March 21-22, 2009

Date: Saturday, March 21 and Sunday, March 22, 2009

Location: Galveston North Jetty

Air Temp: 72-74

Water Temp: 69

Depth: 32 feet

Winds: E 10-15 mph on Saturday and ESE 10-20 mph on Sunday

Seas: Saturday was choppy and Sunday was extra choppy

Bait: live blue crabs (cracked)

Talk about some Reel Fun. This weekend was a great trip with the family. The kids were on spring break, and it had been a while since we were able to make a family trip to the coast. I am very fortunate to have a wife and two kiddos that really enjoy saltwater fishing. It was a perfect opportunity to spend some time together as a family and enjoy the great outdoors. As usual, we had great fun on the water and enjoyed some excellent seafood at our usual spot on Galveston Island - Gaido's. We were glad to see the progress made on the island since Hurricane Ike made such a mess of things last September.

We hooked 15 big drum and landed and released 11 black drum ranging from 18 to 34 pounds and 1 bonus red drum at 25 pounds with a total weight of 295 pounds. Most of the fish were caught during the tidal movement which has proven to be key to get the bite started for these big fish. This was the first time I had taken the family fishing for the big black drum (aka: "big uglies"). These fish migrate from the deep waters of the Gulf in February and March to spawn near the bays which makes the jetties in Galveston a prime spot. We primarily fished about two miles from the beach front and about 300 yards from the rock jetty that extends about 5 miles into the bay and Gulf.

You can never make any promises when it comes to fishing, but on the drive to Galveston I told the family we had a good shot at catching at least a few fish around 20 pounds. Well, as you can see from the pictures, our trip was a success. Watching the kids and my wife fight one huge fish after another for up to 15 minutes per fish was some good fun. At one point, I stood on the front of the boat and watched while we had a triple hook-up. It was priceless to watch both kids and my wife do the "fire drill" around each other to keep lines from becoming tangled. This was a great overall trip and will be tough to beat in the future.

After several big ones, my daughter was ready to try catching a smaller fish, so we rigged her up with a lightweight rod/reel with only 12 pound test line and shrimp for bait instead of the crab. That plan worked for a while because she caught a few catfish, but eventually, a 32 pound black drum was on the end of her 12 pound line. It was definitely some "rod bending, drag screaming action". She fought the fish like a pro using lightweight tackle and about 15 minutes later we were taking a picture of her beautiful Big Ugly.

We also had a bonus 25 pound healthy red drum (aka: redfish or bull red) that my son tangled with for about 10 minutes. We could tell by the movement and fight that it was likely not a black drum, so I was guessing a redfish or maybe even a small shark. The redfish also liked the crab we were using for bait.

This was a great overall trip with the family. I think they had as much fun as I did. I'm already looking forward to another family trip.

March 7-8, 2009

Date: Saturday, March 7 and Sunday, March 8, 2009
Location: Galveston North Jetty, South Jetty and Ship Channel
Air Temp: 75-80
Water Temp: 64
Winds: South at 15+ mph on Saturday and South 5-10 mph Sunday
Seas: Choppy inside the channel at the jetties on Saturday and Sunday morning; calm on Sunday afternoon
Bait: live crab for the black drum and live shrimp for the slot red

We caught and released 13 black drum ranging from 20 to 37 pounds with a total weight of 355 pounds. All of the big uglies were caught using crabs in about 30 feet of water near the boat cut at the North Jetty except for one that was caught in the ship channel. The bite was slow both days until the tide started moving. Once the tide started to move and I had to switch from a 3 oz to a 8 oz egg sinker just to keep the bait on the bottom, the Okumas started to sing. On Sunday morning, we arrived at the North Jetty at a slack tide and the 2.4 kts current was not predicted by NOAA to start until after lunch. We tried our favorite spot for about 30 minutes, but no action so we moved to the South Jetty on the channel side to see if any reds, slot drum or sheepshead might be biting. We only found one 25" healthy red that took a free-lined shrimp very close to the rocks. He put up a great fight on light tackle and was released to fight another day.

Paying It Forward
When we launched at the Yacht Basin on Sunday morning around 8:00 AM, a young lady approached our boat and asked if we could help her husband who was broke down in the ship channel across from the cruise ship terminal. I instantly remembered my solo trip last year in April when another fisherman towed me back when I had engine problems. Of course, we made the quick run down the ship channel and towed the 25' Boston Whaler back to the GYB. The fishermen had made the trek over to Fat Boys earlier for shrimp (none at GYB) and they must have hit something with the lower unit. They were grateful for the tow and gave us the shrimp which contributed to my fun with a slot red. Hope the damage was minimal.

October 4-6, 2008

I made my first trip to Port O'Connor, Texas, with fishing buddy, Alan, who had not been to that location in about 15 years. We decided to make the trip to POC since Galveston is still recovering from Hurricane Ike.

We arrived mid-morning on Saturday and checked into The Inn at Clark's. It's a motel right on the Intracoastal complete with boat slips, ramp, bait shop, restaurant and nice rooms. We headed out as quick as we could and found the air temperature around 85 with clear skies but very windy. Even with the wind not in our favor, we decided to check out the big jetties (Matagorda Ship Channel) and brave the five-plus feet waves coming in through the channel. That was a little bit of a scary ride! We fished near the rocks and landed several sharks but no bull reds which was our target species. We finished the afternoon in the Intracoastal and caught sand trout, croaker, lady fish, and several other small bait fish that would be used the next day.

On Sunday, we hit the water early and fished the backside of Matagorda Peninsula near Bird Island. We were in 30 feet of 79 degree water. The day started out cloudy and overcast but the sun came out later in the afternoon. We still had 15-20 mph winds to contend with all day. We landed five bull reds, ranging from 18-22 pounds, and several huge gafftops using cut croaker and lady fish steaks as bait.

On Monday, we were out early again using live shrimp, a few piggy perch and an artificial swim bait at the POC jetties, and landed several gafftops, croakers, whiting, a Spanish mackerel, and some other small fish. We were off the water early and headed home.

It was a good first trip considering the wind and gave me the opportunity to check out the POC fishing. I'll definitely make future trips to POC but I'm also looking forwarding to returning to Galveston as soon as possible.

July 13-20, 2008

We took the annual family vacation in Galveston for some fun in the sun. The weather was perfect - very hot with very calm seas. We spent several days on the beach and also made some trips to various spots around the island on the boat. I actually fished both ends of the 32-mile-long island this trip. We fished the North and South Jetty on the far eastern end of the island and fished the San Luis Pass (SLP) which is where the bay meets the Gulf on the far western end of the island. It was my first trip navigating the very shallow waters around SLP before crossing under the bridge that leads to the Gulf for deeper waters. I waited for some of the twin and triple engine big dogs to show me the way through the pass using the deeper channels - especially since the channel was not marked and was surrounded by sand bars with less than a foot of water.

Within one hour of being on the island, my nephew from Ohio caught a trout and redfish using shrimp and minnows caught in a castnet.

We caught a variety of fish and determined it would be all CPR (catch, picture & release). We caught the following species of fish:

• trout
• redfish
• flounder
• black drum
• sand trout
• croaker
• pompano
• sharks (several types)
• gafftop catfish
• Spanish mackerel
• hardhead catfish
• piggy perch
• ribbonfish
• several stingrays
• dogfish

canal house we rented in Sea Isle

June 21-22, 2008

Alan C. and Allan B. joined me for a trip to Galveston for some action on the lightweight tackle for a change. We had a great time and caught a large variety of fish. Our catch included black drum, red fish, trout, sheepshead, Spanish Mackerel and pompano. All of these fish were caught on light tackle with shrimp fished in several ways: free lined, under a popping cork and Carolina-rigged.

Our best success came in about 24 feet of water on the Gulf side of the South Jetty. The water at the jetty was about 85 degrees and in great shape. We also picked up one trout in about 5 feet of water near the Sante Fe railroad bridge. We tried the boat cut at the North Jetty with no luck.

We couldn't resist putting some bait out on a couple of large reels and had some great fights but no fish for pictures. A small 7 inch baitfish literally jumped in the boat, so I rigged him up on large spinning reel with 30 pound mono. After a short time, something very large doubled the rod over and started pulling line like crazy. I had a short fight and could see the fish was headed for the jetty rocks, but I wasn't able to turn him around. The sharp rocks frayed the mono line despite having a 3 foot leader of 80# nylon coated wire. After this fight and lost fish, I am considering upgrading my reels with heavier mono and longer wire leaders for the next trip.

Allan Bantay also lost two fish with at least 150 yards of 80# braided line singing off his Shimano reel before the fish broke the line. It was fun to watch the fight even if we never did get to see the fish (or was it a 100 pound sting ray). I guess we'll never know for sure.

It was a great trip with lots of fun! I'm looking forward to another trip with these guys.

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