Sargent, TX - F*ck Yeah!

Kasey and I went fishing friday night. It was a short and productive trip. So productive that we had two reds in the ice chest before we even started fishing.

We arrived at the cut just after dark. While we were catching bait, a guy walked over and offered two slot reds that he didn't want to clean. Since they were leaving we took their spot at the mouth of the cut. It took us a little while to find the reds but we managed to catch a couple more slots before it really turned on. Around midnight 3 out of the 4 rods were hit. One was a slot red and the other two were over-sized. By the time we re-baited and casted our lines out the current was screaming; trash and vegetation was blowing through the cut. Two rods got pulled over, leaders had to be cut off, and a sand spike was lost - all in a matter of minutes. We unf*cked our gear and reeled in the last rod to find a slot red buried in a ball of weed. We made one more futile attempt at fishing the cut.

Next, we loaded up and went to our usual surf spot. I was content sitting in the truck with cold beers and loud music, but not Kasey. He decided to put a line out. I passed out around 3am but was woken up by kasey at 4am. He had a monster bull red on the tail gate. I took a picture and passed out again.

I fished hard on Sat. morning while kasey caught up on his beauty sleep. I fished three rods with cut mullet and didn't get a hit. Kasey woke up 3 hours later and while I was telling him how bad the fishing sucked, my small bait rod got hit hard. I reeled in a nice size whiting with some deep lacerations. We cut the whiting in half and casted it back into the second gut. Both baits were hit immediately but no hookup. We put the baits back out and waited a little while before hooking into a nice shark. Kasey fought it for nearly 30 minutes. It would swim back and forth but would not leave the guts. This bull fought so hard we had a difficult time reviving it.

Shark-a-thon

First, this is Alan. Steve---get me fixed so I can post under my name.

Anyway,

I went down to Galveston on Saturday and caught untold numbers of fish. Macks, drums, croaker, pompano, pinfish, ladyfish, mullet, and mud minnows. It was a great time. I wish I had invited everyone else, but it was short notice. The bait of choice was a 12' cast net. and the biggest fish was a 14 inch mullet. You may be getting a little confused at this point, so I'll explain.

Chris and I think it is a good idea to chum the waters a bit for this tournament so I went south with cast net in hand.We have been figuring out all the ins and outs of chumming the surf without tangling and breaking off fish, and I think we have it down. Today, Chris and I spent about 3 hours grinding fish and mixing in menhaden oil, so I hope everyone can reap the benefits. We have two buckets of chum and will be deploying them on the outgoing tides.

Questions? Comments?

Finally, what is the final count on who's going? What is the earliest anyone can get down there? It would be nice to have camp already set up on thursday, then head back up the beach on friday to check in. That way we don't get caught up in the rush, and we already have a spot picked out before most people get there (I hope).

Chris and I have already paid our entry fee. Don't forget to do that before Aug 31. Also don't forget to get a license for the 07-08 season.

My plans are to come down from Oklahoma, pick up Woody, swing through Houston for my gear and whoever else wants a ride, and be at the beach some time around 2 or 3 in the a.m. on Friday.

Aug 3rd/4th Surfside beach

Friday Morning I decided that I NEEDED to smell some salty air. I called everyone I thought might enjoy an overnighter to Surfside but everyone was either “out of pocket”, headed out of town, or wouldn’t answer their phone. This turned out to be fortuitous since it lead to my meeting Ryan, a co-worker of Chris.

Like myself, Ryan had family responsibilities that meant he had to help put the kids in bed before we could blast off at 9:30 or 10:00. We hit the sand about an hour later and we were fishing at 11:00pm. The surf was flat and there was little current. We fished a variety of artificial lures including some stuff that looked like bubble gum that had come via a recommendation. I seem to remember sending out the surf rods laden with some cut bait but I am unsure how we got the mullet. I guess ryan threw his net that evening.

The wind shifted and it started to rain, there was no lightning and the rain was at least 10 degrees cooler than the Gulf so we wade fished out at the second bar, up to our necks in the pleasantly warm, calm gulf. We hooked up a couple hard heads and a few whiting. It rained very hard that night and doused the camp fire so eventually we decided to sleep and hit it hard at dawn.

Dawn brought very similar conditions, very flat surf, lots of jumping horse mullet and plenty of mullet schools swirling around, there were birds overhead and slicks were abundant in the gut just past the second bar. We spent several hours throwing live finger mullet off the second gut. Ryan landed a bonnet head of approx. 2 foot that would have to serve as the best fish of the trip. We had several solid hook-ups that tossed their hooks and I had a bite off. I think that there was an abundance of bonnet heads out there.

Regardless of the poor yield of fish I had a great time and I felt a lot better about life having been able to breathe some salty air. Friday Morning I decided that I NEEDED to smell some salty air. I called everyone I thought might enjoy an overnighter to Surfside but everyone was either “out of pocket”, headed out of town, or wouldn’t answer their phone. This turned out to be fortuitous since it lead to my meeting Ryan, a co-worker of Chris.