I stopped at Bulldog's for bait. He had an interesting story for me. Monday night when the west wind blew at 30-45 it lowered the water 3-4' in Galveston Bay. The water dropped below his water intake for his bait tanks. Without any water to circulate his pump burned out and he lost all his live bait. He said he could see the bare bottom from his dock all the way to the bulk-headed shore on the other side.

I arrived at 900. The sun was out. The water was sandy green with 2-3" of clarity. The waves were flat with some tiny surf breaking right at the shore, but in only a few places.

I baited up and tossed out. 3 hours later I caught a keeper sized whiting and a smaller whiting that I tossed back. Around 1500 I caught a 12" stingray. The bite was slow all over the pier. For the day the entire pier caught 10-15 whiting, 3 pompano, 9 stingrays all in the 12" range and 1 big hardhead. The bite came alive for a select few around 1400 as the wind shifted strong to NW. That bite went dead within 30 minutes.

The weather forecast had been for cold and windy in the morning with cold and windy after the front passed in the afternoon. I fished until sundown in a short sleeved shirt. The temp hit 76.

Shrimp boats were dragging 200-400 yards off the shore. I took a few pics but ended up with my thumb instead of the shrimp boats. Birds were feeding most of the day. Herds of porpoise worked both sides of the pier. There was a lot of bait in the water but none of us had what they wanted. I tried fresh dead shrimp, shrimp, crab, squid and clam Fish Bites in various colors, both fast and long acting. Others tried cut bait. The 2 whiting were caught on shrimp chartreuse Fish Bites. The sting ray was caught on fresh dead shrimp.

I decided to stay until 1900 to avoid the traffic. Around 1830 I heard a strange sound, like a bow string being released and out of the corner of my eye I saw a surf spike that had been holding a rod twirling in the air and bouncing down the pier. Something big had hit my 9' MH Shimano with 5000 Penn and yanked it off the pier. After the first few seconds of being stunned, I got my 12' surf rod and bent the spider weight to turn it into a grappling hook. I cast out and held the tip down close to the water while retrieving to get the best angle to snag the missing gear. About 20 minutes later I snagged the line and managed to pull the rig to the edge of the pier. I was fishing with 30lb braid and trying to pull a rod and reel up onto the pier while holding braid was a challenge. At one point I had the braid wrapped around my arm until I realized there might still be a BIG fish on the other end. I wrapped the braid around my pliers and managed to it over the pier railing. I reeled in and all my terminal tackle was intact. Whatever hit it, the 1/0 hook was too small to make an impact. I have hooked and landed 30lb fish and never seen a hit like that. It's the one that got away. Since there were only 2 others on the pier I have to admit "ROBERT DID IT".

The next time you are fishing a pier be wary. I was only 5' away and it went over the rail so fast I never even saw it. I had the drag set light but when pier fishing there are some HUGE fish out there that can hit at random. Be sure to tie your gear down securely.

The TFF Mafia will be meeting at the pier on Saturday. Come on down, say hi and fish for a while. If you have been reading these reports you know something interesting always happens.

Always look forward to your reports! Glad your rig was retrieved.

Glad you got your pole back.

Jim opened it up and cleaned it out for me today. Its packed with grease and ready to try again Sat. Have my fingers crossed.