New to West Bay - anybody willing to help?

[coachlaw]

I don't know anything at all about West Bay, though I'm going to learn some day. I keep in the SLP, Cold Pass, Christmas Bay, and Bastrop Bay areas. I have a fishing camp on the water in Titlum-Tatlum Bayou. If you get a chance to come by sometime, we're out there darn near every weekend. If you hear us talk about Blockade Runners, that's the place. It's still pretty Ike'd up, but we're working hard. I can personally recommend hooking up with Flatoutfishin'. His name says it all.

Here's a pic dated late 2007. - Sandy

[Explorer21]

Coe,
Got your PM, thanks. As for the hot spots, I actually have one of those maps from Academy and have put the Lat/longs on my GPS of several hot spots, so that is a good start. I was not sure if there was a special hot spot software I can load on my Lowrance LMS520, but it sounds like what I did with the one from Academy will get going.

THANKS TO ALL AND ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

[imhammer]

Maps

Hammer, we have a lowrance LMS520. When you talk about Confederate Reef and coves on the south end, I will just have to find out where those stops are and put them on my waypoints. BTW, i found out the hard way on Saturday regarding the far west end. Got stuck on a sand bar, close to bird island flats.

If you have or can get the bluechart card for your gps, it has all these areas marked.
Try google earth and you can clearly see where the shallow areas are and where all the reefs are. Confederate reef is on the east end of the bay close to N & S deer island.
A good Hotspot map will also have all the names and areas marked so that you can study it.
I have only been fishing West Bay for about a year, but I can comfortably navigate the majority of it.

[nokatchin]

Welcome,Glad to have yall aboard.Lots of good folks here
NK

[WestEndAngler]

Chip made a good comment... The two main obstacles East of your home that you should be wary of are:

1. Carranchua Reef (which extends N to S (roughly) from Jamaica Beach subdivision North to the ICW... I've crossed it many times in my Robalo during the summer, I'm not sure what exposed areas there are. Kenny & Robalo here on the board can provide better advice on that reef as they live in that subdivision.

2. Confederates Reef is in between North & South Deer Island. Its marked or soon will be thanks to us Years ago before the ICW was put in on the North side of the bay, barges used to run in the middle of West Bay. They call this area the Old ICW and its still marked by pilings... You should use dead reckoning. The reef begins right around 8 mile road and ends as you enter the ICW heading towards the Causeway. It will be on your right had side and is visible on a low tide.

If its nice Sunday you can follow me or join me on a run from Pirates through Confederates into the ICW start heading West in the ICW back around to Greens Cut then straight South again back to Pirates. You can set your plotter to make a "route" which is what I did

[WestEndAngler]

Post Ike Aerials more recent than Google...

Here are some post Ike aerials for you Explorer...

1. Blockade Runner on Titlum Tatlum Bayou which is West of San Luis Pass and just off what we call Cold Pass which connects West Bay and Christmas Bay (I think that's the name )

2. Aerial of Cold Pass & Titlum Tatlum (Cold Pass is big) Titlum obviously the small one..

3. Confederates Reef

4. SLP

5. Sea Isle area...

[Robalo]

Explorer21:

Go to Google Earth-it will help you some. I am in Jamaica Beach-the only "bad" spot between Jamaica Beach and Terramar is Shell Island and Carancahua Reef (Snake Island maybe, but if you're north of Sea isle Channel markers, you won't hit it if going east)-Shell Island is about 6 inches underwater on high tides and may be 1' or more above on low tides (it is kind of "S" shaped, so don't be within 150 yards of what you see breaking waves/reef). I use Lowrance and the chip (Navionics) is pretty darn accurate as to depths and reefs. I run between shoreline and Shell Island to get to Sea Isle-kind of a straight shot from end of pilings for Sea Isle Channel to house on westernmost point of Jamaica Beach-Shell had me aground once in my 23' Robalo and it was cold (like today) and dark-yeah, I shouldn't been running at night. Just west of you is great flats near/in front of the water tower-goes from 4-6' to 2' pretty quick about 150 yards from shore and stays at 2' until about 50-75 yards from shore with hard sand bottom flats and usually has folks with boats pulled in wading- (watch out for them and, as we all know, respect their areas). Birds work out in front of Sea Isle/Terramar in about a month and really good in the fall. Watch out around Alligator point area-there are rebar (horseshoe shaped) along the old shoreline near the point in West bay and they are under water-also a cement culvert which can take your lower unit off-that thing is in 2' of water and runs parrallel to shore near where the big white buoys are in the Intracoastal for tugs to tie up to and is about 100-200 yards south (towards and in West bay) of the intracoastal-I have seen several boats run right over them and I just smile when I see that-getting into ICW from West bay can be somewhat tricky-real shallow spoils along ICW. If you are trying a cove such as Maggie's or Jumbile, I would putt in and not be on plane and watch depthfinder to get an idea as to depths/channels in coves-most are 2-3' with 1' spots here and there-also debris from Ike. Learn by going slow-that way you don't muck up your boat and start learning the areas without paying the price for water pumps and lower units. I generally would stay 100-200 yards off shorelines to avoid bars/reefs-like I said Shell Island and Caracahua are gonna be tough for a newbie heading east of Sea isle. Don't even try San Luis area without someone showing you or you'll be pushhing a lot. Pirates is somewhat tricky-many flats near opening. Confederate Reef-we'll I still run aground some there on high tides when I don't see the reef or when I think I can get real close to shoreline. Stay pretty far away (200 yards) from the geotubes-stuff got piled up against them from Ike and you may hit something. Use the chip on your depth finder and watch the depth contours-they are fairly accurate and use your zoom in/out to check where you are heading into-never follow an inboard outboard or ski boat-they are visitors and likely will run aground-follow center consoles with fishing poles (respectfully, with large distance between you-if they hit/run aground, you do not want to run them over or join them)-never follow kids out joyriding. As far as guides, you cannot do better than Capt. Greg Francis (Aqua Pimp on this board) HE IS AN EXPERT AND KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING ALWAYS!! Good luck and stay safe-smart of you to ask on this board-ggod folks and mainly all West bay-like having good neighbors. BTW, the basin at Terramar has produced some darn big trout in there near grass-it's about 9' deep also in spots-floundies too.

[Explorer21]

Robalo,
Thanks for all the advise, this is very helpful. I might get in touch with Aqua Pimp soon to set up a guided tour of West Bay.

West End Angler, thanks for the aerial shots. My father is in the GIS business and has access to the latest satellite images of anywhere in the world, so I am going to hit him up this evening. If I get a good arial shot of West Bay (post IKE) I will give it to all of you.

Finally, I went to Academy today and they have the Post IKE hot stop map out for West Bay, so I picked it up.

Thanks to all of you and have a great weekend.

[Robalo]

Explorer21:

You are welcome. I run a 2008 Skeeter baypro CC with 150 yammie, red/white, and a 1987 23' Robalo with twin 115 mercs and blue T Top (the Robalo has only the "O" on the side). If you see me wave or holler. I have Arcview/ArcEditor at work, so maybe he (your dad) can email me the shape file and I can print it out-my aerial is many years old (if legal of course). Good fishing to you!

[aqua pimp]

Welcome Explorer21

Lots of good info on this thread with alot of good input. These guys definatly know there way around this bay system.

Here is a map that I circled areas where alot of caution should be used.

The areas circled in yellow are mainly areas of shell pads in very shallow water.
Areas in Red are sand bars down around the Pass.
The black dots are new debris spots from the storm and the one black dot down by the pass is the sunken skrimp boat that can be hard to spot in low light conditions.
This time of year the coves along the south shoreline can be hard to get into with the lower tides. Some are even shallow on a normal tide. I would recommend idling in on any cove until you get familiar with them. Still some debris in the coves too.
The trickiest areas to learn will be the pass, Coinfederates, North Deer, South Deer, and Meacoms. There are alot of small shell fingers that stretch out from Confederats and boath Deer Islands. I have pulled many a boats from these areas in the winter time. Chocolate is an awesome place to fish but its a rather shallow bay with alot of mid bay reefs and spoil reefs.
like mentioned before a good map and a GPS with a chip will be very very helpful. This time of year can be a great time to learn the bay too while the tides are low and a day with good visibility.

AQUA PIMP

[Robalo]

Explorer21:

Da "Pimp" has spoken true words!! Told ya he's great!! You'll learn more from him in 1 day than all of us combined.

[Explorer21]

Aqua Pimp, thanks for the information and more importantly the map! Do you have an opening in April that we might be able to hit the water and you show me some areas?

[Explorer21]

On other note, how can I get my profile picture to show up like all of yours? I uploaded one in my profile, but it is not showing up on here.

[007]

On other note, how can I get my profile picture to show up like all of yours? I uploaded one in my profile, but it is not showing up on here.

Go to user CP click on edit options and then go to edit avatar and upload your pic. Sorry go to edit avatar.

[imhammer]

Pic

On other note, how can I get my profile picture to show up like all of yours? I uploaded one in my profile, but it is not showing up on here.

Talk to the Grand Poobah (WestEndAngler) on that. Email him the pic and he will fix it.