Sunday, I fished Bolivar Peninsula surf near Rollover Pass hoping to land some bull reds.

Later then normal I arrived at the Winnie bait shop around 9 am. They were out of the large mullet I wanted for cut-bait but had plenty of frozen fingerlings and dead shrimp. I bought a pound of each.

The 18-knot wind was out of the Northeast, blowing straight down the beach, which was being pounded by sand-filled 3 to 4-foot waves. The air was chilly. I put on a light jacket and decided to use chest-high waders instead of wading wet.

I rigged my inshore rod with a Caroline rig and shrimp. Wadded out about knee deep where waves were pounding me nearly chest high. I wanted to catch some fresh baitfish but gave up after about 30-minutes without a strike.

I then set up my 12-foot surf rod, wet the 40-lb braid by walking the beach, attached a fingerling, and made my first pendulum cast for the day. Then I started to set up my 13�-foot surf rod, but I was interrupted during the stringing by fish activity. No fish, but bait was gone. Despite numerous fish activity interruptions, I eventually put the second surf rod into service and was able to finish setting up my day camp.

One of the attractions to Bolivar Peninsula is the freedom to drive the 27-miles of the beach if you have the annual permit. Once past the soft dunes, the beach becomes very drivable without fear of getting stuck. One can park their car at the water�s edge which is extremely convenient, but if you are not paying attention to the tide, you might find your car surrounded by water. Your car won�t get flooded, but if you try to move it, your tires will spin on the wet sand, and you�re stuck until you get assistance.

During the day I moved my car several times as the tide rose. But the fisherman next to me did not. As the tide rose and the van became surrounded by water, the fisherman jumped into his van and began spinning the tires, burying the van to the floorboard in wet sand and tide waters. 2-hours later and with the assistance of a 4-wheel drive pickup and a receding tide, the fisherman freed his van.

Despite the agony of three snap-offs resulting from backlashes, I had a very satisfying day of pendulum casting, occasionally hitting �125 yards with an 8-ounce weight. Perhaps as many as ten fishermen around me were using long rods�all but one was a spinner. No one was using the pendulum cast. Perhaps in my youth I might have mimicked the three fellows who waded wet out into the surf where waves totally submerged them and their rod-n-reels as they waded into the deeper water. I often wonder why so many long rod fishermen I witness in the Houston area fail to capture the power of the long rod to maximize their casting distance. I�m sure they noticed my cast standing in knee deep water sailed well beyond their best cast, and I was not placing myself or my rod-n-reel in harm�s way.

One of my objectives this trip was to catch fresh bait. I failed. I tried shrimp on a Carolina rig as well aa a sabiki rig. And I watched four fishermen throwing cast nets throughout the day without success. Is it possible that no bait fish were in the shallows? For sure the water was dirty because of the turbulent sea�clarity was at best a few inches.

It was a great day for catching hardhead catfish�I caught 24�but a tough day for bull reds. I saw four bull reds pulled from the sea, none of which were returned to the sea. I didn�t catch any bulls. In fact, I only caught hardheads�no sharks, no gafftopsail catfish, no stingrays. Most of the 2-pounds of bait I purchased was gone when I quit fishing at sundown, exhausted.

Next time�

Damn... had them days

Well, one way to look at it is that you caught fish. I've had days where I've caught no fish whatsoever, and would rather catch a couple dozen hardheads over nothing.

Sorry you didn't do better, but it was a great and informative report with good information for the newbie surf fisherman. Thank you.

You just have to keep going out there. Some days you get beat to a pulp and catch nothing, other days flat seas and you can't help but catch fish. Maybe not what you were looking for but lots of fish and several fun ones to bring in. Most days it is somewhere in between.

Having clear water helps with the cast net in that you can see bait fish in the water and know where to throw. In churned up water you are just guessing where to throw and have no idea if the bait fish are even in the area.
If you can catch sand trout or whiting, they make good bait.

Having a good rod which can throw a long ways and using the pendulum cast certainly beats being beat up by the waves.
Were you able to throw beyond the last set of breakers?
What kind/length of rod were you using?

That was a nice bedtime story. That and a bowl of Blue Bell vanilla will help me sleep real nice!

what we used to do was to let our pickup truck tires air out to about 10 lb of pressure which allowed us to ride is deep soft sand without getting stuck and I can never remember spinning tires on wet sand. We always carried an air compressor to refill the tires when heading back to hard surfaces.


what we did with the compressor was to mount it under the hood, with an on off toggle switch, on a homemade bracket and hook it up to the fan belt, then run air lines to both sides of the undercarriage of the truck and put air quick release connectors for my air hose. Had it setup on a couple of trucks over a 20 year surf fishing hobby.


The only time I had a problem was at Cape Cod when the sand was soft and I pulled the truck over the crest of the beach which was really steep and the front tire came off the wheel. And the tide was coming in. The biggest problem I had was digging the hole under the spare tire in the back and then digging the hole under the front tire. By the time I got it changed the water was coming for me.

While under the truck there was a real bad smell. It was the skunk I thought I had missed on the way to the Cape.


One night we caught 25 bluefish in the 14 to 18 lb. size range all on pencil poppers. In the morning the argument was who caught the most 12 or 13? The wife or me. No stripers however on that trip. All of our bull reds or better known as red drum came from Cape Hatteras or Cape Lookout.

next time, cut off the barbs on the hardhead and use it as shark bait. If that's all you are catching then chances are a bull or sandbar will pick up that fresh bait.