October 27-28, 2012

Location: Galveston - Pelican Island Bridge
Air Temp: 56-68
Water Temp: 65
Water Clarity: Stained
Winds: 17+ mph
Bait: live shrimp and cracked crabs

Had a fun daddy/daughter trip to Galveston this past weekend.  Our first serious cold front this season passed through Texas late last week and was forecasted to hit the Texas coast on Friday with strong winds persisting all weekend and that definitely turned out to be true.  With winds gusting to 30 mph on Friday in Galveston, we almost decided to cancel the trip.  With only a few options to go fishing the rest of this year, we made the decision to go anyway.  I'm glad we did.  The winds were stronger than I usually like for fishing, but subsided over the weekend and were not intolerable.

We stayed safe and dryer by staying in the ship channel rather than going into the open bay or near the open Gulf by the jetties.  Even with poor fishing conditions, we still managed to catch some big fish and a few small ones.  My daughter started Saturday afternoon out by catching a 30 pound Black Drum near the bridge and followed up with a nice slot size black drum and a few other small fish.  The tide was incoming on Saturday afternoon.  We lost one big fish (likely a Black Drum or Redfish) in the pillars of the bridge when the fish made fast run after only being hooked for about 30 seconds.  The fish was too big to pull away from the bridge.

We tried the bridge and an outgoing tide again on Sunday morning and "Kat" landed about an 18 pound black drum.  We then tried along the shoreline of Pelican Island to see if the flounder were biting.  We only caught one small flounder and saw similar results with the many other boats fishing that area. We did catch another slot black drum.  The fishing was slow, but as usual, we had a great time on the water.  All fish were released.

This time we varied from the routine of Casey's for dinner and enjoyed some Original Mexican Cafe.  

 

October 13-14, 2012

Location: Galveston Jetties and Pelican Island Bridge
Air Temp: 78-85
Water Temp: 79
Water Clarity: Good
Winds: 10-15+ mph
Bait: live shrimp, live caught bait fish and cut bait

My friend Alan and I made the drive from Austin to Galveston early on Saturday morning and enjoyed two good days on the water.  The wind was predicted to be 15+ mph on Saturday and it was definitely a little rough on Saturday; however, we still found some fishable water at both the North and South Jetty.  Sunday was calmer with winds about 10 mph and calm for part of the morning.

On Saturday, we caught a few sand trout, perch and a bunch of large croakers near the sunken barge at the North Jetty.  We moved over to rougher water conditions with plenty of chop on the channel side of the South Jetty and landed our one and only big red fish for the day.  Alan caught this big redfish on a large live croaker.

On Sunday, we tried the North Jetty again on both sides with limited success but did manage to catch a few croakers and more perch but not at the same rate as Saturday.  We then tried the concrete ship and then made our way to the Pelican Island bridge.  We caught and released about 10-15 sand trout and a few croakers at the bridge before a big redfish hammered a tiny piece of fresh cut bait on a small "J" hook fished on my small bait casting reel.  It was a fun fight on light tackle.  This redfish had some damage to his tail (likely from a shark attack).

As usual, we enjoyed some Casey's for dinner and look forward to our next saltwater trip.

September 25-26, 2012

Location: Galveston North Jetty and Pelican Island Bridge
Air Temp: 75-88
Water Clarity: Good
Winds: 10-15+ mph
Bait: live shrimp and live caught bait fish
No large fish were harmed on this trip

My mom made the trip from Virginia to visit in September to see some cheerleading and do some fishing in Galveston instead of making the usual Thanksgiving visit.

 

We made the drive from Austin to Galveston and spent two fun days on the water.  The fishing was good.  It was windy so some of our options were limited but we still found some calmer waters with good water clarity.  On day one, my mom had fun catching two 3-4 foot blacktip sharks and a 14 pound 32 inch redfish at the North Jetty.  We tried one of my favorite locations on the channel side of the jetty but it was a little too rough, so we fished the calmer side of the jetty out near the end.

 

On day two, my mom caught several croakers and sand trout fishing with light spinning gear close to the rocks.  She also caught a nice 28 inch red on the light gear which was good fun to watch as she did the dance around the boat. We also caught a bunch of mangrove snapper in the ship channel near some structure.  They were fun on light tackle and we could have filled a cooler, but we decided to see if we could find something bigger.  

Before calling it a day, we decided to try the Pelican Island bridge and I'm glad we did.  We still had a few huge live shrimp left, so I put the largest two in the live well on a couple of my smaller bait casting reels.  After only a few minutes, one of the rods at the back of the boat had some serious bending action going on and Mom was on it like a pro.  I could tell this was going to be a big fish.  The fish circled the boat at least 3-4 times and pulled out about 50 yards of line a few times during the 20-25 minute fight.  I pitched in a couple of times to help wear out whatever we had and we were both hoping we would get to see what was putting up such a fight.  Finally, we saw a yellow tale swirl just under the water near the boat and I confirmed we had a Crevalle Jack also known as a Jackfish.  This big fish pulled the boga scale down to 30 pounds, but anyone that has ever caught one of these will know the scale doesn't do justice to such a great fighting fish.  Great way to end the day and the trip.

 

 

September 1-3, 2012

My daughter and I made a trip to Port O'Connor for the long weekend.  The trip down was an adventure and took longer than normal, so we decided to stay an extra night and fish on Sunday and Monday morning too.  On the trip down to POC, we had a blown tire on the trailer and made it to a Walmart using our spare tire, but decided not to chance not having a spare so it took a little while to get another tire and mount the spare back on the trailer.  Oh well, just part of the adventure.  

I usually fish the waters in Galveston and have only been to POC two other times with limited success on both trips.  Well, this trip was like the other two - limited fishing success.  The winds were stiff each day which reduced some of the fishing options especially since I don't know the bays around POC at all and didn't want to lose a lower unit in some shallow spot.  We primarily fished the big jetties and mostly the back side in the bay near Bird Island.  We saw a few bull reds landed but none for us.  We caught sharks, whiting, a few small gafftops and of course, the elusive hardhead catfish (moved to get away from them).  We did have a few UFOs that peeled line and either slipped the hook or broke the line.  One of the unidentified fish was in the intercoastal waterway in a large barge slip in about 20 feet of water and was likely a black drum or sheepshead based on the surrounding structure.  The fish hit my daughter's line hard and went for a fast run into some pilings and the short steel leader was not enough to keep the fish from cutting the line.

Even though the fishing was slow, we still had a great time being out on the water.  I do not take for granted that my time fishing with my daughter could be limited, so any time we spend on the water is always a bonus.  I hope she fishes with me until I'm 90, but you never know.

A few of the sharks (sharpnose and bonnetheads) were very active and some of the largest we have ever caught, so I released them on the side of the boat.  We did catch one shark small enough for a photo op.

We netted one struggling bull red (about 20 pounds) that had been caught in about 30 feet of water by someone that failed to "vent" the fish.  The distended air bladder prevented the fish from going back down, so it was floating on its side.  We vented the fish and it revived rather quickily and swam away hopefully to live another day and help make lots of little redfish.

July 9 -13, 2012

We had a great time on our annual family vacation in Galveston last week. We rented a small home on one of the main canals in Sea Isle, and I fished almost every night and made two trips in the boat to the jetties.

I registered my daughter and myself for the CCA tournament this year for the first time.  We were excited whenever we got a redfish near the net because it could be the fish that wins a 2012 F150 and a 23 foot boat.  We plan to make another trip before the tournament ends in early September to try our luck again.  You never know!!

Night Fishing

I brought my own halogen light and that seemed to work the best even though there were two underwater green lights within casting distance. The trout in the underwater lights spooked very easily and would not strike a live bait or artificial very hard. I tried casting several feet outside of the light with various retrieves and nothing seemed to work. I finally did catch two barely keeper sized trout using a small top water silver Rapala near the underwater lights.  I also used 10# Berkley fluorocarbon as a leader and it also helped produce strikes.  Berkley says it "has a similar refractive index to water, so fish can't see it" and I have to agree.  My hookup ratio definitely increased when I added about 3 feet of fluorocarbon leader. 

The fish feeding in the halogen light were very agressive and would hit very hard. On one of the best nights, I landed and released about 8-10 keeper sized trout and a few small dinks along with 4-5 redfish (all about 16-18") just under the slot.  I also caught a fat 18" flounder using a live piggy perch that was intended for some reds that were cruising. On the one night I decided to keep a few fish, I had a tough time keeping the fish hooked since I was using a very small hook.  After losing 2-3 nice fish, I finally did catch an 18" and 20" speck that hit the frying pan back in Austin.

Day Fishing

We ventured out to the North and South jetty twice during the week and considered a third trip but decided to play it safe and headed back to Sea Isle after seeing lightening in several directions. We did get caught in one thunderstorm and got soaked coming from the North Jetty back to the Yacht Basin. My daughter was a good sport and agreed we stayed about 10 minutes too long on the water. The storms had been running over toward Texas City, but this one turned and dumped a bunch of rain on us. We caught and released about 40 fish which included sand trout, croakers, large gafftops, several sharks (sharpnose and a few blacktips - I think) and one UFO.

Good fun with the family.

May 28-29, 2012

Location: Galveston North Jetty
Air Temp: 80-88
Water Temp: 82
Depth: 10-28 feet
Water Clarity: stained
Winds: 15+ mph
Bait: live shrimp and live caught bait fish
My daughter and I made a trip to Galveston for what used to be an annual Daddy/Daughter trip that has now turned into a 2-3 times per year trip. My daughter really loves to fish and she's not picky, so we usually target one or two species based on the time of year and then we hit it hard for two days and just have fun. She thinks it's about the fishing and I just take advantage of spending some good, quality time with her. Well, the weatherman had predicted some lighter winds later in the Memorial Day weekend but that's not exactly what we found when we made the trip from Austin and made it to the island on Sunday and Monday. When we left the Yacht Basin and turned the corner near the Coast Guard station on Sunday around 10:00 am, I could tell that the jetty fishing would likely be limited. We first tried the South Jetty and the Gulf side was not fishable and the channel side was almost as rough with poor water clarity too. We then moved to the North Jetty and it was too rough to go around the end, so I moved back down to the boat cut and made our way out to the end on the Gulf side. The water was in decent shape and we caught small sharks and croakers. I must have anchored too close to the rocks near the end of the North Jetty and lost my fairly new anchor and chain ($$). I pulled out the back up anchor/chain and we backed off of the rocks and proceeded to have fun with small sharks. Since it looked like the sharks would be biting on day 2, we ventured into the ship channel to catch some bait and ended up catching several perch, sand trout and 1 speckled trout (released) so we were all set for bait on day two.

We headed out early on Memorial Day to find the winds calmer early in the day, but the water conditions had not improved much. The winds also picked up at the jetty around 9:00 AM and we had a tough time staying anchored with my back up anchor and shorter chain. We moved back down the jetty near the sunken barge on the Gulf side and anchored about 200 yards back from the rocks since the boats were already lining the rocks. After putting some chum in the water, the small sharks started to move in and we caught 5 small sharpnose and 1 blacktip (I think). We decided to try the concrete ship, but the current/winds were too strong and I was not able to anchor there. We then tried the Pelican Island Bridge without any luck. I anchored on the bay side and at least 150 yards from the bridge and lost anchor number 2. We decided to call it a day and enjoyed the ride back to Austin. Not one of our best trips when it comes to fishing, but still a great time and lots of fun. 

  

March 31 and April 1, 2012

Location: Galveston North Jetty
Air Temp: 70-82
Water Temp: 74
Depth: 10-35 feet
Water Clarity: very clear
Winds: 10 -15 mph
Bait: live shrimp, live caught bait fish and cracked blue crabs

We had two beautiful days on the water and winds were calmer than expected early in the day on Sunday, so we were able to make it out to the North Jetty on both days.  Both sides of the jetty were fishable on Saturday, but Sunday was too rough for us on the channel side out near the end of the jetty.  With the rough seas and huge wakes from some of the ships, I was hoping the few boats on the channel side would not have an anchor slip because they would have been on the rocks in no time flat since the tide and current was pulling them directly to the jetty.

My daughter has learned to catch small bait fish when the action is slow to increase our odds of catching something big and her plan worked well.  She asked to be rigged up with a single drop, small hook and small piece of cut bait.  She pulled about an 8 inch croaker from the rocks and we tossed him out behind the boat with a small egg sinker to give him plenty of opportunity to swim.  I would toss him directly behind the boat and away from the rocks and he would slowly make his way back to the rocks for saftey from predator fish.  Well, it didn't take long for the croaker to attract a nice Cobia (45 inches and 32 pounds) caught by my friend Alan.  It was a good fight to watch and ended with the fish landed in a few minutes.  We were only planning to catch and release, so the boat next to us had also caught a Cobia, so we added to their catch. 

The fishing was good, but no big black drum again. We tried near the boat cut for about 30-45 minutes without a single bite, but did donate an anchor to one of ship wrecks (I guess) marked on my GPS about 75 yards off the rocks. We caught croakers, whiting, sand trout, sheepshead, a few small sharks, Spanish mackerel, a stingray on an artifical (my first) and had two small reels start singing with whatever was hooked headed to the open Gulf. We tried to pull the anchor and chase one down before my daughter's small spinning reel was spooled, but the line broke just as we started the chase. My guess would be shark or jack fish on one and possibly a large sting ray on the other. That's the stuff that keeps you coming back.

March 24-25, 2012

Location: Galveston Jetties
Air Temp: 70-82
Water Temp: 72
Depth: 10-35 feet
Water Clarity: clear
Winds: 10 mph on day 1 and calm to 5 mph on day 2
Bait: live shrimp and cracked blue crabs

I hosted a friend and his father to a typical late March trip to Galveston this past weekend. We had two beautiful days on the water with very little wind and very calm seas both days. Sunday reminded me of a summer day on the water except it wasn't 95 degrees - it was perfect.

It was too tempting for many fishermen, so the end of the jetty was packed especially on the Gulf side.The fishing was good but not great and the big black drum had lockjaw for the second weekend in a row - at least in the areas where I've had success in the past near the boat cut.

We tossed live shrimp on the rocks Carolina rigged and free lined and both worked about the same for the variety we caught. We released about 8-10 sheepshead and two rat reds and boxed two slot black drum, one slot red, a few sand trout and a few Spanish mackerel.As usual, we enjoyed some Casey's for dinner on Saturday night and had a good trip back to Austin on Sunday night.

March 17-18, 2012

Location: Galveston North Jetty
Air Temp: 70-76
Water Temp: 70

Depth: 20-35 feet

Water Clarity: stained

Winds: 10-15 on day 1 and 15+ mph on day 2

Bait: live shrimp and cracked blue crabs

We had another fun family trip to Galveston.  The fish were not biting like usual, but it was still great to be out on the water.  We caught one large 38 pound black drum, a slot black drum, an upper slot red and lost a couple of nice fish (likely reds) in the rocks, about 15 piggy perch and one huge sand trout.  Our targeted species was the black drum, but we just could not find a bite.  We tried the boat cut at the North Jetty and tried in the ship channel near the Pelican Island bridge on Sunday to get out of the wind, but nada.  I was tempted and should have tried the Gulf side of the North Jetty for sheepshead action on Sunday and understand from other reports that they were biting.  It was nice to be back on the water and look forward to a few more trips while the big black drum are still plentiful around the rocks.

December 31, 2011 and January 1, 2012

Location: Galveston Ship Channel
Air Temp: 65-72
Water Temp: 57

Depth: 18 feet

Water Clarity: clear on day 1 and stained on day 2

Winds: calm to 15 mph

Bait: live shrimp and Gulp 3" and 4" shrimp (color:  new penny)

My daughter gave me a fish counter as a gag gift a few years ago, and I never thought it would make it to 185 for a two day fishing trip.

What a fun way to start the new year.  Our family made a trip to Galveston and had a great time on the water. We arrived at the Yacht Basin on Saturday around 11:30 AM to slightly foggy conditions and decided to stay close and not try the jetties due to the fog. We first tried the concrete ship and only caught 1 whiting, so after about 30 minutes we moved into the Galveston Ship Channel near the cruise ship terminal. We had a blast there on Saturday and caught 98 sand trout and finally left about 5:00 PM with dense fog rolling in around 4:30 PM. The cold front pushed the fog out on Sunday, but made some windy conditions so we decided to stay in the ship channel again on Sunday and caught another 87 sand trout for a total of 185 sand trout and 1 whiting.
 

The fish were caught using live shrimp and 3" and 4" Gulp shrimp.  The GYB bait camp was closed on Sunday for the new year, so we left the dock with no live bait or dead bait (not something I usually do after driving 4+ hours to get on the saltwater). It didn't take long to catch some on the Gulp shrimp and provide cut bait for those wanting to fish with it.

Most of the 185 sand trout were between 12 and 15 inches, but we did catch several really nice 16-18"+ fish. All of the fish were released except for 4 or 5 due to being hooked too deep or the necessity for cut bait.

The boat traffic was very light on Sunday and when we left the Yacht Basin on Sunday around 5:00 PM, it looked like a ghost town.  We were the only truck/trailer in the parking lot.  I can't recall that ever being the case on past fishing trips.  It was like we rented out the place for the day. 

As usual, we enjoyed some Casey's for dinner on Saturday and left the island on Sunday hoping we can make another trip soon. My wife, son and daughter really enjoyed the trip and it was great family time.  Talk about some Reel Fun.