August 23rd BTB Bob Hall Pier Outing ((((((((((REPORT))))))))))

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Yakety_Yak
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August 23rd BTB Bob Hall Pier Outing ((((((((((REPORT))))))))))

Post by Yakety_Yak »

Now for the big report everyone has been waiting for. After getting off of the PINS beach line on Saturday, all three of us went to the entrance and on to the beach line of where we will launch the next day to see how the entrance and beach looked. The beach was easily 2wd accessible. That was the main thing I was concerned about. Following that, we went to get something to eat. From there, we got gas. Finally, we picked up some more ice for the next day.

While we were getting ice, I spoke to Hosam. Hosam came to one of my earlier outings at Surfside this summer. He was already in Corpus when we made it back off of PINS and found a place to camp for the night. We met up with Hosam on a beach that didn't seem to get any police traffic. We were able to camp here for the night and not be far from the BHP beach line the next morning.

5:00 am arrives and we start getting ready. We all make our way on over to BHP. We arrive right on time, 6:00 am, and we make our way on down the beach line. We park our vehicles about 100 - 200 yards from the cement entrance to the BHP parking lot and that is where we were going to launch for the outing. Nathan, Mike, and myself proceeded to get out and prepare for the day. Shortly after, others arrived and did the same thing as well.

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While everyone was getting things set up for the day, many noticed that off in the back of the ocean there was a nasty cloud. This cloud had a water spout forming. I went to check my app on the radar to see what was going on. It looked like this nasty weather was only supposed to be around until close to 7:30 am - 8:00 am. After that, we were supposed to have smooth weather for the duration of the day.

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I went around talking to people to let them know that the outing was going to be delayed until the weather has cleared through. This gave everyone more time to prepare. Some were ready and decided to wade fish the surf.

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Rick Fox caught a nice 26" red fish on a spoon. He was catching keeper fish before he even got the kayak wet, lol. WTG Rick, that was awesome!! As the storm kept on moving through the area, people kept on getting ready for the outing or they wade fished. After a short time, I figured it would be a good time to have a meeting with everyone. There were some new people at this outing, which is what this outing is for, so I wanted to talk to everyone about some of the do's and don'ts for fishing offshore.

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Following the meeting, people finished the last of getting ready as the bad weather passing through was almost done. It really didn't hit us but I had to be safe and delay getting others on the water until I felt good about things.

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Finally, I felt the adverse weather conditions had moved past us so I gave the green light for everyone to hit the water. It was time to fish!

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I'm usually the last one to hit the water so that if there is anyone that turtles in the surf, I can assist with helping them to get back to land and set up to have another go at it. Only one person turtled that I am aware of. This person was in a Hobie Revo 13. When this person flipped, he ended up losing his 180 mirage drive. The drive was leashed but somehow came unleashed. I immediately went out to see if there was anything I could do. He got his yak back to shore. I spoke with him for a second and it was determined that he lost his drive on the second sand bar. On this day, the second sand bar was only 6" - 1' deep. I mentioned that we should try and find it since the second bar was so shallow. Once we got on the second sand bar, I went left and the other person went right. Within 30 second, Mike found the drive. I was excited for him and it wasn't even my drive, lol. That was a $1000 save! Mike was excited to find the drive as well, as would anyone in his situation.

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Once Mike was back at shore, he got everything back on the yak and was ready to launch once again. Mike's son, Ryan, waited for him just past the breakers. We stayed in communication with him, via VHF radio, the entire time until Mike was ready to launch again. Mike was ready to go so this time I stayed near and helped him to time the sets. The surf wasn't bad but why hit the few rough ones when you can time it and make it out on the less aggressive sets. Mike and I took off and made it through the surf. There was only one problem after we made it past the surf. Mike was really tipsy in his kayak. It turns out his kayak had a fair amount of water in it from the turtle he had earlier. Mike was barely able to stay right side up at this point. I mentioned to Ryan to fish while we work out this issue. I got out my bilge pump and proceeded to bilge the water out the rear of the kayak. After getting out as much water as I could with the bilge pump, I got up on my knees on my yak and put all my weight on my hands leaning on the rear of his kayak. This made it where all the water went to the rear of the Revo 13. From here I sponged out all of the water. After 40 minutes of bilging and sponging, Mike was ready to fish. He felt much more stable now that all the water was out of the yak. After putting my sponge and bilge away, I was ready to fish myself.

This wasn't a day for me to fish. If I happen to fish, that was great. My main concern this day was making sure anyone and everyone was squared away if there were any issues that would come up. Mike and Ryan took off fishing. I decided that since the BHP was closed, I would troll out at the end of the pier. There is a nice deep highway out there that fish like to travel. I've even seen mahi there in past years. I was hoping that maybe I would get lucky and catch a fish there before heading toward the rig. Unfortunately, I had no such luck at the moment. After making a pass past the end of the pier, I turned and trolled on out to the rig.

Before I started to troll by the pier, I saw a few others make their way out and I caught a few photos.

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As I am trolling, I see a few others far in the distance but I have still not had any runs. I was thinking that maybe the kings might be running deeper so I adjusted the depth of my baits to go deeper.

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As I am trolling at different depths, I call out on the radio to see if anyone had caught anything. I believe there was one run but ended up with nothing. I believe the fish spit the hook before that person could even see the fish. After trolling the entire time, I am finally to the first rig. I have not caught any fish yet. A few people are following some birds working the water as there was a nice bait ball. Rick ended up catching a few bonita in this bait ball, great shark bait! Rick was on a roll as he was one of the few at this time to catch any fish. Rick caught the red fish back at the shore and the few bonita.

Most people were trolling the first rig when I arrived but there were a few that decided to hit the further rigs.

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Just before I arrived, Ryan was approaching the first rig with his father.

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While Rick was kicking it on the bait ball and catching bonita, someone managed to catch a shot of this catch.

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Soon after, the bite started to pick up a bit. A few people started to catch some kings. Kyle managed a king. Other people caught some kings. Not everyone turned in pics but hopefully they will post their catch on this report.

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While Kyle is bringing in his king fish, I'm fishing around the rig and watching for any signs of fish, bait balls, diving birds, slicks, etc...

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This is Nathan's first time to a rig on a kayak and so he is taking in the moment.

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This is AJ catching a king. He built the kayak he is in. AJ caught a king earlier but I don't think anyone caught a photo of it. This is a photo I caught of his second king of the day.

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By now everyone is starting to get into the groove of how to troll for kings. More kings are being caught. The bite wasn't great on this day but people were catching kings. A few sharks were caught but nothing of size of anything to brag about.

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I managed to be going by this one person when he was on a fish. I could tell it was a king by the way it was running. After this person managed to bring in his king, I caught a quick pic of it. It was a nice king!

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I continued on trolling some more. While I was trolling, I tried to get in as many pics as I could of the people that were fishing the rig and the ones that were catching fish as well. Here were a few more people trolling and catching.

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AJ probably caught the most kings this day. Here is AJ hooked up on a king of which when he brought it in, he didn't want to take home more than one king so he asked who wanted it. If no takers, he was going to release it. Since nobody said anything, I took him up on the offer. My neighbor wanted a king so I figured that if I didn't catch anything this day that this king would go to my neighbor.

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People kept on trolling the rig and far out around it trying to catch whatever wanted to jump on the line. Here are some pics of a few more trolling. One person even caught a snapper at the rig. It was just barely under the limit so he took a pic then released it.

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Another person caught a snapper at the rig but again barely under-sized, so close but no dice.

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Some people sent me some pics of others trolling in the open and even close to the rig from far out facing land. Great pic and a great day!

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The bite was slow but continuous. The kings would bite every so often. Out of the 40+ kayakers that showed up to this outing, I would say that around half caught at least one fish. Some caught more than one. The other half of the kayakers caught nothing or something that either popped off or broke the line. I ended up catching nothing this day. I honestly wasn't there to catch but it would have been nice to catch something. My main focus, again, was to ensure that everyone was having fun and nobody got hurt. Besides, my fun day was the day before (see prior report PINS for those details).

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There was one person that kept on catching live bait for anyone and everyone out at the rig most of the morning. He was on what we called the "Banana Boat." The live bait he was catching, but not limited to, was blue runner (candy bait for just about anything that is pelagic). People were throwing those on their line and catching fish. You just can't go wrong with a live blue runner!

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By now it was about time to start heading back. This was a good time to do so as the swells and current started to pick up a little. Some people went out in a paddle yak. I didn't want them to have to work extremely hard getting back due to currents. It was late in the day and everyone has had solid time on the water catching fish. It was time to head back. A few decided to hang behind for about 30 minutes longer and then they would head back. I kept tabs on them, via VHF radio, until everyone was back on shore. For the others that went to the further rigs, I kept tabs on them by cell phone. Everyone kept trolling all the way back until the surf zone. A few caught kings along the way.

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Ryan caught a few still shots of him coming back into the surf zone heading back to shore.

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One guy brought this fish in and wasn't sure what it was. After confirming with him what it was, the fish was released back into the water. This is a barred grunt (great cut bait for catching reef species).

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I decided to enter back into the surf zone by jumping in the water right after clearing the 4 gut. The surf wasn't bad but it was hot and I felt like taking a dip in the water. The water felt great! I made it back to shore with no issues. Once I arrived back to shore, I visited with a few others before packing up and leaving to clean the king that was given to me. For those of you that don't know, Billings Bait Stand has a great cleaning station. You just have to be sure to get there later in the day after the guides have made it in there and cleaned the fish for their clients. It can get busy there at times. People staggered in at different times so it made it tough on getting photos. I did, however, manage to have a few people send me a pic of their catch(es).

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There were others that caught fish but those are the ones that sent me pics. All in all, it was a great day! Even though some didn't catch anything, they ended up learning how to go offshore. Everyone made it back to shore safely, including the ones that went to the far rigs. After packing up and saying our good-byes, Nathan, Mike, and I headed on our way. What a great day for fishing, meeting some new people, and seeing people catching fish they have never had the opportunity to do on a kayak before. It was awesome!

After having to reschedule this trip many times since June 6th due mostly to COVID circumstances, we were finally able to get this trip in. Some of the changes in plans were due to bad conditions and another time was due to a hurricane. It was amazing that we were able to get this trip in at all. We started with 178 sign-ups and by the time this trip was held at the end of the summer, we had around 40 people show up. That's pretty good considering the circumstances we had in front of us. Thanks to everyone for coming out to the outing. I hope everyone had a great time. If you did, I am certain I will see you on the water down the line. If you want to fish offshore kayak fishing with me sometimes, I'm just a phone call away. Until then, tight lines!
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Poseidon01
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Re: August 23rd BTB Bob Hall Pier Outing ((((((((((REPORT))))))))))

Post by Poseidon01 »

Always enjoy reading your reports, transports me as if I was there. You are an awesome host and a great fishing friend to all. Congratulations on another successful and fun offshore kayak adventure. :clap:
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Killerbee
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Re: August 23rd BTB Bob Hall Pier Outing ((((((((((REPORT))))))))))

Post by Killerbee »

Really enjoy your reports Blake! Even better than a video in my opinion. I always feel like I was there!
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kickingback
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Re: August 23rd BTB Bob Hall Pier Outing ((((((((((REPORT))))))))))

Post by kickingback »

Best report and pictures ever! Thanks for posting!
Yakety_Yak
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Re: August 23rd BTB Bob Hall Pier Outing ((((((((((REPORT))))))))))

Post by Yakety_Yak »

Poseidon01 wrote:Always enjoy reading your reports, transports me as if I was there. You are an awesome host and a great fishing friend to all. Congratulations on another successful and fun offshore kayak adventure. :clap:
Poseidon01 wrote:Really enjoy your reports Blake! Even better than a video in my opinion. I always feel like I was there!
kickingback wrote:Best report and pictures ever! Thanks for posting!

Thanks gentlemen!! I am glad you guys enjoyed. It takes awhile to organize the photos and then to try and recall the order of events for each day. This is partly why it takes a little time in writing up something like this and getting it out. I enjoyed writing this report up. :)
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Ron Mc
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Re: August 23rd BTB Bob Hall Pier Outing ((((((((((REPORT))))))))))

Post by Ron Mc »

was wondering if you guys were going to get off the beach, but great day and worth the effort.
Nice save on the Hobie drive.
Enjoyed the photos.
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Chubs
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Re: August 23rd BTB Bob Hall Pier Outing ((((((((((REPORT))))))))))

Post by Chubs »

Was waiting for you to post your report before I posted mine heh.
Thanks for the good report and pictures.

Here is my report adder. No pics because you already posted them:

Did a little surf fishing before launch to avoid the thunderhead that was developing out in the gulf.
Had some strikes but no hookups.
Launched and headed to the rig, trolling a ribbon fish king leader and Chrome Rat-L-Trap.

No bites by most of the people during the day.
Some caught some good kings, but there were not a whole lot caught.

I decided to try fro trigger fish and spade fish at the 1 mile rig.
I caught 1 undersized trigger and 3 spade fish
Also caught 2 snappers. They were red but had a dot and stripes. I thought they were red snappers and the people on the radio said they were, but evidentially didn't understand what I was saying because it turns out they were Lane Snappers, who's min length is 8", so I tossed back 2 keepers most likely.

People at the further rigs were catching more kings than those at the 1 mile, but still not a whole ton.
I trolled my way out there and saw some birds working.
Made it there an hooked a bonito while trolling the Rat-L-Trap
I didn't know if you could eat them or not and the guys on the radio said they are only good for shark bait, so I went ahead and dehooked and tossed it back.
Unfortunately I left it out of the water too long and I don't think it survived.
Wish I had kept it to try it, especially after reading this article after the fact:
https://catchandfillet.com/can-you-eat-a-bonito-fish/

Decided to call it after that rather than try to make the rig. Glad I did because the wind had really picked up by then an in an unfavorable direction.

While trolling back something nailed my ribbon, but unfortunately I saw 2 tugs then the rod went limp. Reeled in my bait and something had chopped my ribbon in half, and bent up the back stinger.
Not sure if my drag was too tight or he just missed the hook, but I'm betting it was a king.
My king rigs are a little short for the ribbon fish I bought. I need to make a few longer rigs for next time.
It's always easy to make them shorter, but a lot harder to make then longer!

Trolled the rest of the way back to launch. Kept wishing I had a Hobie haha. My arms were dead again by the time I made it back to shore.
I did the "Paris Hilton" method (as Blake called it) of getting back through the surf, jumped out and held on the the back of the kayak. Worked well and I didn't have to power through the waves like I usually do, I wouldn't have had the strength for it.

All in all a good day out but bummed I missed the big hookup, whatever it was.
Also wish I had kept that Bonito to try. And of course not released the lane snappers I could have kept :)

Keys to catching fish
• Drift the rig with a ¾ oz weight and tiny little hooks with small pieces of fish bites worked for the spades, trigger, and lane snappers.
○ Fishbites worked perfectly.
○ 15lb floro also worked just fine with small hooks.
○ The fish would strip even the fish bites mess of the hook quickly, was very interesting.
• A landing net was very handy for the smaller fish, and the gaff handy for big fish (never needed to use it though)
• Lay down my trolling rod up front when trying to cast to a specific target.


Next time try:
• Potentially a heavier weight would have helped with the drift fishing when the current picked up at the rig a bit.
• When fishing for triggers etc, needed to use my rig hook to hold still so I could work the area better but I didn't see anything good to hook onto to hold still.
• For my king fish leaders, I need to make a few longer ones incase my ribbon fish are too long. Also I think hooking the treble stingers pointing forward vs pointing up might result in better hookups, but that's just a theory.
• For my Rat-L-Trap, probably should use a braided leader instead of solid leader, just seemed to get bent to easy.
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Re: August 23rd BTB Bob Hall Pier Outing ((((((((((REPORT))))))))))

Post by Wolfman57 »

That’s a pretty big event to host. Great job on all being safe and fish caught. Lots of cars on the beach.

Nice.

WM
Yakety_Yak
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Re: August 23rd BTB Bob Hall Pier Outing ((((((((((REPORT))))))))))

Post by Yakety_Yak »

Ron Mc wrote:was wondering if you guys were going to get off the beach, but great day and worth the effort.
Nice save on the Hobie drive.
Enjoyed the photos.
Yep, it finally happened. I was beginning to wonder if this outing was ever going to take place this summer. It was a lot of fun. :)

Chubs wrote:Was waiting for you to post your report before I posted mine heh.
Thanks for the good report and pictures.
I didn't know you were wanting to post pics or I would of not posted the ones I had of you and waited for your report to come out. My bad.

Wolfman57 wrote:That’s a pretty big event to host. Great job on all being safe and fish caught. Lots of cars on the beach.

Nice.

WM
It was a good day. People didn't rush to get out on the water and waited for the bad weather to roll through. Everyone stayed together and practiced the "safety in numbers" rule. Fun day for sure!!
tbone56
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Re: August 23rd BTB Bob Hall Pier Outing ((((((((((REPORT))))))))))

Post by tbone56 »

What a fantastic trip!
I have never been BTB, but this seems like a great opportunity for a beginner.
The group was lucky to have someone put forth the effort to organize, plan, and help.
Good job!
Yakety_Yak
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Re: August 23rd BTB Bob Hall Pier Outing ((((((((((REPORT))))))))))

Post by Yakety_Yak »

tbone56 wrote:What a fantastic trip!
I have never been BTB, but this seems like a great opportunity for a beginner.
The group was lucky to have someone put forth the effort to organize, plan, and help.
Good job!
I do this outing once each year. Be looking around February as I start posting stuff then for the upcoming summer. This will give you an idea on when to start looking at things for dates and such. :)
tbone56
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Re: August 23rd BTB Bob Hall Pier Outing ((((((((((REPORT))))))))))

Post by tbone56 »

Fantastic! Thanks.
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