DaParson's Fishing Adventures

We had a great day fishing with a friend of Dewey's, Greg Buchanan. It was his first trip out with us and really was a pretty slow day. With the water too warm for the Black Drum Run and still a little cool for the summer pattern to set in, we really didn't know what to expect. We put cut shad, crab, shrimp and cut whiting on the bottom. Fished at Moon Rock, Tarpon 2 and then back at the Moon Rock. We were only able to muster 1 Bull Red, 1 Sting Ray and believe it or not, 1 - 23.5 inch Red Snapper. The Red Snapper was caught at the Jetty Pole on cut whiting. It is the first snapper I have seen caught at the Jetty since we have been fishing out there. We took it home - perfectly legal State Water Red Snapper. Will be fun when the summer pattern fully develops! Here is a video of the Trip

I have been doing some research on the History of Galveston's North and South Jetties. Here is a paper published about 20 years ago - very informative - a little technical, but still an amazing find. Construction and Rehabilitation History of the Galveston Jetties Costal Hydraulics Laboratory Fact Sheet Galveston Harbor Jetty, Galveston Texas www.tpub.com Tech Report 9 1874-1879 The first attempt at constructing jetties was begun by placing cement covered gabions over distances of 9,700 and 2,200 ft. on the north (Bolivar Point jetty) and south (Fort Point jetty) sides of the inlet, respectively. An additional 500 ft of north jetty was constructed of timber piling at its landward end. The gabions were 6 ft high and wide, from 6 to 12 ft long, and filled with dredged sand once positioned. The jetties were submerged, extending no higher with the majority from 5 to 6 ft below than mean low water (mlw). The gabionades were unsuccessful in either securing a...

This trip was just like old times - just Dewey and I headed out to the North Jetty this morning. We grabbed some shad, crab and shrimp and headed out to the end of the Jetty and fished on the outside - fished Shrimp Boat. There was a strong incoming tide - water was about 68 and had good color. We caught several Black Drum, 1 Bull Red and 6 puppy drum. Something of interest on the day was the overwhelming schools of glass minnows in the water. Throughout the day, Spanish Macs were busting through the minnows - coming out of the water - making quite the commotion. I threw spoons, chrome rattletraps, swimming minnows and freelined shrimp but only had one hit. Never caught one mac. All in all - a nice day on the Jetty.

We had a great day on the water in Wayne's "Blue Blaze" Boston Whaler. I had the privilege to fish with PFC Jessica Hamilton who is home on leave. She is Wayne and Rose's daughter. On the day we boated 11 Big Black Drum caught at the Moon Rock - 33 ft. of water - on crab fished on the bottom. It couldn't have been a more beautiful day. If you would like to email PFC Hamilton - mother_trucker_2006@hotmail.com Here is a video that we made Jessica to take back with her to Iraq and show that the fish in Texas really are bigger!

It was a beautiful day at Galveston's North Jetty. As you can see from the pic, it truly was an "Ice Cream Day." We fished at the Moon Rock and Shrimp Boat with a strong incoming tide. Water was right at 58 degrees. We fished about one day ahead of another Cold Front that is due to come in. Here is a video of the fishing: The first rub of the day was the absence of Crab for bait. With the North Wind blowing, the crabbers had been unable to tend their pots so we had to opt for Craw Fish! Several on 2Cool had mention this as a viable option. We boated all 4 Black Drum on Craw Fish! As always, we vent the drum. You can find a video of how to vent them here .

With all the options of television out there - there aren't really very many shows that my entire family stop to watch or DVR. When WWE Wrestlin' comes on - my wife leaves the room and my boys and I watch. When my wife watches the Animal Rescue/surgery shows ... I am outa there. When Hunt for Big Fish is on ... I am on my own - but when American Idol comes on - we are there as a family watching. Tonight I was blown away by the performance of Chikezie ... I really don't have a favorite ... but I really enjoyed this performance. And while this is a fishing blog ... it is MY fishing blog (smile) so ... here is the video! Hope you enjoy!

Dewey, Wayne and Jerry headed out in Wayne's Blue Bayou (24 ft Whaler) Wednesday morning to see if there were some drum to be had. I wasn't able to go - so I can't vouch for the report, or the pictures. (not that my vouching carries all that much weight either) Wind was out of the SSE at about 15 - wasn't much water at first because of the strong north winds over the last couple of days. Water was right at 61 degrees. Tide was incoming. Now for the strange part. While these guys emailed me pics of each of them holding "the fish they caught" - there are errie similarities of the fish in each pic! (grin) Now - this has never been a problem when I fish with them - then again - when I fish - we catch more than one fish! Anyway .... here are the pics in question!

This was carved by Lynn Benefield, a retired Marine Biologist and Deacon at Bayshore. It is absolutely stunning. Click on each image for a high-resolution image of each picture.

I had the pleasure of fishing with a new friend of Bayshore, Lee Attema aboard his beautiful brand new Glacier Bay. This was only his 3rd trip getting it in the water and man, it was fantastic. Lee has seen my blog, visited the church, and wanted to put some big ugly drum in the brand new boat. So out we went! We ended up with a Biblical Fishing trip, "Simon said, "Master, we've been fishing hard all night (day) and haven't caught even a minnow." Luke 5:5 Message Translation. I was frustrated - I knew it would be slow with the water still a bit too cold, and with the low tide and high pressure - but thought we could at least scare up one or two Big Uglies - but not today! We didn't even have a bite! It was still a priviledge and a joy to fish with Lee! Hopefully, next trip we will put it on 'em!

It was a great day to be on the water. We had 2 boats out today - Jerry Thompson's Boat "Top Kat" and Wayne Hamiltons Boat "Blue Blazer." Jerry and his family have recently become part of the Bayshore Family, so I was anxious to fish with him, his daughters Kristian and Natsha, and his father Mr. Thompson. Wayne picked up his boat, 22 Whaler, a few months ago and has been getting it ready for it's maiden voyage. It performed like a champ. I fished on the "Kool Kat" and really am looking forward to offshore trips this summer! The water was about 57 degrees, we fished an outgoing tide. We fished Shrimp Boat, Boat Cut and the Moon Rock. Between the two boats we caught 1 Bull Red, 2 Slot Reds, 1 Puppy Drum, 2 Big Black Drum and 1 undersized flounder. It really was pretty slow, the Black Drum Run hasn't started in earnest yet, but shouldn't be too long. Here are a couple of pics from Wayne's Boat -- He took them with his Cell Phone. ...

My family and I were fortunate to take a 5-day Cruise on Carnival Ecstasy out of Galveston January 7th-12th. On this cruise we had stops at Progreso and Cozumel. While the fishing is better in Cozumel, as a family we made reservation at Chakanaub Park to swim with the dolphins - see video below. That left fishing for Progreso. I asked many questions, did alot of searching to find Oscar Escobedo who arranged a fishing trip for us in Progreso. He picked us up at the end of the Progreso Pier and drove us about 20 minutes to the marina we fished out of. The boat was a 27ft Fiberglass Panga that was about 6ft across. It had a Yamaha 200 on it - plenty boat for us to fish out of. We went out about 20 miles - PaPo (Baltazar) the captain had a hand-held GPS and anchored on over some large structure that held fish. We caught Bee-liners, Strawberry Grouper, Rock Grouper, Spade Fish, Spanish Macs, and a huge String Ray. I also saw a school of Cobia floating along the top ... casted to the...

New Years Eve - 2007 Stunningly beautiful day. Water about 51-53 degrees - not much tidal movement - not a cloud in the sky. Water flat as a fritter. Everything you would want ... but something was missing. Looked at the Moon Rock. They weren't there! Looked at the Sunken Ship. They weren't there! Looked at the Sunken Shrimp Boat. They weren't there! Looked between the Jetty Pole and the Jetty. They weren't there! Looked at the Honey Hole. They weren't there! Went back to the Moon Rock in Deeper Water. They weren't there! Even peered over into Captain Mike's Boat When He wasn't looking ..... They weren't there either! (at least while I was looking) What did we find? Plenty of whiting, croaker, sand trout, puppy drum - But NO BULL REDS! Used Shad, Whiting, Croaker, Dead Shrimp, Live Shrimp, Sand Trout and a Twinkee - but couldn't must one single run! But man was it pretty outside!

We had a blast on the water today. It was a beautiful day to be on the water. Dewey and I had great guests on the boat with us today. Coach Ron is the coach on my son Nathan's Football Team, "The Undefeated - 9-0 - Sophomore LaPorte Texans. I have been trying to get him on the boat for awhile just to show my appreciation for his work with my son and all the boys on the Texans. He is a great Coach - and even a great man. He brought Johnny Lewis with him. Johnny and Coach Ron work together - and they trash talked the whole time! They were talking trash even before the first rod went off! And it just got better and better as the day went. We fished a tepid tide with ENE Winds about 10-15 early. The water was 66 degrees. It has cooled off considerably in the last 2 weeks. Good news for you Flounder Pounders. Anyway, the first Bull Red of the day came quite expectantly. I was fishing with a small rod with shrimp, trying to get some whiting, croaker, or sandtrout for ba...