My son and I got to the pier at 0800. I walked up to what I thought was the Galveston pier (thanks to us being overly excited). Turns out it was the 61st. The place was already pretty crowded and everyone seemed to turn an eye at the obvious newbies...LOL! But everyone was friendly.

Weather was overcast with a very mild drizzle. Temp was about 70 degrees. Very slight chop to the water. We set up on the left side of the T and threw out. No one was really hooking up on anything except for some gafftops and sheepshead. For my son and I, this was quite a different experience since the only fishing we've done was for Bass in a boat where we'd keep moving and flippin' and pitchin'. The day was shaping up to be a bit of a disappointment for us novice saltwater boys.

And then.........a gentleman by the name of James showed up! And folks, this fella gave me a whole different outlook to fishing as I knew it! He taught me how to set up my new saltwater reels the right way, where to throw, HOW to throw, what to use for bait, and even taught my son to say, "Goin' Out...!" when slinging the rod out to kingdom come!

20 years of bass fishing and I felt like a kid again learning saltwater! IT WAS AWESOME!

At 1100 or so the bite turned on and folks started bringing in some 20+ incher reds on squid. My son started catching a few small croaker. James was pulling in several HUGE gafftops and stingrays!

At around noon the sky cleared up, and one of my reels started screaming! I fought something for 10 minutes before it broke me off! BAM! Had another hit right away on my other rod, and I couldnt get to it in time and it got off as well. I had several HARD bites that doubled the rod over and made the drag scream but I lost all my fish from either improper technique, substandard equipment, or the fish just plain breaking me off.

You might think at this point I'd be frustrated as all get out, but thats where Mr. James sprang back into action. His reel started SCREAMING and he fought a MASSIVE Red for about 10 minutes and with the help of another gentleman with a pier net, he landed it with no problem.

So....with no action of my own why would I take the time to post this write up? Well, James was kind enough to let my son take a picture with the Redfish, and I am thankful for all the tips as well as the memories with my son. On our drive back home he couldnt stop talking about the big fish he got to hold. Here is a picture of my son Garrett with the fish!



Thank you James, and thanks to all you friendly TFF'ers for your advice as well! Garrett and I will be back and hopefully next time we will catch our own fish to brag about!

Sounds like a great day, first time out.

Yeah its fun to catch fish, but even better when the young ones are there and get watch them catch fish! Your son will never forget that trip!

WTG

congrats man! Everyone has their first trip sometime or another!

Thanks guys. Yeah we definitely made some memories. Hopefully there will be many of these during my lifetime.

this is how you get the memories started. my son was his age when we started hitting the piers. i made a stepping stool/platform that fit on top of my pier cart that we would take off so he could reach over the rail and cast speck rigs. he would go see what kind of fish people were catching and what kind of bait and then report back. we called it doing the kid thing. i put 60 lb braided line on his pole so he had more of chance to bring in what he hooked into including pieces of oyster reef back on the old texas city dyke pier.



my son is 14 yo now and still loves to fish. days off from school and makes his mama make early doctors appointments so he can fish the rest of the day.

keep taking pictures of ya'lls adventures.

I need a cart like that!

Man, that cart is AWESOME! I went to Academy in Tomball yesterday and they had a dock cart on sale for 59.95. I picked one up and cant wait to get it set up this weekend with the rod holders and everything!

thank you. my son learned to weld (mig) on that cart. My BIL worked a place that built metal fences and we would bring home some of the scrap cutoffs for little projects. the salty air finally killed it but not the memories.

YOU GUYS BUILT THE WHOLE CART>?!>! Amazing! and super jealous... As far as the rod holders and your cart, obviously an add on, but squirelman, did your cart come with rod holders. Do carts come with them, or are those always peoples add ons? Do you just drill holes and use zip ties? Good stuff ones again PAFREE

No sir she didn't come with the holders. I plan on attach hint the PVC pipe sections using clamps of some sort. I will post a pic up here when I'm done. Thanks for the idea pafree!!

i started by using Tek screws but the screw heads were eating at my rod handles inside the pipe. i ended up using 1/4 inch carriage or button top bolts. i made a bigger hole on the outside so the head of the bolt would go through. i used cap nuts on the inside/cooler box side of the frame. zipties would have worked too.

this is what i built mine after: http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/sto...CFcbb4AodBC8A1A

That cart in the link it PRETTY BAD! You did an amazing job, you should make and sell on craigslist and such..

I really enjoyed your adventure. It brought back old memories