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If you mean Quitana Beach near Surfside, Lake Jackson, Freeport, and DOW, the surf fishing hasn't quite turned on yet, which will probably be sometime after Easter after temperatures warm a little more. You might find whiting and a few pompano with a few croakers this time of year and the water is cold. Large black drum are coming through the channel so you might as well hit the jetties for sheepies and huge black drum - "big uglies" we call 'em but they can fight like heck and go to 30 pounds. Some like a 7/0 hook.
Sheepie and big ugly fishing is totally different, although similar in some respects because both love crabs. Take a bucket of crabs and put them on ice to put them to sleep. A live bluecrab fixed right for black drumming is essential, using medium heavy gear, weights, and all that. This takes a reel with pretty good drags on it, since some black drum can be hogs (the keeper slot if 14 to 30 inches). An offset 5/0 hook should suffice.
The best sheepie pole is a long surf pole with small very strong but small hooks and baits, and the reel hammered over to you are really "dabling" or "doddlesocking" rather than casting and cranking with a reel. If you have a 14 foot surf pole you have 14 feet of line and you just hang the line around the rocks, flip it now and then. Catch one, give it a heave-ho onto the jetty by simply lifting up.
Now if the sharks are in, you're right in Shark City there. This needs even stouter gear but you can try with a surf pole. Basically, you have to catch some stingray or something for shark bait. Kill the bait (again ice puts 'em to sleep) and run a main hook of about 10/0 plus through the bait and use dental floss to sew it so it rides naturally. Here's where a kayak sounds real good, to get the bait out to the farthest ditch or gut you can. I've walked them out which sounds crazy but never had a problem except in high waves. Sharking is quite fun.
I'll tell ya right now shat sheepies are hard to clean, big uglies aren't the best eating unless you fry it with Tony Cacheri spices, and that shark pretty much sucks unless you want a small one above the legal limit - 24 inches for blacktip, the best kind (I'd want one 3-4 feet long). Unless you know what to do with shark it will taste like ammonia and pooh! Everyone has their own ways but I cool it fast and throw it on the BBQ in an aluminum tent and a ton of hot sauce and marinade and veggies and beer (the onion and squash absorb any fishy smell so I don't eat it). Some smoking action id good. If done right, it makes a great fish taco that doesn't taste like shark at all.
I hope you can score some nice speckled sea trout though, on a regular rig. The fish is fun on light lines and the eating is probably some of the best of any species on the coast. Spanish Mackerel could be showing up, a close second. You have to be careful with these fish because they get soft and mushy if you don't take care of the meat, since it is very delicate - best to drain the cooler and keep them off any water to prevent waterlogging. Who knows, the Spanish macks might be at the end of the jetty and running a ways down the beach. Seems early to me but they do show up early most years.
Sheepie and big ugly fishing is totally different, although similar in some respects because both love crabs. Take a bucket of crabs and put them on ice to put them to sleep. A live bluecrab fixed right for black drumming is essential, using medium heavy gear, weights, and all that. This takes a reel with pretty good drags on it, since some black drum can be hogs (the keeper slot if 14 to 30 inches). An offset 5/0 hook should suffice.
The best sheepie pole is a long surf pole with small very strong but small hooks and baits, and the reel hammered over to you are really "dabling" or "doddlesocking" rather than casting and cranking with a reel. If you have a 14 foot surf pole you have 14 feet of line and you just hang the line around the rocks, flip it now and then. Catch one, give it a heave-ho onto the jetty by simply lifting up.
Now if the sharks are in, you're right in Shark City there. This needs even stouter gear but you can try with a surf pole. Basically, you have to catch some stingray or something for shark bait. Kill the bait (again ice puts 'em to sleep) and run a main hook of about 10/0 plus through the bait and use dental floss to sew it so it rides naturally. Here's where a kayak sounds real good, to get the bait out to the farthest ditch or gut you can. I've walked them out which sounds crazy but never had a problem except in high waves. Sharking is quite fun.
I'll tell ya right now shat sheepies are hard to clean, big uglies aren't the best eating unless you fry it with Tony Cacheri spices, and that shark pretty much sucks unless you want a small one above the legal limit - 24 inches for blacktip, the best kind (I'd want one 3-4 feet long). Unless you know what to do with shark it will taste like ammonia and pooh! Everyone has their own ways but I cool it fast and throw it on the BBQ in an aluminum tent and a ton of hot sauce and marinade and veggies and beer (the onion and squash absorb any fishy smell so I don't eat it). Some smoking action id good. If done right, it makes a great fish taco that doesn't taste like shark at all.
I hope you can score some nice speckled sea trout though, on a regular rig. The fish is fun on light lines and the eating is probably some of the best of any species on the coast. Spanish Mackerel could be showing up, a close second. You have to be careful with these fish because they get soft and mushy if you don't take care of the meat, since it is very delicate - best to drain the cooler and keep them off any water to prevent waterlogging. Who knows, the Spanish macks might be at the end of the jetty and running a ways down the beach. Seems early to me but they do show up early most years.
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