April 23, 2008

My good friend and fishing buddy, Alan, just got back from a cruise and provided these pictures from his trip as he departed the Galveston ship channel. This is a neat perspective from the deck of a huge cruise ship. It looks considerably different from a little 18 foot fishing boat.

Here's a view of the North Jetty in Galveston. My limited saltwater fishing experience has centered around the North and South Jetty. The huge ships and strong currents make this area an interesting and sometimes daunting place to navigate. I have a great deal of respect for the water but especially in this area. The wake from some of the ships passing through this channel makes me wish for a bigger boat.

I have caught several fish near the orange weather station located in the center of this picture which is on the channel side of the jetty. The depth of the water near the jetty on the channel side is approximately 35 feet and about 25 feet on the Gulf side. If you look closely, you can see the top of a sail boat that was just recently wrecked in the rocks on the channel side of the jetty.

Here's the tip of the North Jetty. Also a great fishing spot especially in the spring and the fall. One of the popular Galveston fishing guides anchors right at the tip of the jetty and positions his boat so he can fish both the channel and Gulf side of the jetty. The currents are usually strong near the end of the jetty, so I usually prefer not to anchor there but I believe the constant movement of water makes it a good fishing spot. Crystal Beach can be seen in the far background of the picture. I have never ventured close to the beachfront mostly because it is really shallow (about 5 feet) even one mile from shore but I understand it can be fun in the summer for trout and sharks.

Here's a great picture of the Galveston Yacht Basin (GYB) which is where we launch the boat. It's a great place to start and end the day. Seeing these pictures makes me wish I could make it down to Galveston soon for some fishing, but it will likely be a few months.

April 5-6, 2008

I fished the North Jetty on Saturday and had a good day with 3 large gafftops, a small bonnethead shark, 2 large sheepshead (about 5 pounds each) along with a 24 pound black drum. Crab for the drum and shrimp for the other fish. The wind was gusting until around noon and then things calmed down to normal. The water temp had warmed to 72 degrees which in my opinion is part of the reason the black drum bite was very slow. But, I also have learned that once the water temp starts to hover around 70, the fish start to return from offshore to the beachfront and jetties.

I decided to leave the larger gear in the truck on Sunday and used smaller spinning reels and a baitcaster. Wow, what a great morning at the South Jetty. Using live shrimp, I landed and kept 5 Sheepshead up to 5 pounds, 1 Black Drum at 5 pounds and 9 Spanish Mackerel up to 24 inches. I released another 5 Spanish Mackerel that were in the 16-18 inch range using a silver spoon and one bonnethead shark that would not give up. The Spanish Mackerel liked shrimp under a popping cork or free-lined and the Sheepshead were caught bottom bumping live shrimp in about 16 feet of water very close to the rocks on the Gulf side of the South Jetty. Most of the boats around me seemed to also be catching plenty of fish.

This was my first solo trip to Galveston. Of course, I promised Dawn that I'd wear the life jacket the entire time and I kept my promise. Even though my boat and battery is only two years old, I had a completely dead battery when I tried to fire up the motor after about 4 hours of fishing. I had the GPS on the entire time and I also had the aerator on the entire time. Not sure if the battery was weak or just too much use. Anyway, I was fairly close to the rocks and the tide was pulling me toward the rocks. I signaled to a nearby boat that was pulling anchor to see if they would mind pulling me away from the rocks a little more just in case my anchor slipped while I attempted to rig and then pull start my motor. I also had a pair of emergency oars on board, but that could be tough on an 18 foot boat and a strong current. The owner of the 24 foot Wellcraft also launched from the Yacht Basin and volunteered to tow me and I accepted the offer. I could barely get the young man to accept any money when we made it to the Yacht Basin. He finally accepted a very small token of my appreciation and asked me just to pass along a kind gesture to someone else next time I'm on the water. I will certainly pass it on. I sure did appreciate the tow after a great day on the water.

View While Being Towed

March 15, 2008

Ed and Allan made a quick one day trip to Galveston with me on Saturday to catch their first big, ugly Black Drum. My family had planned to make the trip, but decided to skip this time partly because of rough water and recovering from spring break.

We were greeted with clear skies when we got on the water around 10:30 AM. The ride to the North Jetty was actually not bad considering the winds were already around 15 mph. It was about 70 degrees and the wind died down after a few hours. It was a great day to be on the water.

I navigated to one of my favorite spots just east of the boat cut near two wrecks marked on my GPS in about 35 feet of water with a surface temp of 65 degrees. We dropped the crabs in the incoming tide and it was "game on" within about 10 minutes. Ed and Allan started us off with their first drum coming in at 40 and 36 pounds. Our tally for the day was 8 Black Drum ranging from 18 to a monster 54 pound drum that took Allan about 30 minutes to land. It's a good thing Allan loads about 500 yards of braided line on his reel because the 54 pounder pulled a considerable amount of line off the reel for about 10-15 minutes. For a few minutes, we thought Allan may have snagged one of the huge ships passing through the ship channel the way the line was peeling off the reel.

It was Reel Fun fishing on Saturday.

Ed Fighting His First Drum

Allan's 54# Big Ugly

March 1-2, 2008

Randy made the trip to Galveston with me this weekend for some action on big, ugly Black Drum. We arrived at the Yacht Basin around 10:30 AM to sunny, clear skies, about 72 degrees and winds from the south around 5-10 mph. The clear skies turned to fog around noon and lasted for several hours. When we decided to leave a little early around 4:30 PM, we had to navigate into the fog and cross the ship channel in very limited visibility using the trail on the GPS.

When we arrived at the boat cut at the North Jetty, I checked and the water temp had warmed two degrees to 65 from the prior weekend. That must have been part of the trigger needed to get the Black Drum biting. We caught 9 Black Drum on the trip and lost two due to broken lines. We kept one drum that was 28 inches and 9 pounds and Randy had the largest drum coming in at 42 inches and 42 pounds. The Black Drum run is definitely on for 2008, and should last a few more weeks if this year tracks with last year. We saw multiple boats hooked up on Saturday and Sunday, and we left them biting under a strong incoming tide near the boat cut on Sunday.

Randy's 42 Pound Black Drum

February 23-24, 2008

Alan, Tim and I made our first trip to Galveston this year, to see if the Black Drum run is on yet. The water temp (63) and timing must not be right yet, but we did manage to catch three. The seas were a little rough on Saturday and Sunday started out with great weather, but then the fog rolled in and visibility was only about 30 yards until around noon.

It was slow compared to prior trips, but we still had a good time. After catching one 30 pounder on Saturday, we decided to drift fish with light tackle near the South Jetty shoreline where we caught a few small whiting. During the drift, Alan hooked something huge on his small Penn spinning reel and we had to chase it down before it ripped all the line off his reel. We caught up to it with the boat and then it took off again. I started the boat a second time with Alan on the bow and we caught up to it again. This time it finally straightened a treble hook.

30 lbs

25 lbs

31 lbs

November 10-11, 2007

Allan and I made a trip to Galveston and fished for Bull Reds the first day at the North and South Jetty and fished for trout at the Sante Fe Railroad Bridge the second day. We landed and released three Bull Reds the first day at the South Jetty along with a few hardhead catfish. The second day we boxed two 16" & 18" Speckled Trout along with a 22" Spanish Mackerel. We also caught a few puppy drum and several piggy perch that were later used to land about a dozen hardheads at the North Jetty.

This first Bull Red was 20 pounds.

This second Bull Red was 18 pounds.

The third Bull Red was 14 pounds.

Allan snapped this photo while we were fishing at the bridge. It was a great day on the water.

October 20-21, 2007

Allan, Tim and I fished the North Jetty in Galveston and also the Pelican Island Bridge. We caught approximately 75 sand trout, some croakers and whiting and released 4 Bull Reds. We kept about 50 sand trout from the trip and enjoyed some Casey's for dinner on Saturday night. Good fun!

Tim was catching one sand trout after another and then we knew he had something other than a sand trout. After a long run to the rocks and then to a nearby boat, a nice Bull Redfish surfaced to make a splash about 20 yards from the boat. Tim had his first ever 12 pound Bull Red. Tim got things going for Team Palm Beach!



Allan's first ever Bull Red was 20 pounds.




Tim followed up with a 2nd Bull Red weighing 20 pounds.



Allan caught this 18 pound Bull Red the 2nd day of fishing at the Pelican Island Bridge just before we headed back home. A fresh croaker head in about 30 feet of water did the trick.

October 1-3, 2007

The Bull Redfish run was on this year, and we timed it perfectly. Alan and I fished the North Jetty in Galveston on October 1-3 and caught and released 16 Bull Reds, one slot Redfish and one Black drum. All of the fish were caught using shad.