First of all, I am a pier fisherman, under the lights. At this point, in my fishing, this is where I am . My wife is handicapped, although not in a wheelchair, and due to diabetic neuropathy gets overheated easily and we need to keep her from being sunburnt. This is to let you guys know why we night fish off lighted piers and why I will gauge Sylvan Beach (SB) against 18th Street (18th)i n San Leon and Seawolf (SW) in Galveston.

Sylvan Beach is right down the road from my house, so it is real handy. I went there on Friday 7/23/10 at around 10 pm and was either going to just walk and check out the pier or fish. Seeing the pier was heavily packed with people, I just turned around and headed back home. I got a couple of blocks away, then turned back around again to just walk the pier and check out the pier and lights.

I found a parking place right next to the pier and was going to just walk the pier and maybe shoot the bull with some of the folks and see what is being caught. They had a lady stationed at the gate, and she said that everybody had to have a ticket to get on the pier.

I went inside and paid the 4 bucks for the pier pass, and said what the hell and went ahead and bought a pound of dead shrimp. I figured I would find some place to toss out a line or two.

When fishing SW or 18th I usually load up my cart with fishing equipment, but since the place closes on weekends at 2am, and has a two rod limit per person, I just got my regular rod, surf rod, tackle box, and a bottle of water, plus my gloves.

I found a nice spot about mid way down and set up. By the end of the night I caught around 30 finger sized gafftops, plus a small black drum, and a real nice sand trout. I was just fishing a 4 hook sabiki setup with dead shrimp. After catching the sandy, I used it for cut bait, but nothing hit. I think these baby gafftops were all over the place.

After fishing SW several times, I kind of know where the areas are that I will lose tackle, and I fished here about 3 hours total and lost some tackle. One guy mentioned there was some sort of old pier or something to the right, but casting toward the left should not be a problem with lost tackle.

Now SW is my favorite spot, but lets discuss Sylvan Beach in La Porte versus SW.

Parking.......Sylvan beach by a mile. If handicapped, you can park right next to the pier entrance, versus the 1/4 mile walk at SW.

Cost..........not an issue to me, but one person fishing SB is 4 bucks, where fishing SW will cost 12 bucks, 6 for park entrance, 6 for fishing.

Access to bait.........SW has a guy at the pier entrance who sells dead shrimp and dead squid, and has maybe a handful of tackle, where SB has a full blown store with both live and dead bait.

Pier and lights........the lights seem to be a bit better at SW, but the lights at SB are miles ahead of 18th. Since both SW and SB were built post Ike, they are not beat down. SB is a lot nicer than I thought it would be and is wider than it looks from the parking lot. SB is a lot longer than SW. I did not see any fish cleaning stations at SB, but I never walked past midway down the pier. I will hold off on the quality of fishing till the end of August, let the fish get used to the lights and learn they can feed from the pier, which may bring in the bigger fish.

Restroom facilities, SW has many port a cans, where SB only has a couple. I believe the store at SB has restroom facilities, but I'm not 100%sure. I know SW has several hand washing stations, but I didn't see any at SB.

Hours of operation, right now SW is 24/7 and SB has staggered hours. I was told that there is a chance that SB will be 24/7 on Friday and Saturday nights in the future.

Security, SB has Sheriffs dept officers on duty, and they seem a bit tighter with security, were SW just has a couple of guys who walk the pier on occasion. There was an officer walking SB pier checking for fishing licenses, and I believe he wrote a ticket for alcohol, but I'm not 100% sure on that. I do know he wanted to see my fishing license and proof of ID. IMHO, I like this, as it seems to keep the more responsible people on the pier, where the SW pier seems to a bit wilder. I've only seen a game warden at SW awaiting cars leaving the park, then checking the fish.

I'm pretty sure SB is in a learning curve right now and things will change in the future. IMHO the only thing I didn't care for was the lack of cleaning stations, and rest room facilities without walking to the store. I loved the parking, and the store is better than the nice guy who sells a small bit of stuff out of his trailer at SW.

IMHO and I could be wrong, I feel the quality and quantity of fish will be better at SW due to it's location in Galveston versus the upper bay fishing at SB in La Porte.

Bottom line......SB is real nice for local pier fishing and I bet I will throw many lines there. It's way nicer than Pine Gully, and it's a no brainer against 18th st.

Went Saturday evening arriving about 7:45. Parking was a problem due to all of the swimmers, beach goers and their families. Parking improved once the sun went down and families begin to leave. Tidal movement time caused for little or no Specks until around 1:a/m. The Sheriff started announcing pier closing about 1:30. Had to leave the Specks for another day. People fishing with dead & live bait were catching Gafftop, sand trout & croaker. I plan on returning Thursday night about 8:p/m tidal movement should be good thru about 1:a/m.

I made a trip back out the following night. I had some new gulp to try out.

It was a good night for catching gafftop, as I caught around 30 of them.


all were under 6". ugh...........