Fished San Luis Beach in Galveston County this past Wednesday, a hot and windy day.

Part of the enjoyment I get from fishing is planning the driving route using Garmin and Google Maps applications. In general, I want to target fishing sites within 3-hours of home. I learn the bait shops and backroads while attempting to avoid the much-detested traffic congested superhighways that can add upwards of 1-hour to the travel. Perhaps not news to you, but I found the applications need to be manipulated by adding destination sites in the travel plan to overcome the route recommended by the application based on minimal travel time. (I would think Google could improve its route optimization algorithm with a little insight from the user.) And I found Google Maps more accurate and easier to use then Garmin.

As I exited the Bluewater Highway Toll Bridge onto the beach access roads, I noticed the main trail to the beach was rutted and soft sand. I saw a truck up ahead stuck, buried to its floorboard in the soft sand. I stopped. Decision time�park, and haul equipment to the beach a �-mile away, find a different location in the Galveston area, or drive the trails throughout the dunes until I found a route to the beach? I decided to drive the dunes, eventually arriving at the beach site I had targeted in my planning. I remember hoping I could retrace the route when going home.

There was a lone fisherman when I arrived, and the sea was beginning to recede. The beach terrain had changed significantly since I was last here a year ago.

I picked a spot based on previous experience, sunk two sand spikes, and went about setting up my two long-distance beach casting rods.

For bait, I had frozen 6-inch mullet, squid, shrimp, and crab. I started with mullet on both rods and throughout the day I tried each as well as cocktails made by blending baits held together using a nylon mesh. All baits were secured to the hook using a bait elastic or a rubber band.

I soon discovered the surf was filled with floating seaweed. Fortunately, the seaweed was more a nuisance than a problem, i.e. I could still fish, but it was nearly impossible to detect a bite. The reel clicker was constantly chirping as weed accumulated onto the main line and was being pulled by the current and wave action. At times I had weed balls approaching a fish weighing 20-pounds.

The bite was so slow I tried my inshore rod thinking that fish might be in the first gut and I was simply casting too far with my surf rods. But it was a head-on, windy day. I simply could not get the desired distance with my 8-foot inshore rod. Eventually, the braid on my bait caster snapped giving me a nasty backlash and sending my lure into the distant surf.

Meanwhile, the lone fisherman was catching fish on live bait, on both an inshore rod wading thigh deep and two surf rods. He had the best location today. Funny how changes in terrain over time can alter the location of fish.

I did move my sand spikes about 100 feet further into the Pass hoping that the change would encourage the bite. It wasn�t 15-minutes before my reel began singing. Finally. I reeled in a 36-inch black tip shark caught on a mullet. I caught three other fish, all hard catfish.

Thank you for the report! We are heading down to Bolivar in a couple of weeks and plan on doing some shark fishing from the surf; can't wait!

You mentioned using a blend of baits in a nylon bag and attaching it to the hook. You wouldn't happen to have a picture or something that shows how you attach the nylon mesh to the hook? I can't seem to find anything on YouTube that shows the process or configuration.

Thanks!!

To learn more about mesh bags for fishing, do a Google search using "fishing bait mesh bag" or see https://www.breakaway-tackle.co.uk/sea-fishing-accessories?product_id=549.