I got up at 5am and checked the weather forecast. All the rain was supposed to move out to the west and dry air move in. I drove in heavy rain most of the way to Galveston but then the rain stopped. I stopped at Bulldog's and got bait. No rain, no wind.

I hit the pier at 6:45. It was a dead calm. Swells were about 2' with breakers at the 1st sandbar. There were a few rogue breakers on the 2nd sandbar. Water in the wade gut was very sandy so I opted to fish around the 2nd sandbar. Water was sandy but about 3" of clarity there.

I threw out 2 rods, one with shrimp and the other with squid. Something ate the shrimp fast. I did this a few times but the bait stealers were too small to make my stiffer rods twitch.

I rigged my 9' Shimano with a special triple rig that Pferox built for me. I had a 3/0 circle on the bottom with squid and used 1/0 circles in the middle and top with orange shrimp Fish Bites. I cast as long as I could and did some feel fishing. I could feel the little bait stealers and started catching a few. The first were hardheads.

It was like a sauna on the pier with no breeze. After about an hour it began to drizzle and a light breeze. I started catching small croaker, whiting, piggy perch and gafftop. The bays and surf are full of 2-3" gaffies. They just hatched out and they are hungry feeders.

I baited up 3 poles with the live croaker I was catching but no hits. After a few hours I set the Shimano in a rod holder and let it hook the baitfish on its own. I started catching them 2 at a time on the triple rig. They weren't keeper size but it was fun. I would rather catch something small than to sit there all day and soak bait with a hit.

I got 2 decent hits around noon and caught 2 whiting there were keeper size. I cut the tail off a 5" croaker and put it on the bottom rig of the triple rig. It didn't take long and I had a gafftop that was 2" short of keeper size.

Along the way the drizzle had turned into a light rain. I was soaked. Water was dripping off my chin. If they had a wet t-shirt contest out on the pier I might have taken 2nd place. It began to feel cold. The wind picked up and the rain drops started feeling like BB's hitting. I packed up and moved up close to the wade gut. At least I could get some shelter there.

The wade gut was dirty and sandy with the surf breaking. There was a lot of seaweed. I caught one tiny gafftop. The rain stopped and the dry air the NWS predicted finally arrived. I began to dry out and feel human again.

I broke off my line on 2 rigs trying to reel in big clumps of seaweed. I snapped 15# mono and 20# braid. That was the worst experience I have ever had with sargassum. One time we were catching so much Pferox and I we had to net it up onto the pier, but I never broke line on it. It was getting close to 2pm and I packed up and headed home.

I stopped at Randall's on 61st to gas up but their gas was only 4 cents cheaper than Houston. Usually they are 10-15 cents cheaper.

Even with the rain and the small fish it was a fun trip. I meet a guy who took his 70 something dad fishing. I kidded his dad about his son needing to check the weather forecast better. The dad was a real trooper. He stayed out there all day and kept fishing. Its nice to see people who enjoy our hobby so much they don't allow some bad weather to send them back home.

Thanks for something new to read. It looks as if the water is green to the beach today.

Good report, had the same problem with little gafftops at the bayou earlier in the week.

It kept the wife occupied so all was good.

Might go Sat night, but not sure yet, work is nuts, we put the dog to sleep, so everything is up in the air now.

I also had the problem with gafftops at Port O'Connor & Indianola when I went fishing on Mon and Tues they were a real pain...

Love reading these reports! Thanks a lot!

Nice report.