Sorry for the late report, but I have been kind of busy. Since Robert (Back to Fishing) has put in a few teasers on my report coming out, I feel I better get it going.

It turned out to be a beautiful day with light Southish winds, and mild temps in the mid 70s. But man was the surf rough, all the other bays and water I saw on 146 on the way to Galveston looked relatively calm. When I saw the Gulf on 61st and Seawall, it looked like we had a Tsunami revving up. Seawall Blvd (I think is what it is called) was very foggy. That fog was actually the spray drifting across the road, and made visibility pretty crumby.

Robert was already at the pier and had caught a few Whiting, in a deeper spot than we normally fish, so I decided to try shallow, after a few hours there, I was beginning to think this was going to be a skunk out day for me. He talked me into fishing deeper, and things started to brighten up a bit, sort of.

My first fish caught on my new 12lb class bait rod was a keeper, either a drum or a sheepshead. I'll never know because my new rod broke on its first fish AND the 12lb line snapped while trying to hoist this fish out. I'm pretty sure the rod was damaged in shippment, it broke about the same place the first one shipped was broken. You can see the top part of the rod near the reel. I wasn't too broken up about it though because its breaking is a great story I need to put to prose somewhere.



This was looking like it was going to be one of those days that I really didn't want to write about, until FINALLY catching a decent sized whiting, Robert said that my day was changing, and he was right. A little later, on a rod I hadn't fished with since Florida, OLD BILL, brought in this nice 32 inch Black Drum. Which someone on the pier snatched up before I had a chance to put it back.



Then before the end of the day, another old rod I have a MH Penn Captiva, brought in this 40 inch 22 lb, Bull Croaker (OK, Redfish) THIS one we did release quickly. And the next time Robert makes me smile before he takes a pic, I'm sticking my tongue out, THAT will make for a great picture, huh?



We did manage to bring home a few for our next fish fry, mostly huge Whiting and a couple Pompano.



What started out to be a nice day to just sit on the pier and watch everybody else catch fish ended up being a pretty good day for me, that bull red is the biggest red I have ever caught. If I hadn't been so strapped for time, this post would be three times as long because there was a lot that went on catching those two big fish, and that is what actually makes catching fish like that memorable to me more so than the actual fish.

That is awesome, congrats on the bull red! I still need to make it out to the pier.

I let Jim (pferox) catch all the big fish Saturday. He needed a chance to catch up. When you see the surfers in wetsuits you know its going to be a rough day. Swells were around 4' and there were breakers out beyond the T head. Blue water was trying to move in but it stayed just beyond our casting range. The water was greenish sandy with 3-4" clarity. We had to switch to heavy spider weights to hold bottom. But every time a wave passed it would grab the line and pull the rod tips. It was like synchronized swimming watching the rod tips bend one after another.

Other than Jim's 2 big fish most of what we caught was by accident. He felt those hit. We would notice the line was running parallel to the pier but headed offshore or that the line was going under the pier. Or we would reel in to check bait and have a fish hooked. A lot of the fish that got hooked headed right under the pier before we even knew we had a fish. I caught one pompano that snagged me on the barnacles of 3 pier pilings before I drug him out from under the pier. I had what might have been a keeper drum snag a pier piling. I got him loose and just as I got him to the surface the braid snapped. I muttered a few comments that I can't post here.

There was something about the big surf that caused almost ever fish we caught to head back under the pier. Jim had to fight his bull red hard. It was running parallel to the pier but getting closer. Other anglers were nice enough to reel in so that Jim could walk out the pier to keep pace with the bull red. Jim did a great job of working the bull. He didn't try to bring it in too fast but he kept constant pressure on to wear it down and keep the hook set. It was about a 15 min fight and I was lucky enough to net the bull on the first try. By that time it was laying on its side but tried to run when it felt the net.

Jim caught his big drum on a finger mullet head. He caught his bull red on a dead shrimp and #1 circle hook that was almost straight by the time the bull was landed. I caught pompano on chartreuse color shrimp flavor Fish Bites. We both caught whiting on chartreuse and pink Fish Bites as well as dead shrimp.

Jim can kid about me telling him to smile for the photo but he looked like the Cheshire Cat when we got that big bull onto the pier. Jim has been fighting a jinx with reds for 3 years in Texas water. This fall he got his first rat red, then a nice slot red and now a bull red. I told him that he was King of the Pier. He was modest and only agreed to Prince of the Pier.

To put the fish size into perspective those pier planks are 2x24. lol

nice catches...looks like you need a stronger rod