School me on it...How do yall set up? 3rd bar...anchor or spot lock troll? What do you look for to fish?

We had a guide do it briefly in the morning checking for big trout. casted to 1st sand bar and retrieve back to deep water. Kept main motor running whole time for safety. We did anchor and it was dicey. Would not do it ever again if surfs up

I’ve fished the surf a few times in my buddy’s blue wave. Kind of depends on the surf and how big it is on what we’ve done. If it’s small, we’ve gone on the troll motor to within casting range of the first gut, so that puts the boat in the second gut. Scout for fish sign and cast to it and that positioning lets one cover anything from the first gut through the third bar. Tops, tails, spoons, flies all can work in that situation. Look for bird activity. I’ve even jumped out and waded some when the surf gets real calm. We fished areas that aren’t easily driven to or impossible to reach by truck or car.

Rougher surf means staying out of the second gut, anchoring up and more likely soaking some bait, Shad, mullet, on the bottom seaward of the break. Maybe toss a lure like a big topwater or spoon just to see. I’m not talking real rough, just a little rougher surf where there’s some break on the third bar with the first bar being the beach itself.

We’ve had some outstanding fishing in the boat doing the above, better on the eater sized trout and reds in calmer conditions, more bull redfish, gafftops and sharks in bigger surf. I prefer the smaller surf and sling artificial lures and flies at them than soaking bait, but the bait can produce some healthy fish

I prefer to keep the boat in 6-10 feet of water and cast from there. But we've caught as many redfish toward the gulf as toward the beach.

Usually, we're looking for some kind of structure, even if it's just a trough.

in order to wade you have to anchor. For that to happen the surf has to be flat and only minimal swells with no crest.

Thank you guys....Really good info.

Watch for guys shark fishing from the beach, they’ll leave you a huge mess in your prop if you don’t.

Or jump out on the second bar, that’s what I’ve done while buddy stays with the boat and the electric motor. No real reason to wade other than it might be a little easier to fish a first gut from a wading position than out off the boat. Plus, wading gives me more freedom to fly cast in any direction which is harder to do from a boat with people on it.

We did it 4 weeks ago in my 19' tunnel vee. Taking it out there is reserved for days where it's FLAT (0-1ft). For boat control we never anchored, we would drift and move back out or down when we got too close to the beach.

As far as fishing, we did really well just cruising looking for birds but honestly when the water is right you can catch fish all along the beach. Water green to the beach after a southeast wind. We found huge schools of trout that were going ballistic on shrimp. We caught about 50 between 2 of us just casting lures. A few macks, sharks, ladyfish mixed in. In my experience if you're catching small fish move to find a different school.

Thanks guys...We tried a little out in front of crystal yesterday, didn't catch squat. Spent a few hours on the north jetty and it was pretty slow out there for us. Ran into west bay and fished arounf North Deer Isalnd where the channel runs up near the bank..caught a couple keeper trout. Ended the day withn 3 trout and one nice sheepshead. Overall slow day for this salt water rookie...but I'm having fun learning.

Great info Robbie! I definitely wouldn't have known that. Thank you.

Dean have you joined me on the dark side and started trout fishing?

Yeah man...something to do after the tourney season is over since I quit hunting...but geez do I suck at it! Lol...

Heres the new toy...

IMG_2858 by dean c, on Flickr

Nice man. I fished the AQ with Ben last month and Sandro and Kary were both like it’s summertime your supposed to be on the bay. It’s hard to bass fish during the summer when trout taste so good. I don’t know Galveston at all but can catch enough in Sabine to keep me busy. I’ve got Ben hooked on it also.

I keep the boat 6 -10 feet from water and then cast from there.