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West Galveston Bay -- 7/13/12-7/14/12
7/13/12
Finally was able to take a Friday off which is a rare opportunity for me. Decided to make the best of it and go fishing in West Galveston Bay. Some friends and I were planning for an upcoming fish fry so I decided to soak some croaker to pretty much guarantee me a bunch of fillets.
Launched the kayak around 5:00 AM along the south shoreline of West Bay and paddled over near the Galveston Island State Park marsh. The tide was observed to slowly incoming early in the AM and eventually slacked up around 9:00 AM. The weather was iffy at times, but no major storms. The winds changed from calm to southwest at 10 mph and then back to calm for the remainder of the morning. Seemed like the trout were feeding more aggressively during the calm periods.
The trout were easy to locate with all the fresh slicks popping up everywhere along with that "watermelon" smell. Anchored up on sand bottom in about 3-4 feet of water and just free-lined the croaker as far as I could cast. The first three trout I caught were of good quality. I landed a 5 lb'r, a 6.5 lb'r, and a 7 lb'r back to back in a matter of 15 minutes. All of this action occurred before sunrise. It was pretty intense following these catches because I kept anticipating that the next fish would be a contender for the STAR fishing tournament. Unfortunately, the trout didn't get any bigger than the 7 lb'r. All of the 25"-27.5" trout were released unharmed. The bite continued until about 8:00 AM. I continued fishing the same area and retained a limit of trout from 18"-24".
7/14/12
Headed back out to the same location in West Galveston Bay around 5:00 AM. Weather was iffy again and this time it was not in my favor. I checked the radar before leaving my house which did not show much of anything along the coast. After launching my kayak and anchoring about 1 mile from my truck, I start noticing lighting in the distance but never hear the thunder so assumed the storms were far offshore. Well, about 15 minutes later, a thunderstorm pops up out of nowhere and there I am out in the bay with lightning popping all around me. One of lightning bolts hit a crab trap buoy about 50 yards from me. My ears were ringing for several minutes. I've never paddled so fast in my life to seek shelter. Fortunately, I made it back to my truck safely.
So, after that ordeal I decided it wasn't worth sticking around with this kind of weather. I drove over to the Galveston Ship Channel and salvaged the day by catching a limit of flounder. The biggest flounder went 4.5 lbs. All fish were caught along rip rap on red/white curly tail grubs tipped with finger mullet that I cast-netted.
Hopefully the weather cooperates tomorrow, because I plan on going back out to West Bay and will be targeting some more trout, reds and flounder.
Finally was able to take a Friday off which is a rare opportunity for me. Decided to make the best of it and go fishing in West Galveston Bay. Some friends and I were planning for an upcoming fish fry so I decided to soak some croaker to pretty much guarantee me a bunch of fillets.
Launched the kayak around 5:00 AM along the south shoreline of West Bay and paddled over near the Galveston Island State Park marsh. The tide was observed to slowly incoming early in the AM and eventually slacked up around 9:00 AM. The weather was iffy at times, but no major storms. The winds changed from calm to southwest at 10 mph and then back to calm for the remainder of the morning. Seemed like the trout were feeding more aggressively during the calm periods.
The trout were easy to locate with all the fresh slicks popping up everywhere along with that "watermelon" smell. Anchored up on sand bottom in about 3-4 feet of water and just free-lined the croaker as far as I could cast. The first three trout I caught were of good quality. I landed a 5 lb'r, a 6.5 lb'r, and a 7 lb'r back to back in a matter of 15 minutes. All of this action occurred before sunrise. It was pretty intense following these catches because I kept anticipating that the next fish would be a contender for the STAR fishing tournament. Unfortunately, the trout didn't get any bigger than the 7 lb'r. All of the 25"-27.5" trout were released unharmed. The bite continued until about 8:00 AM. I continued fishing the same area and retained a limit of trout from 18"-24".
7/14/12
Headed back out to the same location in West Galveston Bay around 5:00 AM. Weather was iffy again and this time it was not in my favor. I checked the radar before leaving my house which did not show much of anything along the coast. After launching my kayak and anchoring about 1 mile from my truck, I start noticing lighting in the distance but never hear the thunder so assumed the storms were far offshore. Well, about 15 minutes later, a thunderstorm pops up out of nowhere and there I am out in the bay with lightning popping all around me. One of lightning bolts hit a crab trap buoy about 50 yards from me. My ears were ringing for several minutes. I've never paddled so fast in my life to seek shelter. Fortunately, I made it back to my truck safely.
So, after that ordeal I decided it wasn't worth sticking around with this kind of weather. I drove over to the Galveston Ship Channel and salvaged the day by catching a limit of flounder. The biggest flounder went 4.5 lbs. All fish were caught along rip rap on red/white curly tail grubs tipped with finger mullet that I cast-netted.
Hopefully the weather cooperates tomorrow, because I plan on going back out to West Bay and will be targeting some more trout, reds and flounder.
COMMUNITY WITH A LARGE
PROBLEM AND A 
PROBLEM.
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