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.