The new Bob Hall Pier has become one of the premier fishing destinations in South Texas in just a matter of weeks, drawing anglers from across the region.
Omar Salinas drove roughly 3 hours from South Padre Island to fish the new pier — and said it stands above the rest.
"If I were to rank it on piers I've fished maybe top 3 or so... probably might even be number 1," Salinas said.
Salinas said the pier's quality is hard to match, even compared to the piers closer to home.
"I'm from South Padre so about 3 hours down south. We have a bunch of piers over there and as far as anything on the beach this is the best I've been to," Salinas said.
According to Dr. Matt Streich, director of the Sportfish Center at Texas A&M Corpus Christi, the science behind the pier's productivity is straightforward.
"Hard structure grows like a fouling community which can make food for fish like Sheepshead. Eddies behind the pier legs can concentrate prey and attract more of the predatory fish people like to catch," Streich said.
Even younger anglers have picked up on what makes the pier so productive. A young angler named Asher explained the appeal of the pier's T-head structure.
"There's a lot of pilings down there since it's a T... and they like that structure where there's a T where there's just that bottom and then all the pilings with the barnacles," Asher said.
Streich said the pier's pilings are particularly attractive to sheepshead.
"Sheepshead are specialized to feed on hard, encrusting crustaceans. So stuff growing on the pilings like barnacles they're eating those," Streich said.
Coolers filled with sheepshead were easy to find at the T-head. Salinas and his group had a productive day.
"We did pretty good got like 13 or 14 of them," Salinas said.
Streich said the combination of waters that went unfished for an extended period and the diverse marine life drawn to the pier's structure make Bob Hall Pier a prime fishing destination. Even rough conditions didn't slow things down.
"Today's 35 mile per hour winds I think everyone caught a fish that was here. That goes to show you whenever you have a chance come out here," Salinas said.
Streich told me that as the trestle is taken down, it could lead to a slight decrease in fish. But as long as the pier itself stands, anglers will find plenty to catch.
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