I'm thinking about running down to Bolivar or Galveston this weekend and just wondered if I would be wasting my time? With a North wind the surf should be pretty flat but I don't know much about salt fishing so I don't know if that's a good thing or not. I heard the Redfish should be in the surf but I don't know how true that is either. Any tips?

Shouldn't be a waste of time. The annual run has been going on for a couple weeks now so you should have luck. Not sure how many rods/reels you're going with but try different baits and locations (I.e. 50 yards to 75 yards off shore). Sometimes they'll want cut mullet and sometimes they prefer cut croaker. Good luck. Also, check out Miss Nancy's bait camp Facebook page. It's updated daily with pics and report. And one more thing, download the windfinder pro app. It has a station at rollover and is pretty accurate for wave height, wind, etc etc. Let us know how you do.

Thanks for the info! I'll check into those things. I'm going to go give it a shot and see what happens. Worst case scenario I'll spend some time on the beach and catch no fish but that's not a bad problem.

cut mullet or crab on the bottom in surfside or san luis pass.

Ditto, bait rods and a nice chunk in the 2nd gut and you should be good to go. We are heading down there again this next weekend to test out our new Avets and you can bet we will be chunking bait in the 2nd and 3rd gut looking for drums.

Redfish are ALWAYS in the surf, Always. They just prefer crab in late fall and winter..

Well I gave it a shot but didn't have much luck. I fished with cut mullet and crab in the second gut for several hours Saturday with no luck. I finally waded out to the third gut and fished in it for a few hours without catching any. I did catch 1 Blacktip Shark about 30" long but that was it. With the blacktip and the croakers I caught while letting my other baits soak I came home with enough for a meal but that's about it. Oh well, it was a pretty weekend anyway.

What area did you fish and what day? We were on Bolivar Sunday morning and had pretty good bites most of the morning and early afternoon. Landed a 34 black drum, 36 red drum, 25 red drum and lost a few big ones we never saw. Only kept the slot red and some medium sized sandies.

I actually started out at rollover but I didn't get there until around 11:00. Nothing was biting there for anybody so I moved down close to the Ferry and had no luck there. Then I went back East of Rollover and fished for the rest of the day and only caught the 1 shark. I went back to the same spot Sunday and fished several hours without a bite except for hardheads knocking my bait off. I know very little about fishing in the salt so I'm sure most of my bad luck was all me.

What kind of tackle setup were you using? We were using basic double drops, 12/0 circle hooks and ~6 oz weights. Big chunks of mullets, about 2" wide.

I was using a single drop with large spider weights. I tried cut mullet and cut croaker and crab.

You mentioned you waded out to the 3rd gut? That is pretty far out, we did most of our fishing in the 1st gut near the 2nd sandbar. I wanted to get to the 2nd sand bar but it got about 6ft deep and wasn't very comfortable. Sometimes they just aren't biting..

Yeah, I fished the 2nd gut for a long time and finally decided to try and get out to the 3rd. It was Saturday afternoon so the tide was going out. I got up to a little over chest deep before I hit the 2nd bar. Then I waded over the second bar and cast as far as I could and walked back to the beach and let it soak. I never have any luck down there so I'm pretty sure the problem is me.

Guts are fine but you need to find break in the sandbars as well.. Basically look at the surf, find a spot where the waves are not cresting, this is an area where the water is returning to the sea. Fish love it.

Finally, stand on top of your car, look for the deepest and fastest sloping spot in the surf.

That's a great tip, I am pretty sure we were fishing near one of these cuts..

That's the kind of tip I was looking for before I went. Oh well, I'll remember it for the next time I go.