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.