Air Temp: 60-70
Water Temp: 66
Depth: 36 feet
Water Clarity: clear
Winds: calm to 15 mph
Seas: calm to choppy
Bait: cracked blue crab
Rigging: Carolina rig using 80# nylon coated wire, 7/0 circle hook and 1 to 5 oz. egg sinker above the swivel
I
was planning a trip to Galveston and decided to cancel my room there due to the
oil spill and head further south to Port O’Connor. I wasn’t sure we would even get to make the
trip to POC due to reports of oil showing up along the coast in that area. After reading reports on a fishing forum and
news reports on Friday morning and a call to the Inn at Clark’s, it sounded
like there was a lot of prevention and activity taking place in POC but not
much damage caused by the oil that made its way down the coast. I was glad to see that was the case after
fishing the big jetties and outside the big jetties for a short while on
Saturday afternoon. The water was calm,
it looked great and no sign of oil on that part of the island near the jetties. We did see a young man with the Coast Guard
walking the entire south jetty looking for signs of oil.
I
have only fished POC a few times and never this early in the year, so I was not
sure if our target fish, Black Drum, would be concentrated there this time of
year. After the long drive, we got on
the water about 11:00 AM on Saturday with good weather conditions and only
caught one big drum close to the rocks at the jetty. The wind started out around 10-15 mph, but
really started to calm down around 2:00 PM for the rest of the day. It was so calm, we decided to go outside the
jetties and check out the beach front more for the scenery than anything else
and only got slimed (gafftops). We tried
for sheepshead with dead shrimp and Gulp shrimp (no live shrimp was available)
all along the rocks, but never got a nibble. It was still great to be out on
the water on Saturday, but the fishing was reaaaaaallllly slow.
My
son and my long time fishing buddy, Alan, and I got on the water early on
Sunday morning. Alan fished POC many
years ago and he was glad to get back down there and see how things had changed
since the 80s and since our last trip there a few years ago. My son is super busy with
college, work, and extra activities and it was great that he could take the
weekend to spend some father/son time.
He enjoys the outdoors a lot, but fishing is not a passion for him like
it is for me. I really appreciated him
taking the time to relax with his dad for the weekend – good memories.
On
Sunday, the wind was ok early in the morning, so we decided to try near the big
jetties again and this time our plan worked.
We tried the back side of the big jetties between the jetties and Bird
Island in about 36 feet of water. We
boated and released 7 big, Black Drum, 1 really nice bull redfish that taped at
44 inches and weighed 32 pounds, lost two due to pulled hooks and had a triple
hookup at one point. After the great
morning of fishing and steady action, the wind had really picked up and we were
thinking about finding some calmer water for lunch, but decided to stay put
while we rocked and rolled and had lunch just to see if we could get another
bite before heading to calmer water. One
of the large Okuma reels baited with cracked crab started to sing with two very
fast runs. We were too focused on our
turkey sandwiches and not quick to pick up the reel. When we finally did, it was gone. We reeled in the line to check the bait and
were surprised to see a large whiting that was half eaten and still alive. I guess he was chewing the crab, barely hooked
himself and then something decided to chew on him. We will never know what it was (Jack,
shark?), but it definitely pulled more line than anything I’ve seen in a
while.
We fished the area noted in red behind the big jetties.
Double hook up.
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