November 14-15, 2009

Location: Galveston North Jetty and Pelican Island Bridge
Air Temp: 70-78
Water Temp: 72
Depth: 12-24 feet
Winds: SE 10-15 mph
Seas: choppy
Bait: Shad

A great family trip to the coast. We all needed a break and it was fun to spend time together as a family. We fished the Gulf side of the North Jetty near the sunken barge on Saturday and fished the Pelican Island Bridge on Sunday. We landed and released 4 bull reds with each one around 20 pounds, a few whiting, one hardhead, one shark and about 30 sand trout with a few healthy ones around 16"-18". We missed 3 other reds that were only hooked for a few minutes.

I really enjoyed catching a 20 pound red on light tackle. At one point, we were catching sand trout on almost every cast with a slow retrieve and bottom bumping action. I was using a 3/4 ounce jig head due to the strong current tipped with a small piece of shad. After catching several 12-14 inch sand trout, I had a strong bite and knew this was no small fish. I missed the first bite and casted back into the same area in about 14 feet of water. I let the bait hit the bottom then slowly lifted the rod tip and felt a steady pull and this time it was fish on. It was a good fight and took about 10 minutes to land the red. Good fun on light tackle and good practice for my next bass fishing trip on Lake Travis.

Another opportunity to pay it forward! My wife and daughter were able to help a fellow fisherman retrieve his boat. We were both launching at the same time at the Yacht Basin when his rope broke. The "runaway" boat was slowly drifting out from the ramp, and my wife was able to position our boat so my daughter could grab the rope still tied to the front of the boat. My wife backed our boat into the slip next to the ramp and some nice folks at the bait shop helped secure the other boat until the owner was able to hop on board.

October 8-9, 2009

Location: Galveston Concrete Ship and Ship Channel
Air Temp: 80-88
Water Temp: 83
Depth: 30-35 feet
Winds: Sustained at 20 mph and gusting to 25 mph
Seas: Very choppy
Bait: Shad

My father-in-law, Jim, from Ohio joined me and my fishing buddy Alan for a trip in some tough winds. The winds were too much for a trip out to the jetties (we tried despite the rough seas), so we stayed in the bay and the ship channel for some calmer water. I've always had better success this early in the bull red run at the jetties, but we still found some in the bay. We landed 4 bull reds ranging from 18-22 pounds, about 20 gafftop catfish, a few small croakers and a whiting. We lost 2 large fish (likely reds) due to break offs. We had a great time fishing and enjoyed some good food at Casey's.

September 26-27, 2009

Location: Galveston North & South Jetty
Air Temp: 85-90
Water Temp: 81
Depth: 20-34 feet
Winds: Light and Variable
Seas: Smooth to slightly choppy

It was a great 2nd Annual Daddy/Daughter fishing trip. We had a great time fishing and had an excellent dinner at Gaido's! It was fun watching the girls battle 20+ pound bull reds and small sharks. We tagged two bull reds and kept 3 slot reds, a shark and several gafftops. We are already looking forward to the next trip with the girls.

June 21 - 27, 2009

We had a great time on our annual family vacation in Galveston. The island is recovering very well from Hurricane Ike, and I'm glad we were able to do our part for tourism again this year. The weather was perfect - hot with mostly calm seas. As usual, we spent several days on the beach and also made 3 boat fishing trips to the jetties during the week. At night, I had great fun fishing the lights in the canal right off the boat dock at the house. I caught and released about 25 trout ranging from 14 to 22 inches with most being in the 15-18 inch range and two flounder. I used live bait I caught in my cast net (piggy perch and shad) and experimented with several artificials and had good luck with these:

My mom had a nice 15-20 minute battle with a bull redfish that was about 25 pounds. Since we were doing all catch and release, I left my net at home and didn't want to harm the fish with the gaff. I had the leader and almost landed the fish with my Boga grip (a fish landing tool) when he finally spit the hook. Another hi-light of the jetty fishing was when my mom hooked a tarpon that made a fast run about 75 yards from the boat and did the classic acrobatics to spit the hook. I would estimate the tarpon was about 50-75 pounds.

The whole family enjoyed catching sand trout, croakers and of course, catfish in the canal almost every evening. They also had fun catching plenty of small sharks and a nice 23 inch redfish at the jetty.

June 6, 2009

Date: Saturday, June 6, 2009

Location: Port O'Connor, TX

Air Temp: 90

Water Temp: 85

Depth: 16-30 feet

Bait: live shrimp and various artificials

I made a last minute one-day trip (7+ hours of round trip driving) with my buddy Allan to POC. We left the house at 4:00 AM to get on the water around 8:30 AM and we got home around 11:00 PM that night. It was a loooooong day. I'll stay the night next time and get in an extra day of fishing.

It was a beautify day on the water, but the fish had lockjaw. I had seen some reports of kingfish near the jetties which is the main reason we made the trip to POC instead of more familiar fishing grounds in Galveston. Kingfish are usually offshore and out of reach for my small boat, and I've always wanted to learn how to catch them. The birds were working hard over huge schools of Spanish mackerel and probably kingfish, but we couldn't entice them to bite. We tossed every lure we had in the tackle box and even tried live shrimp when the schools would surround the boat and they were too busy chasing bait fish to take our lures. We drifted through the same school at least 7 or 8 times with no takers. We finally stopped chasing the schools of fish and tried a spot on the Gulf side of the south jetty and landed 3 Spanish mackerel up to about 26 inches, 1 kingfish around 30 inches and released an undersized sheepie. We lost two nice fish near the rocks under a popping cork and lost something huge on a big reel that was almost spooled. It made for some excitement on a slow day.

It was still a great day to be on the water even if the fishing was a little slow. It was only my second trip to POC, but I look forward to more to learn that part of the coast.

May 2-3, 2009

Date: Saturday, May 2 and Sunday, May 3, 2009
Location: Lake Travis
Air Temp: 70-85
Water Temp: 76
Depth: 8-14 feet
Bait: plastics (green pumpkin was the best color)

Had some Reel Fun on a fresh water lake for a change. Enjoyed the company of Ken on Saturday for an early morning trip before all the boaters, wake boarders, tubers, etc. We were on the water at day break and fished for about four hours. We had a great day on the water and caught and released about 20 bass and 1 freshwater drum. Most of the fish were in the 12" to 14" range with a couple around 16" to 18". I've been fishing with Ken on Lake Travis for about three years, and I've learned a lot from him. The highlight on Saturday was my donation of a trolling motor in about 30 feet of water. I tried to get Ken to do the right thing and go for a dive, but he decided our friendship was limited to about 8-10 feet of water.

Allan joined me on Sunday afternoon for a nice day on the water, but there was a lot of boat traffic from 3:00 until about 7:30 PM. We finally were able to make it to the Saturday hot spot at about 7:30 PM. We caught and released 4 bass. I lost a really nice bass (10+ pounds) about three feet from the boat. He hit a baby brush hog soft plastic in about 12 feet of water. I knew immediately when I set the hook that it was going to be a big fish. He started pulling line and the drag was singing for only about 30 seconds. Then I saw the classic burst from the bottom and he did a really cool dance across the top of the water and somehow spit the hook. I've caught 12-14 pound redfish on the same rod/reel and this fish was easily 10 pounds which would have been a personal best for me on a largemouth bass. Oh well, I know where he is living right now and I'm going back to see if he will "chew on this".

Here are a couple of pictures from our trip on Saturday.

March 21-22, 2009

Date: Saturday, March 21 and Sunday, March 22, 2009

Location: Galveston North Jetty

Air Temp: 72-74

Water Temp: 69

Depth: 32 feet

Winds: E 10-15 mph on Saturday and ESE 10-20 mph on Sunday

Seas: Saturday was choppy and Sunday was extra choppy

Bait: live blue crabs (cracked)

Talk about some Reel Fun. This weekend was a great trip with the family. The kids were on spring break, and it had been a while since we were able to make a family trip to the coast. I am very fortunate to have a wife and two kiddos that really enjoy saltwater fishing. It was a perfect opportunity to spend some time together as a family and enjoy the great outdoors. As usual, we had great fun on the water and enjoyed some excellent seafood at our usual spot on Galveston Island - Gaido's. We were glad to see the progress made on the island since Hurricane Ike made such a mess of things last September.

We hooked 15 big drum and landed and released 11 black drum ranging from 18 to 34 pounds and 1 bonus red drum at 25 pounds with a total weight of 295 pounds. Most of the fish were caught during the tidal movement which has proven to be key to get the bite started for these big fish. This was the first time I had taken the family fishing for the big black drum (aka: "big uglies"). These fish migrate from the deep waters of the Gulf in February and March to spawn near the bays which makes the jetties in Galveston a prime spot. We primarily fished about two miles from the beach front and about 300 yards from the rock jetty that extends about 5 miles into the bay and Gulf.

You can never make any promises when it comes to fishing, but on the drive to Galveston I told the family we had a good shot at catching at least a few fish around 20 pounds. Well, as you can see from the pictures, our trip was a success. Watching the kids and my wife fight one huge fish after another for up to 15 minutes per fish was some good fun. At one point, I stood on the front of the boat and watched while we had a triple hook-up. It was priceless to watch both kids and my wife do the "fire drill" around each other to keep lines from becoming tangled. This was a great overall trip and will be tough to beat in the future.

After several big ones, my daughter was ready to try catching a smaller fish, so we rigged her up with a lightweight rod/reel with only 12 pound test line and shrimp for bait instead of the crab. That plan worked for a while because she caught a few catfish, but eventually, a 32 pound black drum was on the end of her 12 pound line. It was definitely some "rod bending, drag screaming action". She fought the fish like a pro using lightweight tackle and about 15 minutes later we were taking a picture of her beautiful Big Ugly.

We also had a bonus 25 pound healthy red drum (aka: redfish or bull red) that my son tangled with for about 10 minutes. We could tell by the movement and fight that it was likely not a black drum, so I was guessing a redfish or maybe even a small shark. The redfish also liked the crab we were using for bait.

This was a great overall trip with the family. I think they had as much fun as I did. I'm already looking forward to another family trip.

March 7-8, 2009

Date: Saturday, March 7 and Sunday, March 8, 2009
Location: Galveston North Jetty, South Jetty and Ship Channel
Air Temp: 75-80
Water Temp: 64
Winds: South at 15+ mph on Saturday and South 5-10 mph Sunday
Seas: Choppy inside the channel at the jetties on Saturday and Sunday morning; calm on Sunday afternoon
Bait: live crab for the black drum and live shrimp for the slot red

We caught and released 13 black drum ranging from 20 to 37 pounds with a total weight of 355 pounds. All of the big uglies were caught using crabs in about 30 feet of water near the boat cut at the North Jetty except for one that was caught in the ship channel. The bite was slow both days until the tide started moving. Once the tide started to move and I had to switch from a 3 oz to a 8 oz egg sinker just to keep the bait on the bottom, the Okumas started to sing. On Sunday morning, we arrived at the North Jetty at a slack tide and the 2.4 kts current was not predicted by NOAA to start until after lunch. We tried our favorite spot for about 30 minutes, but no action so we moved to the South Jetty on the channel side to see if any reds, slot drum or sheepshead might be biting. We only found one 25" healthy red that took a free-lined shrimp very close to the rocks. He put up a great fight on light tackle and was released to fight another day.

Paying It Forward
When we launched at the Yacht Basin on Sunday morning around 8:00 AM, a young lady approached our boat and asked if we could help her husband who was broke down in the ship channel across from the cruise ship terminal. I instantly remembered my solo trip last year in April when another fisherman towed me back when I had engine problems. Of course, we made the quick run down the ship channel and towed the 25' Boston Whaler back to the GYB. The fishermen had made the trek over to Fat Boys earlier for shrimp (none at GYB) and they must have hit something with the lower unit. They were grateful for the tow and gave us the shrimp which contributed to my fun with a slot red. Hope the damage was minimal.