hello everyone, lifelong saltwater nutt here and new at this forum deal so please bear with me.. This has been a horrible year for offshore fishing for me anyways because the wind has been relentless..I finally made it out last weekend and in covering over 200 miles round trip I saw enough grass to sod one side of my backyard (and I have a pool)... soon as I get this transfering of pictures to my computer solved.. I hope to post a picture of a stud 15.4 lb Triple Tail I caught fishing in the surf for Specks off East Beach SWEEEET!

It has been a tough year. It was very good fishing early. Last five weeks have been rather slow. No weeds, very hot, lack of bait and lack of rain. All of these things combined with the Mississippi river current coming our way with the annual farm pestisides aren't helping. Not many Dodo's this year because no weedlines to troll. Not many flying fish.

All activity is either inshore or very far offshore. Inbetween pretty much sucks. It normally gets better mid Sept. We need a tropical storm to help us out. Mother nature has been cruel this year both to us and the fish.

The offshore fish have been scattered. No weedlines to congregate them at all. Bottom fishing has been the game all summer. Trolling over or around structure seems to work too.

Actually, the past three summers have had seas way above normal. This summer has been rather calm sea wise. But, the lack of grass has made it tough to find rips. No visible rip, no Dodo's, no Hoo's. Just a random pick up here and there. The rock formations have not had much bait on them all year. I agree that the snapper fishing was best in thirty years. That's mainly because of the lack of shrimpers. They killed a very large majority of juvenile snapper over the past four decades draggin the bottom of the gulf.

Tuna are still deep staying with the bait. I'm beginning to wonder if they will ever come closer this year. If the bait doesn't come in, the tuna won't come either. However, late Sept and early Oct are normally great tuna months for guys that can only travel about 50 miles offshore. We'll see. I'm leaving in the morning for another shot. I'm not very optimistic as I think it will be rather slow fishing once again.

Great advice , mrbill and LandPirate..Thanks for the replys guys.. Did you guys here about the ole boy from Baytown Tx that died this week from that "flesh eating" virus [censored] after getting scraped on his knee while fishing at Galveston? That stuff thrives now beause of exactly the things you listed mrbill.. Well I'm off to Boomvang in the very near future (1st time) cant wait.. I have been hearing about that rig for ever and am sick and tired of seeing all of the videos on youtube of 50-100 YFT's and all of the Blackfins you can handle.. I'll be in the Blue and white Triton 2896 w/ twin 250 Yamaha 4 strokes.. CANT WAIT!!

Speeking of Shrimpers... summer of 06' was the best offshore fishing for me probably of all time and we were on a weed-line out of freeport and kept seeing these Kings launching themselves airborne of in the distance so we rode on over and as far as I could see from HORIZON TO HORIZON were dead 4-6 in Snappers in the wake of a shrimp boat of every species in the book.. It was utterly gut wrenching to say the least.. I've read studies that suggested around 80% of Juvenile snapper mortality comes because of trawls.. seems kinda high but after that day It might be a low estimate in my mind

Those weedlines are a must for offshore fishing. They are like no other food chain. They come from far offshore and finally hit the beach. Along the way thousands of fish feed on them. Think of it as a floating structure. It's a natural food chain that can't be created by man. I miss it this year. It sucks not having it present. I don't think I will ever complain again about the years where it is everywhere and you can't even troll with fighting the grass off you lures.

They provide a hiding ground for little crabs, shrimp and hundreds of sea creatures. They also collect all those natural seeping tar balls. All the beach people can't understand why the beaches have tar balls now. Well, if you can find any seaweed, look closely. They are floating tar ball filters. You just don't notice it. Oil floats and the seaweed collects that natural seepage.