The Lone Star State is a great place. Fun people, great food, an incredible variety of outdoor activities, Texas has it all. From freshwater to salt, giant largemouth to some incredible swordfish fishing in the Gulf, Texas is home to some wonderful places to bring your boat. Combining boating with great food and live music, here’s our guide to doing Texas on your boat.
Lake Travis
Lake Travis is an Austin-adjacent waterbody that sits on the eastern edge of the Texas Hill Country. When it comes to taking in sunsets or enjoying a wide variety of accommodations (think renting a lake house with a dock for your boat), it’s here. You can spend time anchored in isolated coves or head to the many more developed aspects of the lake to raft up and enjoy the crowd.
Skiing, fishing, and enjoying a weekend on the water, Lake Travis is a great setting to do it all. When you add its proximity to Austin—the great food scene (everything from classics like Michelin-starred barbecue to Tex-Mex, to trendy French inspired or Asian fusion joints), enough music to be known as the Live Music Capitol of the World, and festivals of all manner, a boat-based Lake Travis vacation has something for everyone.
The Central Coast- Port Aransas and Port O’Connor
The Central Coast of Texas is an outdoorsman’s paradise. It is also home to a well-rounded tourist infrastructure. When it comes to boating, there is a vast network of flats and protected bays, and easy access to the open Gulf.
Port O’Connor is a bit further from the beaten path. Its network of shallow bays and coastal marshes are ideal for everything from sight fishing tailing redfish on the flats to waterfowling on the Central Flyway.
Port Aransas has grown from a sleepy fishing town into a coastal visitor wonderland. These days, the restaurant and bar scene here is really good and really fun. In the 1920s and 30s, the tarpon fishing in Port Aransas was good enough to attract the likes of President Frankin D. Roosevelt. If you stay at the Tarpon Inn, you can see a tarpon scale that he signed. In the summer, the offshore fishing here is good. If you have the boat for it, you’d be wise to give it a shot.
Nearshore, you’ll find plenty of kingfish and red snapper. A bit further offshore, the marlin fishing and offshore culture make Port Aransas the setting for some really good and really fun billfish tournaments. The Billfish Pachanga, set out of Virginia’s On The Bay and home to a private concert on awards night, being perhaps the best example.
Lake O.H. Ivie
If catching a 10-pound largemouth bass is on your bucket list, you could make the case that west Texas’ Lake O. H. Ivie is the place for you. The lake record, caught in 2022, sits at an incredible 17.06 pounds.
The draw to this lake in west-central Texas is, however, far more than a single big fish. This article from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department provides context to just how incredible the bass fishing here can be.
The state of Texas operates the ShareLunker Program, in which anglers can donate bass greater than 13 pounds to the state’s spawning program. Lake O. H. Ivie has contributed 39 ShareLunkers (39 largemouth bass that weighed 13 pounds or more!) to the program.
Peak season for big bass in this part of the world runs from February through June. Before bringing your boat to Lake O. H. Ivie, be sure to check water levels. There are plenty of access points, you’ll just want to make sure that ramps are accessible at the time of your trip.
Galveston
The upper coast of Texas boasts a great boating experience. Perhaps the focal point of the action is Galveston Bay. If yours is a bay boat, the world is your oyster. You can target big speckled trout in the springtime. In the fall, you can catch piles of bull redfish around the jetties or at the mouths of passes.
If yours is the type of boat that is powered by triple 425s, the swordfishing here is really hard to beat. It’s about 80 miles to blue water, but once you get there, the bottom is about as productive as can be. Swordfish fishing in this part of the world means deep dropping in the daytime and drifting at night.
The upper coast is also home to a network of oil rigs and platforms. Live baiting around them is a great way to catch blue marlin. The Flower Gardens, a deepwater reef offshore of Galveston, is home to a world-class wahoo bite as well.
On shore, there is plenty to do as well. Galveston is near enough to Louisiana to be able to find good Cajun food. If you’ve never eaten a proper po’ boy sandwich, do yourself a favor and order a couple (you can’t go wrong with fried shrimp or fried oysters).
The Kemah Boardwalk is a focal point of dining, amusement, and hospitality on Galveston Bay. If you’re looking for something a bit more low-key, there are lots and lots of beach houses to rent in this part of the world.
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Lake Travis
Lake Travis is an Austin-adjacent waterbody that sits on the eastern edge of the Texas Hill Country. When it comes to taking in sunsets or enjoying a wide variety of accommodations (think renting a lake house with a dock for your boat), it’s here. You can spend time anchored in isolated coves or head to the many more developed aspects of the lake to raft up and enjoy the crowd.
Skiing, fishing, and enjoying a weekend on the water, Lake Travis is a great setting to do it all. When you add its proximity to Austin—the great food scene (everything from classics like Michelin-starred barbecue to Tex-Mex, to trendy French inspired or Asian fusion joints), enough music to be known as the Live Music Capitol of the World, and festivals of all manner, a boat-based Lake Travis vacation has something for everyone.
The Central Coast- Port Aransas and Port O’Connor
The Central Coast of Texas is an outdoorsman’s paradise. It is also home to a well-rounded tourist infrastructure. When it comes to boating, there is a vast network of flats and protected bays, and easy access to the open Gulf.
Port O’Connor is a bit further from the beaten path. Its network of shallow bays and coastal marshes are ideal for everything from sight fishing tailing redfish on the flats to waterfowling on the Central Flyway.
Port Aransas has grown from a sleepy fishing town into a coastal visitor wonderland. These days, the restaurant and bar scene here is really good and really fun. In the 1920s and 30s, the tarpon fishing in Port Aransas was good enough to attract the likes of President Frankin D. Roosevelt. If you stay at the Tarpon Inn, you can see a tarpon scale that he signed. In the summer, the offshore fishing here is good. If you have the boat for it, you’d be wise to give it a shot.
Nearshore, you’ll find plenty of kingfish and red snapper. A bit further offshore, the marlin fishing and offshore culture make Port Aransas the setting for some really good and really fun billfish tournaments. The Billfish Pachanga, set out of Virginia’s On The Bay and home to a private concert on awards night, being perhaps the best example.
Lake O.H. Ivie
If catching a 10-pound largemouth bass is on your bucket list, you could make the case that west Texas’ Lake O. H. Ivie is the place for you. The lake record, caught in 2022, sits at an incredible 17.06 pounds.
The draw to this lake in west-central Texas is, however, far more than a single big fish. This article from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department provides context to just how incredible the bass fishing here can be.
The state of Texas operates the ShareLunker Program, in which anglers can donate bass greater than 13 pounds to the state’s spawning program. Lake O. H. Ivie has contributed 39 ShareLunkers (39 largemouth bass that weighed 13 pounds or more!) to the program.
Peak season for big bass in this part of the world runs from February through June. Before bringing your boat to Lake O. H. Ivie, be sure to check water levels. There are plenty of access points, you’ll just want to make sure that ramps are accessible at the time of your trip.
Galveston
The upper coast of Texas boasts a great boating experience. Perhaps the focal point of the action is Galveston Bay. If yours is a bay boat, the world is your oyster. You can target big speckled trout in the springtime. In the fall, you can catch piles of bull redfish around the jetties or at the mouths of passes.
If yours is the type of boat that is powered by triple 425s, the swordfishing here is really hard to beat. It’s about 80 miles to blue water, but once you get there, the bottom is about as productive as can be. Swordfish fishing in this part of the world means deep dropping in the daytime and drifting at night.
The upper coast is also home to a network of oil rigs and platforms. Live baiting around them is a great way to catch blue marlin. The Flower Gardens, a deepwater reef offshore of Galveston, is home to a world-class wahoo bite as well.
On shore, there is plenty to do as well. Galveston is near enough to Louisiana to be able to find good Cajun food. If you’ve never eaten a proper po’ boy sandwich, do yourself a favor and order a couple (you can’t go wrong with fried shrimp or fried oysters).
The Kemah Boardwalk is a focal point of dining, amusement, and hospitality on Galveston Bay. If you’re looking for something a bit more low-key, there are lots and lots of beach houses to rent in this part of the world.
Back to Blue Life