One of my favorite places is gone now!

[Zork]

Plugger,

Looks like they blocked off our flounder hole

[FlatoutFishin]

Plugger,

Looks like they blocked off our flounder hole

Yep...nice ones in there too, but I'll give you my other one thats at the back back back of a certain place....course you probably already know of it! I actually thought about pming you to see if you knew anything. I met you back in there about 2 years ago...I was in an 18ft shallowsport.

Good deal Steve, you got me wondering now too. I thought they were probably made for something other than the shrimp farm becaus ethat is a fairly recent industry and those have been there a lot longer. Still, if it was bad, it would of been dealt with a long time ago. Working in a refinery...you wouldn't believe the testing and checking the state does now a days. Your either clean, or you get that way real quick....or they'll do it for you!

[Gilbert]

Pretty sure HBR has the money to do this and are probably the ones that had it put in.

[Robalo]

If they close in the barge canal that you all are talking about, it wouldn't surprise me. Think of the old Sun Oil canal near Fat Rat Pass in East bay. All of the sudden it was closed off leaving only Yates and Big Pasture bayous as way into marsh area near Kaplan. With those old sunken barges full of who knows what, they should be removed and should be on Hall's Bayou Ranch's dollar-especially if they dug the canal initially. Just like in Sunset Cove Subdivision and places down by Port O as well as in Lafourche Parish Sleaziana, if it's a manmade canal, it can be closed to public access. Lafourche Realty owned the old Tidewater Canal (dug by Tidewater Oil company in the 40's for drillsite access), as such, Lafourche Realty (was owned by yankees in Detroit or Chicago) built a pier with a guard shack and guard with a .30-30 and had a cable across the canal. Locals could get a "pass" sticker generally for free, but it cost my old company $100,000s to move a drill barge and support vessels through their canal-there was no other way in and no dredging new keyholes to drill in the marsh, so you were at their mercy and basically paid thru the azz for access. I always thought that someday HBR would close that canal-don't think the COE dug it, prolly an oil company did to drill when that was allowed.

I hope Monte only means they are closing the opening into Caranchua that opened a few years ago and not closing the mouth of the barge canal. remember the old canal down aways halfway between Caracahua Point and Alligator point-was an old canal that was closed off about 15 years ago(???)-I never went in it-was afraid too shallow for my boat.

[FlatoutFishin]

Well I've been unsuccessful looking for a downloadable map to show exactly...anyone got one they can post?

[Robalo]

Barge Canal Image

How's this Monte?

[Gater]

Those pits are nothing close to a shrimp farm and never have been. Those pits are commonly to refered to by locals as the McGinnis Pits. They have been there for over 60 years and contained toxic sludge from area refinery and chemical plants. After a long drawn out fight they were closed in the early 90's. They were owned by McGinnis Industrial Manufacturing Corp. who also had a site on the San Jacinto river which was at one time was in the top 3 of the EPA's superfund site as one of the most polluted area's in the US.

I cannot remember if the site was ever officially cleaned up. The barges that are sunk in the back were used to haul the sludge to that location. I clearly remember fishing Caranchua in the early 80's and your eyes burning on a south wind from the stinch coming from those pits.

Not sure who owns the property or what they are doing there now with the barricading. Its possible they could be doing work to close the breach from the back lake to stop the erosion because the canal is a buffer between the lakes and the levees. If I hear of anything new I will post it.

[Baby Tran Cat]

Thanks Gater...here's a link I found to an article from the Galveston Rag from 08 that mentions it. Asked my buddy Mark who is a local honk and he also says he heard it was a paper mill waste dump...

http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=3dcd293edec25677c8545f57966c90b3

[Baby Tran Cat]

and the Chron...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5634114.html

[shallowist]

That information coincides with what I was told, but didn't want to spout knowlege that was second hand. Thanks for adding validity. From what I was told, there wasa some serious waste getting moved around back then. For those of you who take the time to read Plugger, Grigar talks about all of the shorelines around West Bay being grass covered, that went away with the installation of the bridge, and some leakage/spills. I can't imagine what that bay would look like with grass all over. Another East Matagorda??? Fished it for years with little to no grass, and very much enjoying the resurgence of the seagrasses the last few years. I hope that it is an effort to continue containment, I'm sure you would have to dig very deep to remove everything that was once dumped in there..

[WestEndAngler]

That north shoreline grass is spreading! I think its almost doubled since last year and how about the state park its all grass in a lot of areas. Good efforts from Galveston Bay Foundation and volunteers along with a flushing thanks to Ike has really revitalized the bays

[corndog]

Well hell. I saw a barge there saturday and it looked like it was just there to drop off equipment. I had just started fishing back there. The first time I fished there I had 19 reds around the lower slot limit but a kick in the arse to catch. Even if you can run thru the lakes to get there the tidal change I feel is going to kill the spot.

Their is an old geo tube just at the beginning of chocolate bay on the left that they have just close to dump the dredge for the chocolate project upcoming.That spot produced flounder and reds when no where else was happenning.

I am going to do some research. Lets get some one to call in to 610 and ask capt mickey about it. Maybe he can get the ball rolling or get us an official answer to whats going on down here in our area. Maybe we should all call in and see if the listeners can help us find out what is up or help us get it removed.

Sad thing is as a west end fisherman we kinda fly under the radar for most fishing talk. But hey thats why I like fishing the area. I will hear all the jazz and belly aching about weeekend fishing and holiday fishing and when I go out on those days it aint all that bad here. Sure theres spots that have people bunched up but I can always find places to fish and not have a zillions boats on me. I also can usually scratch out a fish and I have many great days too.


I dont know guys. But they sure snuck up on us and stuck it in our keyhole on this one.!!


We need to be more vigiliant on whats going on in west bay. Shame on us and I am guilty as charged!!

North shoreline is covered in grass. That is awesome!!! Please dont buzz the shoreline just to run your skinny boat thru there. Please putter out from the shallows and launch out of the grass and then run . Just because you have a skinny boat dont mean you need to cut up the grass there and bust up the fish. Thanks in advance.


"come back"

[TTU Wader]

North shoreline is covered in grass. That is awesome!!! Please dont buzz the shoreline just to run your skinny boat thru there. Please putter out from the shallows and launch out of the grass and then run . Just because you have a skinny boat dont mean you need to cut up the grass there and bust up the fish. Thanks in advance.

X10000000

It kills me when I see people running in what little grass we have, that there is a thread in itself lol.

I hope we get some answers on the barge canal. I go back there too from time to time.

[caz]

lost my favorite park and drag the yak place a few years ago so i feel you... been launching at that spot since i was 16, still tryin to find a ninja way in..

[Robalo]

Ok, so we know the pits are dumpsites. Does anyonew know what and who is doing there?

BTW, I hope Lawrence McGinnis died a slow and painful death from pcbs and dioxin-burn in hell *******.