April 10-11, 2010

Date: Saturday, April 10 and Sunday, April 11, 2010
Location: Galveston North Jetty and Ship Channel
Air Temp: 65-75
Water Temp: 75
Wind: 15-20 mph on Saturday afternoon
Wind: 5-15 mph on Sunday
Seas: Very choppy
Bait: live crab and live shrimp

My doubles racquetball partner for the last 6 years, Tom, was able to join me for his first saltwater trip this past weekend. We left Austin around 6:00 AM and arrived on the island around 9:30 AM on Saturday morning. I knew the tournament would be taking place at the Yacht Basin, so I was in no hurry but I sure didn't want to wait until 2:30 PM to get on the water. There was only a predicted 10% chance of rain for Saturday, but we watched a huge cloud approaching and decided to wait it out and give the tournament guys a chance to get out of the storm before adding to the congestion at the ramp. The rain storm finally passed and we made it to the North Jetty at about 2:45 PM. We dropped the live blue crabs in 35 feet of water with an incoming tide and a current of about 1.0 kts near the north jetty boat cut. It was "fish on" in about 10 minutes with steady action for about 3 hours. We released 9 black drum ranging from 18 to 36 pounds.

Sunday morning started out with clear skies and much calmer winds, so we headed out to the north jetty to be greeted with 3-4 foot waves in the ship channel with calmer conditions once we got close to the jetty. The fishing was slow with only one 20 pound drum during the hour we stayed at the jetty. We decided to head back in the Yacht Basin and picked up some live shrimp to see if the the sand trout were still around.

We went into one of the large empty barge slips in the channel and started catching sand trout right away along with one redfish just under 20". We kept 24 sand trout from about 12"-16" and tossed back about 15 more. It was fun tossing a shrimp Carolina rigged into about 20 feet and catching one fish after another. Sometimes the sand trout would bite as soon as the bait hit the water during the fall and other times a few jigs would create the strike.

As usual, enjoyed some great food at Casey's!

March 13-14, 2010

Date: Saturday, March 13 and Sunday, March 14, 2010
Location: Galveston North Jetty, South Jetty and Ship Channel
Air Temp: 60-70
Water Temp: 60-64
Wind: 10-20 mph on Saturday and calm to 10 mph on Sunday
Seas: Range of flat to choppy
Bait: live crab for the black drum and live shrimp for sheepshead

Caught and released 6 black drum ranging from 20 to 50 pounds on Saturday using live blue crabs near the boat cut in about 35 feet of water at the North Jetty. The action started around 9:30 AM and shut off completely at around 12:30 PM when the tide started to change and the current in the channel stopped moving. The winds also picked up considerably around 1:00 PM, so we ventured into the ship channel and caught some sand trout in one of the barge slips. Tried another slip for some flounder but nada!

Sunday morning was flat calm, so we picked up some live shrimp hoping for some sheepshead action at the South Jetty. It wasn't fast and furious, but we did manage to box 4 nice sized sheepshead and lost a few. We fished close to rocks near the end of the jetty on the Gulf side close to the foundation where the lighthouse (I think) used to be. We either free lined shrimp or used a small egg Texas rigged. Lost some tackle, but it was necessary to stay in the rocks to get the bites. Moved over to the North Jetty after noon and tried crabs again near the boat cut with no luck for about an hour.

As always, enjoyed some good laughs and great food at Casey's!

November 14-15, 2009

Location: Galveston North Jetty and Pelican Island Bridge
Air Temp: 70-78
Water Temp: 72
Depth: 12-24 feet
Winds: SE 10-15 mph
Seas: choppy
Bait: Shad

A great family trip to the coast. We all needed a break and it was fun to spend time together as a family. We fished the Gulf side of the North Jetty near the sunken barge on Saturday and fished the Pelican Island Bridge on Sunday. We landed and released 4 bull reds with each one around 20 pounds, a few whiting, one hardhead, one shark and about 30 sand trout with a few healthy ones around 16"-18". We missed 3 other reds that were only hooked for a few minutes.

I really enjoyed catching a 20 pound red on light tackle. At one point, we were catching sand trout on almost every cast with a slow retrieve and bottom bumping action. I was using a 3/4 ounce jig head due to the strong current tipped with a small piece of shad. After catching several 12-14 inch sand trout, I had a strong bite and knew this was no small fish. I missed the first bite and casted back into the same area in about 14 feet of water. I let the bait hit the bottom then slowly lifted the rod tip and felt a steady pull and this time it was fish on. It was a good fight and took about 10 minutes to land the red. Good fun on light tackle and good practice for my next bass fishing trip on Lake Travis.

Another opportunity to pay it forward! My wife and daughter were able to help a fellow fisherman retrieve his boat. We were both launching at the same time at the Yacht Basin when his rope broke. The "runaway" boat was slowly drifting out from the ramp, and my wife was able to position our boat so my daughter could grab the rope still tied to the front of the boat. My wife backed our boat into the slip next to the ramp and some nice folks at the bait shop helped secure the other boat until the owner was able to hop on board.

October 8-9, 2009

Location: Galveston Concrete Ship and Ship Channel
Air Temp: 80-88
Water Temp: 83
Depth: 30-35 feet
Winds: Sustained at 20 mph and gusting to 25 mph
Seas: Very choppy
Bait: Shad

My father-in-law, Jim, from Ohio joined me and my fishing buddy Alan for a trip in some tough winds. The winds were too much for a trip out to the jetties (we tried despite the rough seas), so we stayed in the bay and the ship channel for some calmer water. I've always had better success this early in the bull red run at the jetties, but we still found some in the bay. We landed 4 bull reds ranging from 18-22 pounds, about 20 gafftop catfish, a few small croakers and a whiting. We lost 2 large fish (likely reds) due to break offs. We had a great time fishing and enjoyed some good food at Casey's.

September 26-27, 2009

Location: Galveston North & South Jetty
Air Temp: 85-90
Water Temp: 81
Depth: 20-34 feet
Winds: Light and Variable
Seas: Smooth to slightly choppy

It was a great 2nd Annual Daddy/Daughter fishing trip. We had a great time fishing and had an excellent dinner at Gaido's! It was fun watching the girls battle 20+ pound bull reds and small sharks. We tagged two bull reds and kept 3 slot reds, a shark and several gafftops. We are already looking forward to the next trip with the girls.

June 21 - 27, 2009

We had a great time on our annual family vacation in Galveston. The island is recovering very well from Hurricane Ike, and I'm glad we were able to do our part for tourism again this year. The weather was perfect - hot with mostly calm seas. As usual, we spent several days on the beach and also made 3 boat fishing trips to the jetties during the week. At night, I had great fun fishing the lights in the canal right off the boat dock at the house. I caught and released about 25 trout ranging from 14 to 22 inches with most being in the 15-18 inch range and two flounder. I used live bait I caught in my cast net (piggy perch and shad) and experimented with several artificials and had good luck with these:

My mom had a nice 15-20 minute battle with a bull redfish that was about 25 pounds. Since we were doing all catch and release, I left my net at home and didn't want to harm the fish with the gaff. I had the leader and almost landed the fish with my Boga grip (a fish landing tool) when he finally spit the hook. Another hi-light of the jetty fishing was when my mom hooked a tarpon that made a fast run about 75 yards from the boat and did the classic acrobatics to spit the hook. I would estimate the tarpon was about 50-75 pounds.

The whole family enjoyed catching sand trout, croakers and of course, catfish in the canal almost every evening. They also had fun catching plenty of small sharks and a nice 23 inch redfish at the jetty.

June 6, 2009

Date: Saturday, June 6, 2009

Location: Port O'Connor, TX

Air Temp: 90

Water Temp: 85

Depth: 16-30 feet

Bait: live shrimp and various artificials

I made a last minute one-day trip (7+ hours of round trip driving) with my buddy Allan to POC. We left the house at 4:00 AM to get on the water around 8:30 AM and we got home around 11:00 PM that night. It was a loooooong day. I'll stay the night next time and get in an extra day of fishing.

It was a beautify day on the water, but the fish had lockjaw. I had seen some reports of kingfish near the jetties which is the main reason we made the trip to POC instead of more familiar fishing grounds in Galveston. Kingfish are usually offshore and out of reach for my small boat, and I've always wanted to learn how to catch them. The birds were working hard over huge schools of Spanish mackerel and probably kingfish, but we couldn't entice them to bite. We tossed every lure we had in the tackle box and even tried live shrimp when the schools would surround the boat and they were too busy chasing bait fish to take our lures. We drifted through the same school at least 7 or 8 times with no takers. We finally stopped chasing the schools of fish and tried a spot on the Gulf side of the south jetty and landed 3 Spanish mackerel up to about 26 inches, 1 kingfish around 30 inches and released an undersized sheepie. We lost two nice fish near the rocks under a popping cork and lost something huge on a big reel that was almost spooled. It made for some excitement on a slow day.

It was still a great day to be on the water even if the fishing was a little slow. It was only my second trip to POC, but I look forward to more to learn that part of the coast.

May 2-3, 2009

Date: Saturday, May 2 and Sunday, May 3, 2009
Location: Lake Travis
Air Temp: 70-85
Water Temp: 76
Depth: 8-14 feet
Bait: plastics (green pumpkin was the best color)

Had some Reel Fun on a fresh water lake for a change. Enjoyed the company of Ken on Saturday for an early morning trip before all the boaters, wake boarders, tubers, etc. We were on the water at day break and fished for about four hours. We had a great day on the water and caught and released about 20 bass and 1 freshwater drum. Most of the fish were in the 12" to 14" range with a couple around 16" to 18". I've been fishing with Ken on Lake Travis for about three years, and I've learned a lot from him. The highlight on Saturday was my donation of a trolling motor in about 30 feet of water. I tried to get Ken to do the right thing and go for a dive, but he decided our friendship was limited to about 8-10 feet of water.

Allan joined me on Sunday afternoon for a nice day on the water, but there was a lot of boat traffic from 3:00 until about 7:30 PM. We finally were able to make it to the Saturday hot spot at about 7:30 PM. We caught and released 4 bass. I lost a really nice bass (10+ pounds) about three feet from the boat. He hit a baby brush hog soft plastic in about 12 feet of water. I knew immediately when I set the hook that it was going to be a big fish. He started pulling line and the drag was singing for only about 30 seconds. Then I saw the classic burst from the bottom and he did a really cool dance across the top of the water and somehow spit the hook. I've caught 12-14 pound redfish on the same rod/reel and this fish was easily 10 pounds which would have been a personal best for me on a largemouth bass. Oh well, I know where he is living right now and I'm going back to see if he will "chew on this".

Here are a couple of pictures from our trip on Saturday.