DaParson's Fishing Adventures

On the first half of my Panama Trip, the weather didn't cooperate very much. Rather than fishing two full days in Pedasi and Frailes Rock - we were blown off the water by storms the first day and then only fished the afternoon - and again lightening storms forced us off the water. So we really fished about 1 full day rather than two. Be that as it may, we had a good day fishing the South Frailes Rock. It was late in the day when we ran into schools of Yellow Fin Tuna. Each pass we were able to have double hook ups. Most of the Tuna were in the 20-30 lb. range. We also picked up a few small Durado, Skip Jack Tuna, Sierra, and Bonita. We did not get to go after Rooster Fish - which was disappointing. But with the rain and lightening, there wasn't much we could do about it all. The area around the Frailes is one of the more beautiful spots I have been. There are pristine beaches, great fishing and wonderful people both in Pedasi and the Frailes. I texted my wife and to...

Here is a video of the trip: We headed out of Freeport with stops at the VA Fogg, West 21s, and Steeple Rock on the day. The Sun Rise was beautiful and the ride on Jerry's Cat was smooth and steady. We were chased from a couple of spots by Thunderstorms popping up - this one had a little more personality with the Water Spout. It was beautiful ... at a distance. Dewey Jr. was the best fishermen on the day catching a pair of kings, several nice snapper and this small rock grouper. I picked up this undersized ling - it was fun seeing him "stalked" and then watching him take the bait - (Red & White Feather Jig). Jerry and Roland were great on the boat taking care of the fish. It was a great day. We ended up with 4 limits of Snapper, 3 Kings, Trigger Fish, undersized Ling, Amberjack and Rock Grouper.

Dewey, Wayne, John Rayborn and I headed out to the Jetty to see what we could catch. It has been a good while since we have been out, but today was really a great day. Wind laid down, waves were all but non-existent, water was about 85 degrees and there really wasn't much of ab outgoing tide. We started out to the right of the Jetty Pole at the end, moved to the Cement Ship and then ended up at the Moon Rock. We caught various croaker, whiting, hardheads and about half-a-dozen shark. None of the shark were of significant size. We went out in Wayne's Boat, it is running great and Wayne is like a proud poppa! One note - the moon was about full last night - could have had an effect on the bite - plus prime spots at the end were filled with boats.

For the past 11 years my family has been spending a week at Surfside Beach in Surfside - near Freeport. This year we rented the White House from Beach Resort Services . It was our first time to rent from them and they did an outstanding job in every single phase. Not only will we use them again, but I would highly recommend them to anyone without equivocation! Sitting next to a beach fire is one of my favorite things to do at Surfside. The next night, we found out there was a burn ban in effect and we weren't able to build any more beach fires - but we were able to ejoy this one. The surf was very sandy due to the high winds - but we did catch a number of whiting, rat reds, small drum and piggy perch. We used 1/4 Silver Spoon tipped with dead shrimp. The boys did alot of wrestling. We had a great week with the Baileys! Christopher gets into the fish catching too! I was the target of this massive water balloon assault! We fished along the old pilings innfront of our beachh...

We had a great trip on the Captain Casey out of Freeport. There were 16 of us that went out on Monday, June 9th. We were aboard the Captain Casey - there were only 30 on the boat total. It was rough on the way out - even on the 80 foot long Captain Casey - but the winds died down a bit through out the day. The total catch for the day was a boat limit of Snapper - up to 11 lbs, several kingfish and cobia. Here is a video of the trip:

We took a short offshore trip in Jerry's 2350 Fishmaster. We went out about 22 miles in 2-3 foot waves. The boat did great! We hopped a few rigs and picked up 2 Kingfish, 3 Shark. We stopped by the Jetty on the way in and picked up 1 Sheep Head and in honor of Dewey - I caught 3 hardhead. (grin) Tasha (Jerry's Daughter) caught the biggest Kingfish at 39 inches. I caught the other one at 37 inches. One of the shark - about a 5 foot spinner - put on a great aerobatic show jumping and spinning several times. All in all it was a great day!

This is Wayne Hamilton's 82 year old aunt. Her name is Lucille Hull and she is a charter member of Fairview Baptist Church in Sherman Texas. This is a 7lb 1oz catfish she caught. It is never too late to wet a hook!

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!