A pair of year around, United States Do-It-Yourself tropical fisheries offers phenomenal warm weather inshore fishing during the middle of winter.

Story and photography by Danno Wise

The weeks after New Year’s are often when the harsh realities of winter set in along the Texas coast. While there is still a cadre of fishermen willing to brave the winter chill, particularly those in search of trophy speckled trout, the vast majority of inshore anglers are daydreaming of warmer weather.

Luckily for them, a pair of the best year around, Do-It-Yourself tropical fisheries are part of the United States. Hawaii and Puerto Rico are a state and territory, respectively, and offer Texans willing to travel tremendous opportunities to do some warm weather inshore fishing during the middle of winter.

While these two angling destinations are part of U.S.A. traveling to them gives the feel of visiting far off foreign countries in search of exotic species. The biggest difference? You don’t need a passport and are still under the protection of U.S. laws.

You still get to see dramatically different flora and fauna and target a myriad of inshore species – some familiar and some unique – in the comfort of 80 degree weather while the Lone Star State is getting chilled by Old Man Winter.  Both of these locales are considered great winter escapes.

Hawaii, however, is actually a great way to escape the sweltering summer heat as well.  Given high temperatures even in August are typically in the mid-80s, substantially cooler than in the Lone Star State that time of year. Conversely, Puerto Rico can be even hotter and more humid than Texas during summer, so trips there are best saved for the winter months.

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