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!!
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.
Good fun with the family.
