Reeling in redfish, trout off the coast of Rockport

Charlie Newton, owner of Redfish Charters, is a legend in the community of Rockport. He has been a fishing guide for over 35 years. He began guiding out of a little 16-foot jon boat and put his clients in big numbers of redfish. His favorite lure was a gold spoon. In later years, he became a real pro using cut mullet for bait. Another guide friend of mine once told me, “A redfish can resist a lure, a live bait but he can’t turn down a cut mullet once that oil and smell reaches him.” Thousands of redfish met their maker because of Redfish Charters and cut mullet.

Now Charlie is older in years and not in good health. But his heritage has been passed on to his grandson, Aerich Oliver. Aerich began working with Charlie as his deckhand when he was 12 years old. I first met Aerich when he was about 14 years old at the Rockport-Fulton outdoor media event, Spring Fling. He would attend all the dinners with his grandparents. Aerich is now 21 years old, engaged to be married, and the one who guides Redfish Charters. Aerich is also an avid duck hunter, and for several years, Aerich and I have tried to get together for a duck hunt or a fishing trip. But our time schedules never matched.

This week I finally got in the boat with Aerich. We pulled out of Cove Harbor near Rockport, ran the Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW) for a couple of miles, and cut into Estes Flats. These famous grass flats line the east side of the ICW almost from Rockport to Aransas Pass. Although, like most of the Coastal Bend that gets tremendous fishing pressure, these flats are home to big numbers of redfish and speckled trout. We didn’t run very far before Aerich cut the engine and we set up a drift.

Aerich climbed up on top of a tall, T-top tower and began to cast. I fished from the deck. I caught several undersized redfish on my Gulp shrimp before Aerich hooked into a nice keeper trout on his soft plastic. From his high perch on the tower, he could see a panorama of grasses, sand holes, bait and redfish. A flounder soon followed that trout into our ice box.

After a couple of drifts we motored on to the California Hole. Bordered by Traylor Island, Corpus Christi Bayou and the Estes Flats, the California Hole is a large, deeper hole that is often full of fish. Aerich anchored the boat and baited three rods with a cut shad. Actually, they were menhaden. Extremely smelly and oily, these cut baits put out quite an aura of fish attraction. We caught several redfish just under the 20-inch minimum legal size. Then the back rod bent over and the line began to peel off the reel. Aerich asked me if I wanted to catch the fish.

“No, you got him,” I said.

I grabbed the landing net as Aerich wrestled with the strong fish. Then he got excited.

“It’s a big trout,” he shouted.

Soon we had a fat, 24-inch, silver-black spotted trout flopping on the floor of the boat.

“Speckled trout are supposed to bite live baits, not cut baits,” I said.

“Sometimes it happens,” he replied. “Let’s move on. We’re going to Paw Paw’s favorite hole.”

Paw-Paw is Grandpa Charlie Newton. We traveled through an opening in Traylor Island into big Aransas Bay. Aerich baited the three rods again with pieces of the oily shad and cast them into a sand hole near the shore of Traylor Island. Soon we had our first keeper redfish on the line. After dropping him into the ice box we moved on down the shore of the island.  When we stopped, Aerich told me he saw five redfish swimming along the shore. We let them settle down and then idled back and anchored near where he saw them. 

“Is this a Paw-Paw spot?”    I asked.

“No,” he answered. “This is an Aerich Oliver spot.”

We set the three rods and soon the back rod doubled over. Aerich grabbed it. At the same time one of the front rods went crazy. I took it, and we had a double trouble hookup. We finally landed both.

I think Aerich will carry on the Charlie Newton heritage just fine. For a great fishing trip with Redfish Charters, call 361-729-8220.