I hope to visit the Texas coast in early May in search of longnose killies, Fundulus similis. Texas is outside of my normal collecting range. I've spent time with GoogleEarth examining the coast looking for sandy shores with convenient access like by bridges. One area that looks good is around Port Bolivar on the eastern side of Galveston Bay, where Highway 87 ends at the free ferry. Another good site looks to be Port Aransas across the bay from Corpus Christi. I'd appreciate any suggestions as to whether these are good sites, or others that would work easily. Thanks!

I wish I could help but I am new to the Corpus Christi area but I may be able to find out some info for you, I will ask one of the good LFS employees that I have been talking to and possibly ask at the bait shops.

I've been fishing at Port Aransas all my life, and though I've never pulled a seine there (amazingly), I might be able to help out. Go through Aransas Pass on 361, which is just a series of bridges over the flats before you get to the ferry going to PA. I haven't caught Fundulus similis in any cast nets, but have caught Fundulus grandis, gobies, and silversides (including amazons) in that neck of the woods. Access is easy, and it's all wadeable.

I don't know how Boliver is yet. It's one of the spots that got obliterated by Ike.

Thanks guys. I realized that the Port Bolivar peninsula was the area that generated all sorts of horror stories after Ike. I was in Pass Christian, Mississippi, last summer and it had obviously just started to recover from Katrina two years before. The only houses were set back pretty far from the water, and Highway 90 had just been rebuilt. It was no problem to park along the beach and net fish.....

I lived on Galveston island for 9 years, and probably went collecting well over 500 times in the surrounding areas. I've not been back since hurricane Ike, but pre-Ike anywhere surrounding the oyster reefs in Galveston bay were sure-fire bets for longnose killies, gulf killies, silversides, sheepshead minnows, bay anchovy (spring), clingfish, oyster toadfish, many juvenile drum spp, blackcheek toungefish, hogchokers, least puffers, the occasional pipefish (Syngnathus louisianae and S. scovelli) et cetera, et cetera.

On Bolivar the Anhuac National Wildlife Refuge is a great spot for freshwater stuff- there was a freshwater population of S. scovelli established there until about 2006 (then all records of them disappeared from my field notebooks) warmouth, crappie, longear sunfish, and other centrarchids abound here as well...but be REAL careful collecting here as there are A LOT of American alligators! Also on Bolivar a great point of entry into the bay is (was?) at rollover pass- lots of fishermen wade in/launch kayaks here- you can wade for thousands of yards along the bayside in waist-deep water collecting around the oyster reef.

If you are in search of Fundulus similis- here's my secret sweet-spot on Galveston island: Sportsman Road (at the end of 8 Mile Road- look on google maps)- drive all the way to the dead end, park, wade in and collect in the marsh...but again, take with a grain of salt as I've not collected there since '07 (pre-Ike) when I moved to Dallas I've collected tens of thousands of longnose killies here over the years, most for use as feeders (I know, heresy for fundulophiles!): here's a pic on fishbase of some F. similis I collected at that very spot: http://fishbase.org/...y...es&TotRec=2 My field notes show that they were most abundant at this site from July-October (at least they were from 2003-2007).

Christmas bay (west of Galveston) also has relatively high diversity, and F. similis are quite common there as well.

On the west end of the island the little pools and surrounding marshland that were at the base of the causeway over the San Luis pass contained the highest diversity of ichthyofauna of any sites on-island...but even before the storm, these lands were being taken over by development of million dollar beach-houses. Also if you are with a partner- take some time to seine the channel here, especially around the bridge pilings- you'll get all kinds of cool juvenile/larval stuff in the summer.

Another secret spot: the small pond in the public cemetery off 61st street (behind the Kroger grocery store) was (at one time) chock full of sailfin mollies, one could throw a cast-net and have 50-100 inside of five minutes collecting!

The small isolated pools surrounding east beach also contain lots of sheepshead minnows, diamond killifish, blennies, gobies, flounder.

The oyster reef below the causeway leading to Pelican Island typically is a good spot for needlefish and ballyhoo postlarvae/juveniles (at night).

Crested blennies, molly miller, seargent major, clingfish, and peppermint shrimp are abundant on the jetties at night.

In the spring/early summer the ponds in Galveston island state park (especially the ones behind the old amphitheater) are full of juvenile ladyfish (Elops saurus) in FW, as well as numerous true killies, and diamond killies.

Striped mullet (Mugil cephalus) should be abundant at ALL these sites as well

...that's about all I can think of at the moment, hope that helps you out some, good luck down there!

Edited by BLChristie, 07 April 2009 - 12:05 AM.

That's a pretty exhaustive account, thanks!

Nice account, you're making it hard for me to get any work done. I love that kind of habitat [wouldn't mind sampling the trout and redfish population either ].
One thing I can add, having never actually been there but knowing that type of habitat, among the... "kinds of cool juvenile/larval stuff in the summer..." around the pilings and jetties would be two or three species of butterflyfish [most likely spotfin and foureye] and possibly angels as well. Stuff like that is best sampled while snorkling as they stay very close to the rocks, usually with overhead cover. You gotta get in there and peer up under the over hanging boulders on the jetty or under the docks around the pilings. No seine can get in there.

Nice account, you're making it hard for me to get any work done. I love that kind of habitat [wouldn't mind sampling the trout and redfish population either ].
One thing I can add, having never actually been there but knowing that type of habitat, among the... "kinds of cool juvenile/larval stuff in the summer..." around the pilings and jetties would be two or three species of butterflyfish [most likely spotfin and foureye] and possibly angels as well. Stuff like that is best sampled while snorkling as they stay very close to the rocks, usually with overhead cover. You gotta get in there and peer up under the over hanging boulders on the jetty or under the docks around the pilings. No seine can get in there.

The problem with snorkeling in the Northern GOM, west of the Mississippi river basin is that the water is usually the color of chocolate milk- average visbility is less than a foot, more like 4-6". The jetties in Galveston are best sampled with a dipnet by scraping blindly along the sides of the rocks, and the bridge pilings I was refeering to are in 3-4 feet of water in a moderate current, a 10' seine is perfect for getting between them (like a skiing a slalom) and catching the little schools of lookdown, spadefish, sometimes (but rarely) angels (queen and french), tripletail, and cobia (the juveniles are pretty, but will grow to over 3lbs in less than a year!)...of course a few times a year the water clears up some in the summer, in those cases snorkeling is an option, but that't the exception to the rule, most of the time the water is dookie-brown

The problem with snorkeling in the Northern GOM, west of the Mississippi river basin is that the water is usually the color of chocolate milk- average visbility is less than a foot, more like 4-6".

Yah I didn't take that into account. If I showed up in RI and found vis like that [as happens with storms occasionally], I'd be outa luck - no point in getting wet.
Too bad - your odds of blindly grabbing a butterfly or angel with a dipnet are very slim indeed. I've tried many times to do the blind dipnet thing without luck. Jump in and snorkle the same spot ten minutes later and see a dozen butterflies.

The water really clears up as you go south. Once you're in Port Aransas or Corpus, clarity is pretty good. South Padre is like the Caribbean.