Brazoria County Surf 6-4

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karstopo
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Brazoria County Surf 6-4

Post by karstopo »

Got up super early to put a Brisket on the smoker. Saw how calm it was so I decided to head out to the surf for a quick wade session. Calm didn’t describe the surf at 15 minutes after sunrise, more like yikes! Must be that TS Alex messing up things. Waded on in anyway armed with baitcasting rig and a skitterwalk.
Trout to 23”
Trout to 23”
Caught a 17” fish pretty quick, caught a whole lot more waves in the face, sides, torso, etc. Got knocked off my feet several times, lost my hat. Moved around some looking for more fish, found a couple more, all on the chartreuse skitterwalk. Missed a few more fish. Terribly difficult working the lure very well with the current, waves, not being able to see the lure most of the time.

I’m not complaining, it was fun, and the fish were a nice size. I’ll take a pounding from waves for three good trout.

Water was sandy, but also had green areas, mix of the two. Didn’t see one mullet jump all morning. I fished until 8:45. Never calmed down, the waves.

First saltwater trip for me in 4 months. I had a good time. Not many out fishing, most had better sense.

Fish caught in the second gut.
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shoffer
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Re: Brazoria County Surf 6-4

Post by shoffer »

Thank you for your report, Karstopo. I have never enjoyed surf fishing, mainly for the reasons you mention, but I admire your ability to get out there and outlast it for some quality table fare.
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Re: Brazoria County Surf 6-4

Post by karstopo »

Surf fishing has an elusive allure. When conditions are ideal, there’s really nothing that compares to how enjoyable and productive local fishing can be. If one likes being literally surrounded by hungry quality trout that will fight each over to get to your lure so that a 40’ cast in any direction is essentially guaranteed an eat and fish on, then that can be the actual reality of surf fishing. No kayak is necessary, no battering waves, easy walk in 40 yards from your truck wading in thigh deep water in the clear green salty brine, with firm sand, plus comfortable water temperature and then the gorgeous sun rising to the east and sea life all around, this is a picture of the pinnacle of wading the surf.

These peaks are the exception, though, so I generally settle for something less. If the peak is a ten, I’d call yesterday a four. High points for fish quality and lack of confounding winds, lack of seaweed and non-target fish like ladyfish or bluefish. Lower points for water visiblilty and the battering waves and bar/gut structure.

The bars and guts constantly get reworked. My ideal is a waist deep first gut with lots of bait. And a second bar thigh deep with minimal break.
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Re: Brazoria County Surf 6-4

Post by Duster_BB »

karstopo wrote: Sun Jun 05, 2022 9:46 am Surf fishing has an elusive allure. When conditions are ideal, there’s really nothing that compares to how enjoyable and productive local fishing can be. If one likes being literally surrounded by hungry quality trout that will fight each over to get to your lure so that a 40’ cast in any direction is essentially guaranteed an eat and fish on, then that can be the actual reality of surf fishing. No kayak is necessary, no battering waves, easy walk in 40 yards from your truck wading in thigh deep water in the clear green salty brine, with firm sand, plus comfortable water temperature and then the gorgeous sun rising to the east and sea life all around, this is a picture of the pinnacle of wading the surf.

These peaks are the exception, though, so I generally settle for something less. If the peak is a ten, I’d call yesterday a four. High points for fish quality and lack of confounding winds, lack of seaweed and non-target fish like ladyfish or bluefish. Lower points for water visiblilty and the battering waves and bar/gut structure.

The bars and guts constantly get reworked. My ideal is a waist deep first gut with lots of bait. And a second bar thigh deep with minimal break.
Well put!
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Re: Brazoria County Surf 6-4

Post by Dandydon »

Enjoyed your surf report and the wave pounding you endured to catch your 3 speckled trout. I used to limit out on solid specks wade-fishing the Bolivar surf at Boyt Rd. where perpendicular guts penetrated the sandbars. Back then the hot surf lure was the 1/2 oz. silver Johnson Sprite spoon.

And thumbs up on that sublime green SkitterWalk. Back in 2003 I used mine to catch a stringer of 8 specks, 3 over 9 lbs, 3 over 8 lbs and 2 over 7 lbs, all released. God bless the Rapala Lure Co. Image

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Re: Brazoria County Surf 6-4

Post by Ron Mc »

Surf fishing is manly sport, but you can make it part of a nice day at the beach.
We used to turn it into a Cedar Bayou campout, catch cut-bait in the bayou during the day.

I don't think it's about TS Alex, already off North Carolina and heading toward the Grand Banks.
Thanks for the report.
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Re: Brazoria County Surf 6-4

Post by karstopo »

There’s probably an ideal amount of break for wading the surf. A dead calm surf, rarer than hen’s teeth, probably isn’t the best. A little break and current seems best. It seems rare to catch fish without any sign of bait, but I didn’t see any bait on Saturday. I like an incoming tide in the surf and I had that on Saturday morning.

All three fish were females with eggs that were pretty far along and in the same stage of development. Probably not ideal these days to kill female trout, but with as little as I fish now, I’m not doing too much damage. We haven’t had any fresh saltwater fish at the house in four months and any in our freezer for at least a month and a half. I’ve not been very motivated to fish, for whatever reason. Inertia takes over. Objects at rest tend to stay at rest. Once I was out there casting, fishing and dodging waves, it was a blast. Loading up, getting organized, seems bigger than it really is, that inertia thing. I’ve gotten where late fall into the winter is by far my favorite time to fish and fishing during hot weather has become much less attractive. The surf is an exception on the hot weather avoidance, wading in the July or August surf is a favorite time to go.

I started to take the kayak on Saturday also. When I was younger and maybe more motivated, I’d almost always load up the kayak and go look at the surf first, then possibly fish the surf for an hour or two and hit the marsh or bay later or if the surf looked unfishable, then head right over to the bay. If I had the kayak on Saturday, I’d probably would have passed on fishing the surf with the lack of bait sign and the waves.
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Re: Brazoria County Surf 6-4

Post by Dandydon »

Couldn't agree more about the horrors of Texas hot Summer fishing... My birthday is this Saturday, predicted to be the first 100° day of the year. Boo. I learned from our man Saltykat that Winter is the best time to fish down here. The cool low-humidity weather is delightful, and the Speckled Trout are plentiful and mostly above the minimum limit.

Once June arrives, I go into nighttime mode and polish up my kayak lights. I break out some Deep Woods Off, forget about the Sunblock, and pack my anchor in case I need a Man-nap.
You soon realize catching fish is gravy when you can look up to see flashing meteorites and the arching starry Milky Way.

Now the nighttime is the right time. Hope to see your silhouettes on the water.

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Re: Brazoria County Surf 6-4

Post by SWFinatic »

Thanks for the pics and report. I don't fish the surf often but when I do I remember how much I enjoy it as long as the waves aren't as bad as what you were in. For me that takes the fun out of it. At least until the rod doubles over :lol:

How was the brisket?
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Re: Brazoria County Surf 6-4

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SWFinatic wrote: Tue Jun 07, 2022 5:49 am Thanks for the pics and report. I don't fish the surf often but when I do I remember how much I enjoy it as long as the waves aren't as bad as what you were in. For me that takes the fun out of it. At least until the rod doubles over :lol:

How was the brisket?
Not one of my best, actually, one of the worst ones I’ve ever made, lol. Choice 14# I got for $1.96/# at HEB (what a deal!) a couple months back and froze. But, what happened was I crammed too much activity in one day and lost focus on temperature and time. Basically, I left the house to run around town with the wife thinking I had at least four hours to go. We were out longer than expected. All the while, the Temperature rose on the smoker 40° (BGE normally very dialed in, now I’m thinking my son peeked at the brisket while we weren’t at home), anyway, I got home and the internal temperature of the brisket was 212°. Holy moly! Normally, they come off the egg at 200-203°

Still, it worked for chopped beef sandwiches! I gave a massive chunk of point and flat to my folks and they made chopped beef sandwiches. They’ll eat on it all week. I’ll eat a chopped beef sandwich until our portion is used up.
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Re: Brazoria County Surf 6-4

Post by saltykat »

Nice work. Nothing like a nice incoming green tide with trout hitting tops. Good on you for fighting the surf, would have been too rough for me. One of the biggest trout I've caught came from the surfside beachfront almost 40 years ago on a green to the beach morning :cat:
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Re: Brazoria County Surf 6-4

Post by SWFinatic »

karstopo wrote: Tue Jun 07, 2022 6:26 am
SWFinatic wrote: Tue Jun 07, 2022 5:49 am Thanks for the pics and report. I don't fish the surf often but when I do I remember how much I enjoy it as long as the waves aren't as bad as what you were in. For me that takes the fun out of it. At least until the rod doubles over :lol:

How was the brisket?
Not one of my best, actually, one of the worst ones I’ve ever made, lol. Choice 14# I got for $1.96/# at HEB (what a deal!) a couple months back and froze. But, what happened was I crammed too much activity in one day and lost focus on temperature and time. Basically, I left the house to run around town with the wife thinking I had at least four hours to go. We were out longer than expected. All the while, the Temperature rose on the smoker 40° (BGE normally very dialed in, now I’m thinking my son peeked at the brisket while we weren’t at home), anyway, I got home and the internal temperature of the brisket was 212°. Holy moly! Normally, they come off the egg at 200-203°

Still, it worked for chopped beef sandwiches! I gave a massive chunk of point and flat to my folks and they made chopped beef sandwiches. They’ll eat on it all week. I’ll eat a chopped beef sandwich until our portion is used up.
Bummer I've overcooked a bunch of em lol. That and just having lots of left over brisket I had to figure out other ways to eat it beside chopped sandwiches. A brisket, potato and egg omelet with cheese and whatever else you want to add is actually really good. Brisket enchiladas are more work but also really good. And jalapeno poppers are good with leftover brisket. I even put it on a frozen pizza once :shock:
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Re: Brazoria County Surf 6-4

Post by Kitsune »

I second what others wrote about surf fishing… highs and lows….sometimes really bad lows. But the lure of the beach and the smacks, jacks, and speckled backs, all swimming together in the heat of the summer is just fun! Just can’t be there tomorrow…
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