Hello,

I will be in the area Sep 6-7 and would like to try some fishing in the ocean. I am looking for a place I can drive my 2wheel drive car to and easy walking distance. My Father-in-law can�t walk to far and his balance is not good, so not going to be on rocky jetty�s or wade fishing.

He has big surf casting rods and gear, so was hoping to find advice on where to buy bait and a few place togo and catch anything .. Reds would be nice but rather catch something then sit all day for 1 big fish.

Also any advice on times .. I understand before sunrise, but how long is it worth staying .. til 10am , noon etc ?

We should get there Sat afternoon and may want to try some place at sunset till 9 or 10pm then hit Sunday morning 5am ish somewhere.

Thanks again for any advice.

-rob
0

If you want of fish the surf, you can try any of the fishing piers in Galveston. There are places where you can park near the water and almost fish from your car like the Texas City Dike and Seawolf Park. Rollover Pass is another good option, but it's bit farther away.

Around the time you are looking to go fishing the piers will be full of people. You can still find a place to fish but who wants to fish a couple feet from someone. Seawolf Park itself I always get hung up when fishing next to where you park. Texas City Dike is where I would go. I have a lot of luck at night fishing for red drums, black drums and sharks.

Thanks .. I saw some videos and the city dike might be a convenient place to fish, easy drive up for my Father-in-law. Rollover pass looked good, but I suspect it will be pretty crowded.

sps468 - when you say night .. is that sunset or way into the night like midnight to 2 am ish ?

How do you thin think the city dike would be at sunrise ?

Is there a bait shop near the Dike ? and what type of bait would you suggest ?

-thanks

There are a few bait shops at then entrance of the dike. What i usually get is a couple pounds of shrimp and 6 pounds of shad. Me and my buddy will fish from 6pm to 9am so 15 hours straight. We first set up some poles with whole shad on them and use the shrimp to catch croakers. Once we catch a croaker we like we replace the shad with it on a couple of poles. The fish usually start biting around 9pm and slow down then pick back up around 3am when we go. There are a lot of trout fishermen out there with their lights on the water and we try to stay away from them some reason we have better luck when we are not to close to them. When you are driving down the dike on the way out we always fish on the right hand side and if you look at the gps you will notice the dike bows in just a little bit in them middle so we try to fish about 3/4 the way down it. Also you will not need surf weights because the current is not bad unless you fish at the end.

I just got back from a trip with my son and 67 year old dad to rollover pass. The exact kind of trip you are talking about. I make this trip every year. I don't fish the pass itself because of the smell, trash, crowds and current. We set up on the beach about 1/4 mile north or south of the pass. I saw plenty of 2wd on the beach. We caught a bunch of trout (my son got a nice 24") I caught a 38" bull red on crab. I set my son up to catch crab with chicken gizzards to use as bait. He only caught two. I cut one in half and used the other whole. Had two hits and one catch within 30 minutes. If I had more blue crab would have been catching the big reds all day. The fishing is really good in this area

You can always go to the west side of Galveston Island and drive to the beach through any of the "beach access" points. You can park literally on the beach. The beach is 2WD friendly, just watch for soft sand at some of the entrances. Fishing in the surf can be tricky for a senior if the water is rough though. The beach on the West End should not be too crowded after Labor day.

Thanks guys .. lots of great info ..

HOW is the DIKE for getting hung up .. read some post about the guy hating it because of all the rocks and always losing his rigs to the rocks.

The Dike seems the easy for us, just drive up park and fish by Car.

May do the Dike the first night and the beach in the morning.

-rob

I have never been hung up while fishing on the dike.

Everyone loses rigs while fishing on a jetty That's just jetty fishing! Bring extra terminal tackle and be prepared to retie. Don't fish too close to the rocks. Keep your rod tip high and crank quickly when retrieving your line. To stay off the bottom, you can fish artificials or use a popping cork if you want to fish bait.

thanks again ..

Sorry this is late. My buddy and I aren't mountain goats anymore either and found that you have to be careful when picking a spot on the Dyke, some places the rocks can be tough for old fogies.

There are two jetties that have sidewalks all the way to the end. Would be an easy thing to roll a lawn chair and ice chest out there. Can't remember which ones though. Surely someone can help out.

Get the parking app on your phone and you can park right on the seawall.

Thanks .. looks like the trip is off .. Wife changed her mind about where she wanted the family road trip to go .. so we are not heading to the coast anymore.

BOOOO:( I was looking forward to a report Rob. All the help on here got me wanting to go!