

“The water has been in really good shape on a calm day,” Arlitt said. “We caught it just right and caught reds up in the first gut, and trout out a little deeper. We used live croaker. On one day, it was a real strange bite on the reds. They would only hit the bigger croaker instead of the smaller ones. It’s something different every day in the surf.”

The bite in the POC surf has also reportedly been good from the south jetty down past the lighthouse, according to surf fishing enthusiast Robert Anderson.

Primarily fishing the surf near San Luis up to POC, Anderson has been finding success fishing soft plastics rigged on 1/4-ounce jig heads.

“We caught the water green to the beach near Surfside, a few miles east of the Freeport jetties,” he said. “We found a bait camp that had good-sized shrimp and used those under slip corks. But we also free-lined the shrimp with a split shot. Live bait is good in the surf, but when the water is really clear, lures like a silver spoon or some sort of mullet imitation work really well.”

Guide Charlie Paradoski, out of Matagorda, has been fishing the surf well east of the POC jetties. However, as a lure-only