Texas City Dike Fishing

Hit Skyline Drive again for a quick trip. Nothing special, a few undersized reds. But I did catch a bluefish, which is a species that I’ve never caught before. A real fighter on light tackle.

One of the comments I got yesterday included a very nice report and a few pictures. David, thanks for the  report and pics.

 Click on pictures for a larger image.

All I can say Action Jackson is “Congrats, and take me fishing. lol.”

With the dike still closed to fishing,  we have to do whatever we can to wet a line. I am fishing down towards the floodgate and actually catching a few fish. Here are a few pictures. Email me if you are interested.

All caught on live finger mullet and small piggies. Let’s hope the dike opens soon. You never know what you have , until you lose it.  Good fishing.

Braved the rainy weather this morning to try a little fishing. Caught some bait with the castnet and fished off Skyline Drive in Moses Lake. Caught a few small flounder and rat reds. The rain finally let up and the morning turned out to be not so bad.

In case you haven’t heard, Skyline Drive is now open for vehicular traffic. It’s open from the entrance to the dike all the way to the floodgate. That opens up quite a few areas to fish. I’ve driven it a few times and the city/county have cleaned it up quite well. A lot of folks were fishing along Skyline this weekend.

Hopefully part of the dike will be available to us in the next few weeks. Good luck.

With the dike still closed, I’m looking anywhere to go fishing locally. I tried a little marsh in Moses Lake this afternoon. I caught a few finger mullet and threw one out along the grassline. In just a few minutes, a 23 inch redfish took the bait.

Couldn’t stay but a little while. Packed up and had to pick up my granddaughter from school.

With the dike still closed to fishing, thought I’d report on a trip I made Thursday to Sabine Lake. My brother and I launched near Bridge City and fished the north end of the lake.

We caught dozens of speckled trout fishing under the birds. The birds would find the shrimp at the top of the water and that usually means fish are under the bait driving them to the surface. That’s what was happening Thursday. It was a blast catching so many fish in a short period of time.

After a few hours of bird chasing, we anchored up near a small canal that empties into the lake. We caught a livewell full of shad and used them for bait. We found the slot reds in big numbers. I bet we caught a dozen or so slot reds and a few oversized as well.

Here are some pictures from the day. Click on images to see enlarged pictures, then click the image again for an even larger picture.

With the dike still in repair, I ventured back to the far west end of Galveston Island Friday morning. The water conditions were still in good shape. A weak cool front had passed since I was there Wednesday. The water was still a little rough across the sandbars, but the color was good.

Schools of finger mullet were in the wade gut once again and they were no problem to catch with the cast net. I put out two long rods along with a bait rod. It wasn’t long before I landed a nice 25 inch redfish.

Click on images to enlarge.

But several hours passed before the second red exactly the same size took a finger mullet.

I packed it up around 2pm and made the 45 minute drive home. All in all a very nice sunny day with a couple of fish for supper.

The dike is still closed to fishing, but lots of cleanup is going on. Scores of eighteen wheelers pulling huge dumpster trailers are picking up debris and hauling it off. There is even hope that by the first of the month a boat ramp will be open and a small portion of the dike will be available to fishing.

There are many many fishermen gritting their teeth hoping to get in a part of the flounder run. If indeed part of the dike is opened maybe some of us will still land a flattie or two. I’m on vacation for the next two weeks and plan on fishing most of those days.

That brings me to yesterday’s little trip I took to Galveston. I drove to San Luis Pass and caught plenty of mullet at daybreak. No large mullet, but many around six inches or less. There was one other fisherman about three hundred yards from me. He had already landed one red in the upper slot range along with a spanish mackerel and a very nice speck.

I put out two long rods. Water conditions were very good. Green water to the shore and tons of bait. The wind was still from the south and good sized breakers were crossing the sandbars.

In a little while, one of my rods did a bobble or two. I waited and decided to see if it was a gafftop. I was very surprised to reel in a 24 inch fat speckled trout. It had eaten my finger mullet that had a 16/0 Mustad circle hook run through its tail. I think that’s the first speck I’ve ever caught on a hook that big. Well I’ll be darned if the other rod did the same dance and another speck at 25 inches took a mullet and big Mustad. You just never know.

I wish I had brought the bait rods and lures. The specks were pounding the finger mullet in the wade gut. I rigged up some smaller hooks and caught six more very nice trout before the conditions changed. The wind got stronger and turned a little eastward making the water a bit sandy. I left at noon because I had been up the night before working at the refinery.

No bull runs, but a very nice and sunny day. The run of specks was a nice surprise as well.

I’m going again in the morning. I’ll be set up across from the water tower about two miles east of the pass if anyone is off. Wind is supposed to be out of the north but not too strong. My guess it will be a little bit out of the east, but I’m hoping for a bull or two.

Well that’s about it, but wanted to check in and say hello. I’m as disgusted as anyone else with what Ike has done to our fishing spots, but nature does its thing I guess. It’s a 45 minute drive for me to hit San Luis, but for now I’ll take any place I can get to.

Good luck and hope the dike opens up for you fellas soon. I’m also going to fish Sabine Lake next Wednesday and Thursday weather permitting. I’ll let you know what comes of that.

Here’s a link to some photographs of the areas hit by Ike.

http://www.tpicks.com/pictures%20people%20have%20sent%20me.html