Did quite a bit of surf fishing as well as fishing off of the big pier (I think Galveston Fishing Pier). The bite with the big fish was slow. I caught plenty of whiting as well as hardheads on shrimp, squid, and some big shad I brought from a local lake (figured I would like to have some bait with me in case I couldn't catch any mullet, which I couldn't).
Anyways, I have virtually no saltwater experience and was just looking to set a line and hoping to get lucky and our last night on the island I did. I ended up using some whiting o had caught as bait and it had been soaking for about half an hour when my line goes completely slack. I tighten it up and it goes slack again. So I decided to just reel down and then the fish decided to fight back peeling drag off my Abu 6500c3. After about 5 minutes of fighting and loading line the fish runs towards the pier and goes under it. At this point my girlfriend had found some people with a net to help with the landing of the fish and they helped me get out of a snag with one of the pillars. Finally the fish wore out and we were able to net it. It ended up being a 34 and a half inch bull red that weighed in at 15 lbs 14 oz.
Catching this fish sure beat any of my freshwater catches and I am looking forward to doing it again sometime!
I would be happy to send a picture to someone who can post it. I am not good with technology.

Nice post, not to many fish can out fight a big bull red unless you make a run offshore, I love both fresh and saltwater fishing but the fight that most saltwater fish put up is a pure adrenaline rush

Thank you. And yes sir, I now agree that saltwater is just a different monster. I have caught a flathead catfish that was approximately 35 pounds and it couldn't touch what that bull red did. Absolutely amazing.