About Us
Port Bay Club is a private hunting and fishing club located in Rockport, TX on Port Bay, a smaller estuary adjacent to Copano Bay. Incorporated in 1912, Port Bay Club is the oldest, continuously-operated hunting and fishing club in Texas.
Members are a community of outdoorsmen and women who love hunting, fishing, Texas sunsets, campfire camaraderie, and an occasional tall tale. Our passion is passing on our legacy, traditions and respect for the outdoors to the next generation of Texans—our cherished kids and grandkids.
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Hunting
Port Bay Club offers guided duck, goose and teal hunting during the state-approved seasons which typically run from early to late September for teal and November to January for ducks and geese, with a two-week break beginning around Thanksgiving.
The club maintains hunting blinds in Port Bay and also leases marshland to the east of the club where more hunting blinds are located on saltwater inlets or ponds. Blinds accommodate 2-3 hunters.
Professional guides are arranged by the club for members and transportation is provided to and from all blinds.
Hunters may harvest any of the following species on a hunt including Redhead, Pintail, Bluebill, Canvasback, Bufflehead, Bluewing & Greenwing Teal, Widgeon, Gadwall, Mottled Duck, Shoveler, and Goldeneye.
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Fishing
Port Bay Club offers fishing on-site on the club pier or thru wading in Port Bay. The club also offers a boat ramp for members who wish to launch their own boat to fish the surrounding waters. Numerous marinas and boat launches offer access to fishing on nearby Copano Bay, Aransas Bay, Saint Charles Bay, and Corpus Christi Bay.
Local fish species include red drum (aka redfish), spotted sea trout, black drum, sheepshead, flounder, tripletail and the rare alligator gar. Blue crabs are also frequently off the club pier.
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Lodging
Port Bay Club lodge accommodates 43 guests in a combination of four 4-bed suites (with a bathroom and shower en suite) and nine 3-bed bedrooms with access to showers, sinks, and restrooms for men and women. Suites have twin beds and regular rooms have full beds.
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Dining
After hurricane Harvey destroyed the original dining hall, Port Bay Club built a new, upgraded dining facility and kitchen in order to provide high-quality meals to members in a comfortable ambience.
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Club Facilities & Amenities
In addition to a new lodge and dining hall, Port Bay Club has the following amenities including a recreational building for socializing, watching sports and watching sunsets over Copano Bay; temperature-controlled locker room for storing fishing and hunting gear; skiffs (aka guide boats) for hunting; large marsh boat for towing skiffs to blinds; limited boat storage; kayak racks; fire pit; gear shed for equipment used during duck season; fishing pier; and a cleaning shed on the pier for cleaning ducks and fish.
Our History
Port Bay Club is the oldest, continuously-operated hunting and fishing club in Texas. In 1909, a local hunting and fishing guide named Andrew Sorenson acquired the property and in May of 1912 Sorenson incorporated his operation into a private club, selling shares at $150 each to 100 members.
Because of the area’s reputation as a sportsman’s paradise, Sorenson had little trouble recruiting his original charter membership. Interestingly, the club’s charter members weren’t only Texans—members hailed from as far away as New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Atlanta, including a former governor of Wisconsin, G. W. Peck.
All this is rather remarkable since in those days there was little infrastructure along the Texas Coast. Many members traveled to the club by way of the old San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad (later a Southern Pacific branch line) to the town of Gregory, where they were picked up by a local jitney (bus) service, or sometimes the club manager. Due to these challenges, many members stayed for weeks and months at a time.
As a shareholder-operated corporation, the club was managed by a series of managers ranging from G.M. Harrell and Milton Harrell (father and son) to Arthur R. Curry (manager for 25 years) to an Aransas Co. Sheriff. These managers strived to maintain the culture and traditions that have served as the foundation for the club’s reputation and longevity.
Over the years, the club has evolved from a hunting and fishing club to a family-oriented club focused on the heritage and legacy of traditional Gulf Coast outdoor activities.
On Aug. 25, 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall over San Jose Island and then near Rockport, in south-central Texas, as a Category 4 hurricane, threatening millions of residents with 130-mph winds, heavy rains, and a massive storm surge that swamped the coast.
It became the country’s first major Category 3+ hurricane since Wilma hit Florida in October 2005 and the first major hurricane to strike southern Texas since Celia in 1970. Harvey ranks as the second-most costly hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since 1900.
Harvey inflicted more than $125 billion in damages in the Texas gulf coast area--the club experienced more than $2.5M in damage.
In typical Port Bay style, the shareholders rolled up their sleeves and began reconstruction. Today we have a new lodge, dining hall, locker room and manager’s house.
This undertaking demonstrated true Texas grit, like that of the original club shareholders who carved the club out of a spit of land and a marsh. That “YES WE CAN” attitude continues today..
Robert Earl Keen (Texan and Texas Music Star) captured the spirit of Port Bay Club in one of his most popular songs, “The road goes on forever and the party never ends”.
